The Muggle among Mages
by PhantomGalaxy13
Summary: What happens when a young man suddenly finds himself in the land of Fiore where danger lurks around every corner? Why overcome all odds with the power of friendship! …Yeah-no. That kid is going to be deader than his own ancestors. (Self-Insert)
1. Chapter 1

**The Muggle among Mages.**

 **What happens when a young man suddenly finds himself in the land of Fiore where danger lurks around every corner? Why, overcome all odds with the power of friendship! …Yeah-no. That kid is going to be deader than his own ancestors. (Self insert)**

* * *

I once believed the word magic explained every non explainable thing ever. Unfortunately, no matter how 'magic' could categorize people wielding sticks that shoot lasers, naked red men fighting robed white guys with wings in a political game of super morality, or the birth of the cosmos by deities fighting to the Super Death (because let's face it: if deities actually died it would be hell-a-lot cooler than growing old or trying to pull off Die Hard) …

Magic could never explain the impossibility of Reality.

So, I was… well I like to think that I was fairly normal with a quirky hobby, my hobby being magic—or well magic tricks.

It was a whole lot of fun. I would practice my tricks for days until I could pull them off in public in wowing other people. I really loved practicing it as much as I loved to see the look of surprise in people when they wondered how I performed certain tricks. It made me feel accomplished that I could make even the most cynical people just get really into my tricks by staring hard as if they could find some way to figure out my sleight of hand.

However, I had problems with this in my family.

"You did what?! Kain, you're supposed to be studying for your finals!"

"Dad, I told you, I was studying, but I took a break for a while, it's not that big of a deal."

Looking, back, I knew better. We weren't a rich family and my dad was especially hard on me for school. He wanted a better life and to him I was probably goofing off. Whether or not you believe him was your choice, but me? I just needed to get my mind off amazingly stressful things.

"Not that big of a deal? This is your future, Kain, and you can't spend it wasting time with useless things like that! You need to take this seriously!"

"I am taking this seriously!"

This was how it always went between us. Looking back… I can only remember the arguments I had with my dad. I barely remember anything really fond with him. I still love him, I won't doubt that, but… he was just so much grief during that period of my life. College was eating up all of my time and I wasn't all that happy with what courses I was taking. Magic tricks were a great stress reliever, but my dad always saw them as distraction.

"You need to stop and think of your future!"

"I am! Get off my back, old man!"

I… maybe if we talked better, it could have been solved, maybe if we actually talked instead of just yelling at each other nearly every time we met, things would have been different.

But they weren't.

After a fight went really bad, I went out to bike. On that day, the winds were bad and it looked like a storm was coming, but I really, really didn't care.

It started to rain hard and I still didn't care.

I probably should have cared that I was riding on a bridge when the storm became worse.

There was a car that was driving on the other side of the road, one that didn't have his head lights on, swerved right for me. I panicked and tried to break-turn—anything.

However, I ended up being thrown into river. But before I fell into the water, I swore I saw a face smiling at me that looked nothing like my own reflection.

* * *

There was a sound of mumbling, that made me realize all was dark. My eyes were still closed, but my mind was slowly getting back up.

"Wa..er"

Soon, I felt my body jump starting with a plethora of messages—pain—wet—heat—shadow—sun—grass—dirt, but most of all…

My body jerked upward automatically, my lungs coughed up water violently while I gasped for air.

"Oh thank god! You're alright! You kinda scared me for a second there dude!" There was another voice coming from behind me. It took me a second to realize their shadow was cast over me as if they were looking over me.

"Are you alright?"

My eyes still hurt so I closed them back shut. "I-I'm alright. I thought I was a goner when I fell into the river…"

"Man, you're telling me. At first I didn't find a pulse on you after I fished your body out of the water."

"Aye! It was scary!" A second voice, it sounded younger and smaller agreed with the first voice.

But still, "Thanks a lot for fishing me out. I might have actually drowned if you didn't do that."

It was then I noticed something strange. It was somewhat hot out on the grass I was sitting. Not just hot, it felt dry which should have been impossible considering the storm just a while ago.

"No problem at all!" The first voice said as I finally looked up at—

 _Pink hair—white scarf—blue cat—blue talking cat._

"You alright?" The pink haired man asked with confusion.

"Yeah, yeah…" He looked a lot like Natsu Dragneel from the famous Fairy Tail series; the same clothes, the same hair, style, and physique. There was even a blue cat that stood on two legs with giant eyes with a small bag tied behind his back. Unless it was a hologram, and even then 3D animation and holographic technology was still in it's infancy stages, no cat alive was blue, could talk, and stood on two legs while having a head bigger than his body.

It was strange none the less, but as I subconsciously took in the area around me: a forest when I should have been in a park in Vancouver, the sun shining brightly without a single cloud despite how a storm was brewing so suddenly, and the fact there wasn't a single cement path within sight due to all the trees even though I saw a sign of civilization nearly everywhere I glanced before.

My mind was jumping to a rather farfetched, but potentially plausible idea.

"By any chance are you… Natsu Dragneel?"

The pink haired man's eyes lit up. "Oh huh? You heard about me?"

There wasn't a hint of acting in his voice. Either he was in a very deep cosplay and acting—which I heavily doubted due to circumstances such as the fact he was cosplaying in the middle of a forest and not a city park where I had fallen into.

Or I had somehow met the real Natsu Dragneel, which in turn meant that I had entered into a different world described in countless fantasy fiction.

The latter was the most unlikely, but then again science has explained nothing is truly impossible, only very, very unlikely to happen.

And it appears this amazing odd-defying event happened to me.

"Yeah, you're from Fairy Tale, right? Wait, how do you spell that last part? I sometimes get confused if you mean the body part of something similar to stories." Of all the worlds to go to, why this one? Most stories described hardcore fans going to their favorite fictional world, yet here I was in one that I was interested but never invested any time into unlike my friend Jerry.

"The tail part!" The blue cat, which I'm assuming is the mascot Happy, raised his hand out to answer me while emphasizing his own moving tail that was definitely longer than a regular cat's.

Natsu seemingly huffed with pride. "I bet you've heard many great stories about me!"

His easy going attitude made me smile and put aside my observations for a moment as I replied, "Well from the people I heard, you are great in your heroics," It was true, my friends who did enjoy the story loved the characters even if some of my other friends pointed out the many plot holes in it, their back and forth arguments were one of the reasons why I never really bothered with the story.

The famed mage beamed with pride with a smile that would last until the end of time because of my compliment. It was just too bad I decided to continue what I was saying. "But your collateral damage speaks in more volumes."

Happy laughed as Natsu blanched out of his prideful huff. "Err, dang it!"

I smiled at him and it seemed like he instantly got I was messing with him.

"So what's your name?"

Ah right. That. "Before I answer that, do you mind if I ask a few more questions?"

The two tilted their head at me. "Huh? Why?"

Confirmation. While I had this sneaking suspicion that my other world theory was more solid due to the fact I was speaking with a talking blue cat, I wanted to be absolutely sure of some basics I recall from the few times I've heard of this story. "Just for clarity's sake. We are in… Fiore right?"

"Yeah." Such a simple answer for questions I cannot even begin to start with. It does make more sense for me to be in this area instead of a park.

"There's a lot of magic here, right?" From what I could recall, they never really specified with this type of mystical magic. Most of my friends who didn't like the story, like Bob, told me their magic was just poorly written super powers. There wasn't much application of actual mysticism or respect to supernatural elements to the fantasy genre.

He argued it was more of a waste of potential rather than something he hated.

"I guess?" Natsu and Happy shared another look at each other.

"Oh!" The blue cat's eyes widened and he raised his hand—or paw again. "Are you from a different country? Is that why you're wearing weird clothes?"

I looked back at my red hoodie, brown and baggy cargo pants, and my black rubber sneakers. "I guess they would be weird to you. But before I get off tangent, my name is Kain Reynolds, nice to meet you."

"Hey Kain! So which country are you from?" Natsu asked, jumping to the conclusion that I was from another country.

Alright, give me a few seconds about this because this is important. I'm not ignorant enough to know that there are stories of other people going into other worlds of their favorite media. I also know that some people either lie or never even say that they are from another world, or their original home. See, I know and don't really care much for it when enjoying their takes on it.

But here's the problem that I have that almost none of them do.

I **need** to get back home. I **want** to get back home.

I am one hundred and ten percent sure I don't have any powers and I don't have any interest staying in this wonderful world because I know how Shonen Anime works, I know there is going to be scary over powered bullshit waiting around the corner that can one shot a civilian like me without even knowing I exist, or I might even be used to demonstrate how bad a villain can be. And hell, I don't want that, even if these characters are nice and super cool.

The worst thing I can do about this situation is lie or keep it a secret. What the heck will that even get me? It won't get me anything, where if by some chance someone in this rock believes and helps me, my chances of going home skyrocket compared to me bumbling around with all the knowledge of a headless chicken. I need to get back home even at the risk of sounding like a lunatic, which I don't think Natsu, being a titular protagonist that I hear about, would do. I have a feeling he might actually take me more seriously.

So it's time for me to break the rules of all other stories when I say, one of the first things to a person you shouldn't say at all:

"Actually, I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but I am from another world."

Oh. I really did expect them to scoff or call me crazy. I did not expect their jaws to drop out of their mouth and stare at me in shock. Wait, are mouths supposed to drop that long? Note to self: check how the physics of my world translated over here…

"Y-you're from another world!?" Natsu cried out in shock and awe.

It was in my best interest to be as honest as possible, even with my limited knowledge. "I believe so. From where I come from, you're a famous fictional character. It's one of the reasons why I recognized you so quickly."

No sooner than I said that, I noticed Natsu laughing out loud and going back to being proud. "Did you hear that, Happy?! I'm famous even in another world!"

"Hey! Hey! Am I famous too!?" Happy asked with anticipation in his eyes before I nodded.

The two were whooping in joy and repeating how they were famous even in another world.

However, I was more confused by their actions. "Aren't you going to question if I'm lying… or crazy? I mean, for anyone this would sound absurd."

The two stopped their miniature celebration and turned to me.

"Are you lying to us?" The pink haired mage asked me plainly.

"No," I answered with a bit of confusion at the rather simple answer. "I don't believe I am."

"Then we believe you." Natsu and Happy said at the same time.

I was surprised, but the same time I understood their reactions since they didn't really seem to let odd things like me get in the way of their job. But was that really it? They'd believe me that easily?

"Really? I mean, I could try to prove it… maybe I have something in my pockets…"

Even though I tried to fish to see if I had any of my personal items, I heard Natsu speak up again.

"You don't look crazy. And you don't seem like a liar, so I trust you." He said that plain and simple, as if that was all it took for him to believe I was in another world.

I then realized that he was simple. Even besides the things he does on a regular basis, I didn't really do anything to hint I was lying or trying to trick him. Not that I have any intention to in the first place, I might need his help later on. I guess that was a good trait of being a heroic character, they had most of the good qualities in them.

I probably should have reacted more considering the fact I was meeting supposedly fictional characters in a made up world, but then again, panicking like a lunatic wouldn't help me at all in the slightest way possible.

Huh, was that why Jerry and Bob's parents always looked to me to be the responsible friend? I guess I was the cool headed guy among us… but anyway I'm digressing again.

Information, I need more information. If I have any chance to figure how I came here, why I'm here, and how I'm going to get home, I need to have information or start looking for some that can in any way help.

"So, do you mind if I ask where exactly in the country are we? And where you two were going?" I asked before I noticed the horrified look on both Natsu and Happy the moment I asked.

"Aww crap! The quest!" The fire mage cried out before running with Happy past me.

Considering they were my only hope in even figuring out what was going on, I chased after them. Eventually, they ran up a hill looking over a small town with a well in the center plaza and it was surrounded by acres of cornfield that spanned some hundred acres.

Natsu threw his hands up in the air. "Here we are: the village of Juter! Now we can finally accept the request!"

"What request is that?"

"The village has had a problem with wild animals harassing their fields, and for some reason they wanted a mage to help them out with this problem. It was a low level job with low pay. We took up the offer because it's nearby a place we wanna check out later." Happy explained as I followed them down the road to the place.

However, even though I was doing my best to observe, anyone could have noticed how 'afraid' people were when we came into the town. The windows instantly closed all around us, doors slammed in the distance, and whenever I would see an eye peaking from a hole, they would vanish, as if all three of us were monsters.

Yet, my mouth seemed to move without me noticing, getting a message from my brain that I had not fully processed yet. "There's no men."

Natsu and Happy snapped their heads towards me as I slowly started to recall what I saw briefly. "Did any of you guys see a grown man?" I asked them both.

The two remained silent. Natsu sniffed the air and his face turned sour, as if he was trying to somehow find any clue to deny my observation. A small piece of me hoped I just jumped to conclusions.

"Something isn't right for a low level mission…." It was the first time I saw him solemn.

We walked up to the biggest house of the town, there was an elderly man waiting in front of the doors and slowly lift his head towards us.

"Are you the mages who answered our call?" The look on his face seemed to grow more worrisome as he continued to view us from the down up. Was he expecting something more for animal control?

"Yeah, we're from Fairy Tail!" I was kind of baffled when he said that. But before I could ask why he said that since I wasn't a part of the guild at all, I heard murmurs around the town coming from our back.

"F-Fairy Tail!? Oh thank gods, we're saved!" The old man's face suddenly changed into one with relief.

I know I wasn't a part of their guild, but my curious nature got the best of me. "Um, excuse me? Why did you say that? I thought your mission request was to clear some wild animals harassing your farmers?"

The murmurs instantly died all around us and the relief on the old man's face turned back into something of despair. "P-Please follow me."

We came in to the man's humble abode. The first thing I noticed was the table for four that was set only for two people.

He let us get comfortable on a couch before a small young boy who was probably no older than five peeked out of one of the doors.

"Litche, please, go back to studying."

"Gra-gra, are they the mages?"

"Litche, please, go to your room." The older man repeated before the young kid closed the door to his room.

"You have to forgive my people; we've had a very hard month." He then stood back up. "Would you like some tea? It's not much, but we can offer you some."

"I—" Glancing over to Natsu and Happy, I saw them both looking at me before I continued speaking for them, "That isn't necessary, sir. But please, what is going on?"

The old man sighed and sat back down across from us.

"It started a month ago…" the old man put a hand on his head, "m-my son… he went missing after one day from managing the fields. We all looked for him, but strangely we found no trace of him. My daughter-in-law searched and searched. Three nights after his disappearance, she thought she heard something and went outside to investigate… she never came back…"

I instinctively looked back at the table. A seat of four, set only for two. That was why I was attracted to that detail.

Fighting back tears, the elder continued. "It only got worse," his voice cracked. "Soon Hoggins, Terieo, Modaf… everyone who went out on the field slowly but surely started to disappear without a trace. It's gotten so bad that we had to ban anyone from going near the fields. Things have been desperate, we're running low on supplies, and we are too far from any regular town and we've just used up our money on farming tools before this madness came down on us."

"I don't get it," Natsu interrupted. "You guys posted that your farmers were being harassed by animals. If it was that bad, why did you lie about the message? It would have definitely bumped up the level if you told them the truth."

"W-We don't have money to afford the bigger quests…" My eyes widened as I recalled what the man just said. I didn't know much about this world, but I knew enough about fantasy settings to recall that the bigger the jobs, the higher the pay. If this really was a high pay job, the town would be further pushed into bankruptcy or worse. "The lowest one was all we could afford left. We only hoped that a strong mage would take this quest, and it appears our prayers have been answered."

"Don't worry." Natsu stood up quickly, his eyes determined. "We'll make sure who, or what is ever causing this will pay! Come on, Happy! Kain!"

"Aye~!" "Wait what?" Apparently, Natsu didn't really seem to register my voice as it spoke at the same time as Happy. He ran out the door with his flying cat right after him.

I also went up to try and chase my… would friend be an alright term to use right now? Regardless, I tried to chase them down after I looked back at the elder of the town. "We uhh… we'll be right back."

Unfortunately for me, I was basically a normal person. Running after someone like Natsu or Happy was already draining my less-than-stellar stamina.

"Natsu! Natsu!" I kept shouting his name before I eventually caught up to him while he was standing right in front of a giant cornfield.

A cornfield. … Cruse you, Stephen King.

If there are any Amish dressed children in there—I swear to god! "N-Natsu, wo-would you please… hold on I need to breathe… wait a second?" Oh wow I am out of shape.

"We gotta help these people, Kain. Whoever did this to them is going to pay!" He slammed his fists together.

"Natsu," After getting more of my breath back, I stood back up. "Look, I want to help these guys as much as the next guy, but you can't just blindly search for something we don't even know is causing all this!"

It didn't take much to tell that Natsu was slowly agreeing with my idea, even if he didn't like it. I explained to him we should gather information and look for clues, it would take a while, but maybe we could find something that could help us.

Time went on after that. The elder explained that there was no sign at all they just disappeared without a trace. Even asking everyone around there showed no signal for when or how they all disappeared.

"Augh this isn't getting us anywhere!" Natsu cried out, it was already getting late and curfew was going up. People were closing their doors and we still had not a single idea where these people could have gone.

"I even flew around the place," Happy finished eating a fish then swallowed. "Nothing looks out of the ordinary."

Natsu was right though. It's been hours, but there's almost nothing we got except that all of the people who disappeared went into…

Curse you, Stephen King…

The cornfield.

Trying my best to forget about _He Who Walks Behind The Rows_ , I spoke up. "The last place we haven't checked is the cornfield itself. But it's a perfect place for whatever is out there to ambush us."

I heard a rather intimidating growl coming from Natsu. "It's time we took the fight to them! Come on guys!" He ran into the place with reckless abandon.

"Aye!"

I on the other hand hesitated. The set up was too damn similar and if me coming here was possible, whose to say there wasn't some kind of evil deity in there? I'm not Natsu, have no qualities that could help me survive in the first place.

But…

I sighed. "Litche needs his parents." Just like how I need to get home and apologize to my dad.

Natsu forsook all caution and ran head first into the cornfield with Happy flying right after him. It was only thanks to Happy I could even follow Natsu with how fast he was running… and with how loud he was screaming to whatever was out there to come out and face him.

Though after a while of running, we still got nothing. (That did not help my paranoia for anything with a giant eye in here) Eventually, Natsu's temper died down faster than his stamina as he came to a stop to wait for me.

"… O-Okay… can… can we… take… a break or two?" I wheezed for air as I tried to support myself by my knees.

"Jeeze, Kain, you need to work out more." Natsu was obviously disappointed in me, but I was too tired to really argue with that notion. I would probably need to be more fit if I had any inkling of surviving here.

"In my defense," I gasped. "I never needed to before today." I mean, I played a few sports for fun, but nothing worth working out over.

"WWWAAAAHHH!"

All three of us snapped our heads towards a direction in the distance. The sound that just came out was that of a baby crying.

"Ahh! It's whatever is causing the disappearance! It must have taken a baby!" Happy cried out while he pointed in the direction of the cry.

Natsu was just as quick to race towards the sound. "Oh no you don't!"

I soon begrudgingly ran after the two again despite how much my lungs protested that I should rest. "Oh great, more running..." I'm not even fat dang it—wait a second. Something isn't right.

All of the missing people were lost when they went into the cornfield, but no one knows how they disappeared without a trace.

Yet, out here, when they had a run a good distance away from town, they heard a baby crying?

But worst of all, why… why did this feel so **familiar**?

Eventually, I caught up with Natsu and Happy again as we stopped nearby a scarecrow. The crying should have come here, but there was no sign of anything. Huh? Oh hey, it's the hill we looked over before we entered the town—

{ _Eventually, they ran up a hill looking over a small town with a large cornfield beside it than spanned some hundred acres._ }

"Oh no."

{ _"I even flew around the place," Happy finished eating a fish then swallowed. "Nothing looks out of the ordinary."_ }

I heard Natsu asking me what was wrong, but slowly my mind started over analyze a few simple facts that we went over today.

"Happy," I began, hoping to god that I was wrong. "You flew around looking for anything out of the ordinary right?"

"Aye!~ I saw nothing unusual!" He answered easily.

"Natsu, when we were up on that hill, we saw the whole town and the corn field from that high point right?"

"Uh yeah? What's the point of that?"

I slowly turned my head and gulped. "D-Did any of you see this **scarecrow** in either of those times we could look on the town from up high?"

Their silence could deafen a man.

The 'scarecrow' in question had a large hat that blocked its face from view and it was wearing a long, old, worn out trench coat with holes in it. But as we all took a closer look at it, we noticed its hands were far too sharp to be made of straw or sticks and that the trench coat had dried stains of blood on it.

Utter silence was around us. Fearing for my life, I took a step back—

ꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬹꬹ

"Kain!"

Natsu tackled me as the hat titled upward, revealing a demonic looking skeleton with glowing red eyes that then quickly tried to bite my head off. I would be lying if I didn't see my life flash before my eyes in the reflection of those black, large fangs errruughghh!

"T-Thanks, Natsu!" I said as we both got back up.

Happy glanced in the direction of where the creature went, but with how his neck seemed to frantically scan the area around us, it looked like he lost him. "What was that!?"

"I have no idea! But that's the thing that's been hurting this village—" I stopped Natsu from running and bolting after the thing.

I knew what it was strangely enough. They needed to know what they were up against.

"Bubak."

"Wha?"

"The Bubak is a mythological creature back in my home world from the country of the Czech Republic. I've read hundreds of mythology folklore and in one of them they describe the Bubak as something like a boogeyman. It lures people in with a cry like a baby and then devours them… all those people… they're dead not missing."

Natsu's eyes sharpened as he clenched his fist, and fire was coated around it. "All the more reason to put it down for good."

"Natsu, don't!"

"Why not!?"

"Because we're in the middle of their cornfield! The source of their income and food! Your magic is fire based, and do you have any idea how easy it is for dry plants to get on fire? You would burn a hundred acres of food and money for these people who are already broke!"

Natsu gripped his fist tighter, but undid his flames. "Then what do we do!?"

"We lead it out to an open area, it's the only way you can fight it safely—wait," I then recalled the direction of where the creature ran off too and where we came from. Uh oh. "Which direction did the Bubak, go?"

Happy flew up ward a little higher, but then his eyes widened as he shot his paw out back and panicked as he did so, "It's heading towards the village!"

* * *

Natsu ran as fast as he could no sooner than the words had left Happy's mouth.

"Happy, where is it!?"

"N-Natsu! It stopped moving through the field! I can't see it anymore!" The flying cat exclaimed as he quickly glanced around.

"Is it in the village?"

"I didn't see it go in!"

Natsu turned back quickly. "Kain, what else do you know about the… Bu…bak?"

As he turned around, he noticed the lack of a short, brown haired boy with dark brown eyes behind him.

"Kain!?" Natsu shouted again.

"Natsu? Will you stop leaving me alone!?" Kain's voice came from past the cornfield.

"Well hurry up, we have to get back to the village quickly!"

"I-I can't! I tripped and sprained my ankle!"

Natsu grunted. He knew he couldn't leave him all alone with the Bubak stalking in the corn. "Just keep talking! Happy, watch out for movement!"

"Aye!"

"Natsu!? Happy!? What are you doing!? Where are you guys!?"

Both Natsu and Happy froze when they heard Kain's voice **in the opposite direction** of where they first heard it.

"K-Kain!?" Natsu shouted in shock.

"N-Natsu! Don't be fooled! The Bubak can imitate voices! It must have copied mine to confuse you!" The first voice cried out.

The second voice yelled out in response. "Is that **my** voice!? Natsu, if you go to him, you'll be setting yourself up for an ambush! Don't go to him!"

Natsu and Happy frantically moved their heads back and forth as both voices started talking at the same time on why they shouldn't listen to the other voice. Which one was the real Kain?

"I-I got it!" Happy declared as he pointed high to the sky. "I'll just fly up until I see the real Kain! Unlike the Bubak, Kain can't and won't hide from me!"

"Do it!" Natsu hurriedly said.

Happy nodded, before looking up and—

"NO! Happy, don't! If you fly that far high up, the Bubak will be able to snatch you out of the sky and neither Natsu nor I will be able to help you when he dips back down into the cornfield!"

"T-Then what do we do?!" Happy asked, backing out form the thought of being attacked while up in the sky.

However, Natsu's eyes hardened. "Happy, this way!"

* * *

I heard Natsu's voice from the cornfield, followed by him running towards me and reentering back into the outskirts of the village.

"Oh, so you didn't break your ankle. That bastard! He's trying to trick me!" Natsu glared back at the cornfield.

But I was baffled. "Natsu, how did you know I was the right one?" I was still in the process of figuring out how I could try to convince both of them that I was the right voice without going back in there and potentially being killed by the thing in my attempt to get to them.

The fire mage's glare stopped as he looked back in my direction. "You were the voice that cared for Happy. So it had to be you."

"Wait what? That was it?" Man, I probably over think things too much.

However, Happy yelled and pointed back to the cornstalk. "Ahh! He's heading this way!"

"Finally!" Natsu threw off his coat and coated his fist with flames. "I can now go wild—"

"We're like a few feet away from the town, Natsu! Just make sure it follows USSS!?" I grabbed his wrist and ran like hell when the Bubak pounced right for us.

It took only a few more seconds for the roles to switch with Natsu running faster with me hanging on for dear life. I might have been maybe a few years younger than him, but he was carrying me around like I was a teddy bear! "I'm tired of all the running, damn it! I wanna fight it!"

Even with that angry cry, he still continued to run while the Bubak slithered on the ground fast right after us, crying an unholy screech as it did so.

ꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬸꬹꬹ

"Last time, I checked, I can't fight it at all! But trust me! I have an idea!" I saw where we were heading and warned Natsu to stop right in front of the city well.

"Okay now you can fight it, but you have to hit it in the well!"

"Huh? Why?"

I looked back to see the Bubak reaching us at an alarming rate. Me or Happy staying here would only hold Natsu back, so I just started to run. "Just trust me and do it! Happy, we should go!"

"Aye!~"

I slide behind a tool shed as I watched Natsu enflame his fist as he fought the Bubak. The creature was a slithery thing, avoiding Natsu' punches while swiping right for him.

"Come on, Natsu!" Happy cried as he put away his wings and shouted from right on top of my head.

"Slippery bastard…" The pink haired mage growled as the Bubak slipped away from a flame powered Axe kick that only hit the ground he was previously in. The creature snarled and attempted to swipe right at Natsu. He barely managed to avoid it, but a piece of his shirt got cut off.

Natsu growled before he seemed to suddenly stop and stand up right form his battle position.

"Natsu, what are you doing!?" Happy spoke out what I was thinking.

The Bubak opened its immense maw to eat up the dragon mage. However, in the last second I saw Natsu duck—then upper cut the creature right into his jaw. The creature flew upward, but not before Natsu quickly grabbed its tail and slammed the monster right into the well like I told him to do.

He took a quick glance at me and smiled before racing to the top of the well and pounding his fists together.

" **FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!** " He yelled as he spewed fire from his mouth right into the well. It looked like he got my idea after all, seeing that the well was a great way to trap the thing and allowed Natsu to perform his more devastating spells without much damage to the village around us.

But holy crap! Even from all the way here, I could feel the flame's heat and saw how the ground around him was cracking with fire bursting out. In a huge bang, the fire Natsu threw in there had also shot back upward into the sky.

Of course, something like this was sure to get everyone in the village to wake up and come right towards the center of the town.

"You there, Fairy Tail! What's going on!?" The village elder along with some women ran up to me with obvious concern on their faces.

I pointed over to the smoking crater of the middle of town, where Natsu was looking down the broken and somewhat melted well. "W-We found the monster that had taken your loved ones, but we threw down the well in hopes to kill it."

"I-Is that true?! Did you kill it?!"

I didn't know as I looked back right at Natsu. He still looked to be staring down the well he threw the Bubak into.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open as he jumped off the well—no sooner than he did, a scorched and hellish demon jumped out, destroying what was left of the well into pieces.

Everyone screamed in terror as they saw the Bubak, burned but it looked like he had grown bigger and turned into a more humanoid like creature to avoid the worst of the blows. Natsu powered up again but I looked around: some people ran while others stared in frozen shock.

If the fight dragged out, this place would be ruined! Huh? Wait a second.

I ran, surprising Happy and a woman holding a farm tool when she came running out.

"Miss! Give me that!"

"U-Uh-here!"

I grabbed the tool and looked to Happy. "Give this to Natsu! Now!"

The blue cat didn't argue as he took the tool and flew to his buddy. "Natsu!"

"Happy!?" His eyes widened as he saw what his friend was carrying.

"Natsu, decapitate him!" I cried as Happy threw the tool and Natsu caught it.

"De-what!?" He yelled back before avoiding a fist attempting to crush him.

"I mean cut his neck off!" I corrected.

"Oh! Alright!" Natsu, even though he had never seemed to use a scythe before, he held it like a weapon. Amazingly, despite being a simple farming tool, Natsu weaved fire around the tool and jumped right for the Bubak's head after dodging his tail.

With a loud cry, Natsu swung the scythe right into the Bubak's neck—and burned right through to the other side, making a clean cut.

Natsu landed back on the ground, holding the scythe before it shattered into pieces from the force used on it. However, it did its job of reaping. The massive body of the Bubak fell into the ground with his head slowly rolling towards Natsu. The fire mage started darkly at the head before filling his fist with flame and punching right into his head through the mouth. With a burst of fire, he made the head explode and burnt it into ash.

But for some reason, the body of the Bubak had done the same, turning swiftly into ash and being blown away by the wind.

Natsu exhaled before looking at me and Happy. "Thank guys!" He gave a huge thumbs up to us with a large goofy grin.

I found myself doing the exact same thing—I mean come on! I actually helped in slaying a monster! Despite almost dying several times, it was pretty darn cool!

Don't make me do it again.

"H-He did it! He killed the monster plaguing us!" "They all did!" "We're finally saved!" The cheers of the Villagers came over us as they all crowded in to give their thanks.

It was nice, but it was also a little suffocating as well.

"Where's my dad?"

It was a small voice, but it was all it took to silence everyone in the town. I traced the voice back and saw Litche looking at us with pleading eyes. "W-Where's my dad? H-He's been gone for a while and where's my mom? If the monster is gone, why aren't they back?"

That was all it took for the mood to sour. I looked back to Natsu, who looked a little ashamed to say anything. Happy, ironically was far from his namesake as of right now.

Which then left me.

I inhaled deeply before walking up to Litche and kneeled right in front of him. With my best attempt to comfort him, I said in the most caring voice I could muster, "I'm so sorry, Litche. The monster had eaten all of them before we came here."

"T-Their gone?" I wondered: was my father afraid for where I was? Would he be like Litche if I disappeared from his life? The last words I said to him… they weren't kind.

"They aren't gone. You are still here, Litche," I found myself saying. My mind was drawing blanks, but it seemed like my heart knew what to say. "You are the product of their love, so as long as you are alive, they will never be forgotten. Don't let the monster also take away your happiness when it's finally gone."

Tears started to swell on the little boy's eyes. "I don't want that! I want them! I want them!"

I could only hug him to somehow lessen the pain. "I know. … I know."

I needed to find a way home soon.

I need to say sorry to my dad before it was too late.

* * *

"Please, take this as a token of our appreciation." The elder said as he handed Natsu the money for the quest the morning after the crazy night before.

Natsu pushed it back. "We couldn't. You need all you can to rebuild."

"Regardless of us rewarding you or not, it still will take a long time. But you've given us our future back, so please accept the reward money for this quest. Please, accept it as a token of our gratitude." With that, Natsu took the bag of money. It would be rude to decline after that.

"Thank you for all your help." The elder spoke out and bowed. As we all waved goodbye, the townsfolk all waved goodbye to us.

"Man this sucks. If only I took this job sooner!" Natsu gripped his fist tightly.

"You didn't know and I didn't know. We should be grateful that we at least were able to help them in the first place." I still felt bad we couldn't save those lost people, but there's nothing we can do about it for now.

"Yeah," Natsu slowly agreed before looking at me. "Thanks a lot, Kain."

That surprised me as I turned to look at him with confusion. "What do you mean? You did all the fighting, I just followed along."

"We couldn't have beaten the Bubak without you!" Happy raised his paw as he said this.

"Uhh yes you could have. Wasn't I holding you back the entire night?"

"Well yeah," Ouch. "But that was good. If I went just buck wild, I would have hurt these people more than help. You made it so I wouldn't have so much."

Really? All I did was just think things through. "By the way, it never really occurred to me until now, but why were you okay with having them think I was a Fairy Tail mage? I'm not a part of your guild, let alone a wizard."

"Do you want to join our guild?" I wasn't expecting a question like that to come from Natsu, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to benefit me in the long run. I mean, I could go a separate path from the main story, but then I would be completely in the dark. If I stayed the story route, I could have some semblance of planning what to do with my vague memory in what Jerry told me about the story.

"I guess… if I was there, it would get easier to find a way back home."

"Then you can be a part of Fairy Tail."

"But I can't use magic. Can I really be a part of a guild like that?"

"You fought for us, didn't you?" I looked towards Happy who was wearing a smile. "Anyone who's willing to go far for good people is great Fairy Tail material!"

"Then it's decided! You're going to join Fairy Tail! … After we make a stop." Natsu declared.

Okay, so I'm joining Fairy Tail. I'm not as savvy as most fans would be for this place, but I do admit Natsu starting to grow on me as a friend. Maybe I might actually find a way back home and not die sticking around him… or it could be the exact opposite. Ugh.

"We are we stopping?"

Natsu looked at me with excitement in his eyes. "We're going to the town of Hargeon City to find my father, Igneel!"

* * *

 **[End of Chapter 1]**

 **Ahoy, readers! Welcome to my first attempt at a Fairy Tail fanfiction.**

 **I always did like Fairy Tail, even though certain plot decisions have been 'questionable'.  
**

 **I thought that a world full of magic does have a lot of potential, but it seemed that the author seemed to focus more on the super power side of magic rather than the mystical elements to it like the supernatural or mystical elements beyond dragons. Sorta what I did here by adding folklore monsters into the world of Fiore.**

 **I have a few more ideas for this story even though it's early on. If you are especially savvy, you probably noticed where Kain and Natsu are heading next. Let's just say… some things are different this time around.**

 **Hope you enjoyed this, look out for more**


	2. Chapter 2

**|The Muggle among Mages|**

 **Muggle Definition: (From Harry Potter) A non magic user born in a non-magical world.**

* * *

"So what you're telling me," I asked as we walked towards the train station. "Is that you think your father is in Hargeon?"

"I heard a rumor that a Salamander was there! So it's my only lead!" Happy was all too eager to concur with his dragon slayer friend after he said that.

"Huh, I think that was the point in our world where your story began. You were looking for your dad, and then you met someone else while looking for him." Darn, I forgot who it was. There's a good chance it might have been a blonde girl though.

He suddenly stopped and turned to me. "What really!? My story started with me going to Hargeon!? T-Then do you know the end of it?"

I shook my head. "Sorry Natsu. I was busy with work and other things. I never fully invested in your story so besides a few character names and quirks here and there, I barely remember a thing about the future for you… and even if I did know, I have a bad feeling telling you would change it badly."

"What?! What do you mean?"

I sighed as we got our tickets. "Are you aware of the butterfly effect?" I'm going to assume no and continue anyway. "In my world, it's basically means the smallest things affect the big things in big ways. If I did know and told you were Igneel was, you'd drop everything and run towards that direction. However, doing so right now would have major consequences to the world if you met him when the time wasn't right. I've seen short time travel stories that depict the smallest changes could end up killing hundreds if not millions of people."

Natsu was thinking hard at what I said.

"Long story short: if I told you, bad things will happen that will affect everyone. You're going to have to be patient, and trust me. I feel for you. I really want to go home to my family, but I know there might be consequences if I take reckless risks."

The fire mage seemed to take that much easier than what I tried to say earlier. "Is Igneel at Hargeon?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe, maybe not, but I'm sure going there will start your adventure into eventually finding him."

"Okay! We're heading there!" Natsu pumped his fists up. "Hargeon, here we co—"

* * *

It had completely slipped my mind that Natsu had motion sickness. In all fairness, I didn't know much about him besides his name and a few vague summaries here and there, but I probably should have done more to recall this bizarre quirk.

"Happy, is Natsu really that motion sick?" I mean I've seen people get queasy, but to Natsu it's like Kryptonite that is sapping all of his energy like it would to Super Man.

"Aye! He can't handle vehicles at all!" Happy jubilantly answered me as we took the train ride.

There was a grumble or moan coming from Natsu's weakened form. It was probably a question on how long until we'd get there.

"I dunno, maybe ten minutes, fifteen?"

A chime rang through the train as an operator voice spoke out. "Attention passengers: we will arrive in Hargeon Station in… three hours."

"Whoops. I sit corrected." Natsu made his face wallow deeper into the seat after hearing that.

Happy sighed in a nonchalant manner. However, I guess now was a good time as any to really see what I still have from my home world. It's been so busy yesterday that I never really checked my possessions.

In one of my pockets, I found a deck of cards. This was because I was using them for some of my magic tricks. Though, I was surprised at how dry they felt. Shouldn't they have been drenched when I fell into the river? I searched more of my pockets.

"Ahh? What's that?!" Happy asked as I took out a small but stretchy elastic objects.

"Balloons. I keep them around for party tricks. The chicks love balloon animals." I'm lying; I'm a nerd with barely any social life. The only reason why I'm up late pulling all-nighters are for reviewing case files.

"Oooh! Ooh! I want to see!" Happy excitedly said.

Well if the cat wishes, who am I to decline? I could tell people around the train were watching me as a colorful blue balloon caught their sights, and after a few twisting and quick turns, I handed the finished balloon animal to Happy.

"Voila! Here you go, monsieur, a blue four-legged cat."

"Wow!" Happy, and even Natsu, cooed in awe as they looked at the balloon animal.

The pink haired mage, momentarily forgetting about his motion sickness or fighting it really hard, looked on with excitement. "Ooh ooh! Do one for me!"

"Me too!"

We turned our heads towards the isle beside us where a kid looked at me with excitement. One of the parents of the child quickly looked at their child with wide eyes.

"Sweetie, don't bother them. I am so sorry, sir." The mother said towards me as she tried to hug her child closer.

"What type of animal do you want?" That caught the child's attention as the family looked at me. "How about this one?" I picked up a yellow balloon and after a while, I finished the animal and handed it over to the young boy. "This is one is a giraffe."

The young boy gasped as he took the balloon toy in his hands. However, more sounds came from around the train. "Ooh me too! Me too!"

Apparently, I had attracted more of the children around the cart. I didn't have that many balloons left, but I'm sure there should be enough in this cart.

Time flew by as after giving the last kid a balloon poodle; we had finally arrived in Hargeon Station.

"Hey, Kain, I want one now!" Natsu, feeling somewhat better now that the train stopped, demanded of me as we got off the train.

"Natsu, I gave the last one to the girl." I responded, much to his dismay and obvious pouting.

"I didn't know you could do that." Happy said as he continued to play with his balloon cat.

"I worked as a magician for children's birthdays." I mentioned. It was my favorite thing to do, and I'm glad I still technically get to do that here.

"Wait, I thought you said you weren't a mage?"

"I said magician, not mage. I don't have any magic, but I can do tricks that people aren't able to pick up on and make it look like magic. Here, I've got one with this deck of cards."

I took out my deck of cards and held them all in my hand. After making a few preparations without either of them noticing, I dropped one card to the ground. "Don't pick it up, now… watch this…"

By just putting my hand out, the card I dropped slowly went back to my hand the same way it fell down.

Natsu and Happy gapped. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?"

I stared in disbelief at the two. "Natsu, you can summon fire at will, you were raised by a dragon, and you fought a demon yesterday, but something like this surprises you?"

"But that was magic! Y-You said you can't do magic!"

"I can't! This is a trick to make people question how I did it."

"Well it worked! How did you do that!?"

"A good magician never reveals his tricks. It removes what little magic they have in them." I smiled as I put the deck of cards back into their box.

"Aww come on, tell me!"

"I can't. It's part of the magician code."

"Please!?"

"Aren't we searching for your dad?"

Natsu blinked before realization hit him like a truck. He really forgot that for a second?

"Ahh right! Igneel!" He ran ahead with full speed with happy flying right after him. I rolled my eyes and looked around. There was no sign of the dragon here. Though, there was the problem that I really didn't remember where Igneel actually was or if Jerry actually told me where the father of Natsu was in the first place.

Oh wait, Jerry kept the spoilers to a minimum because he wanted me to experience them for myself. Well that has come to bite me in the ass.

But what exactly did, he tell me? All I seem to recall at the top of my head are people like uh Juvia, Gajeel, Laxus… and a few here and there. I think there was mention of these really, really important characters called the Jiggle Butt Gang.

I… I'm going to trust Jerry on that last one. My life does technically count on it. I really hope he wasn't joking with that last one; I could never tell with him some times.

As I kept thinking about these things, I saw Natsu up ahead moving through a crowd screaming about Salamander. Instantly, I spotted the pink haired mage deflate. Considering there wasn't a huge dragon hidden among a fan of cooing girls, I'm going to assume it wasn't his dad.

"Man that's not Igneel…" Natsu walked away from the crowd while the man was in the middle of talking. I noticed the gang of female looking dangerously at Natsu's direction.

Some were even running up to him before I stood between them and raised a hand motion to stop them.

"L-Ladies! Please, be reasonable, my friend here is just… thought your friend was an old friend of his." Yeesh!? What the heck; are fangirls really that vicious or is it only in this world?

"He's right, there's no harm in a misunderstanding," The man in the center, he had purple hair and rather extravagant clothes about him strode towards me and Natsu and quickly wrote down on two pieces of paper. "In fact, here, as a sign of good fortune, take these autographs."

Unfortunately, Natsu seemed to misunderstand how bloodthirsty the girls were around us. "No thanAAcck!?"

Oh no, who could have stepped on his toes like that?

"Thank you very much sir." I took the cards out of his hands and sent a look to Natsu despite him asking why I did that.

To my surprise, the man—or Salamander to the girls—activated a magic circle that allowed him to fly on a string of fire.

Wow. That's a lot cooler looking in real life. How are his clothes not burning? At least for Natsu, I'm assuming he's fire proof or something, but how do his clothes work without being singed or burned?

Salamander invited everyone to some party at the docks, maybe we could crash it for free food or something later, so I took note of it.

"Who was that guy?" Natsu was confused, but I could tell he was disappointed this was a dead end.

"He's a scumbag," We turned around and then I noticed this beautiful blonde walking up to us. Lucy Heartifila right? It wasn't hard to see her near every picture of Natsu Dragneel when it came to this series. Was she the one we had to meet? "Thanks a lot you guys. I owe you."

We owe her? How?

* * *

Eventually, she wanted to treat us to lunch for her thanks. I declined politely.

I tried to decline politely, but Natsu and Happy jumped for joy at the offer.

To be fair, when we were in the village, the few meals we had were rather small. Heck Natsu didn't even want to eat if it wasn't bad manners towards our host. Here, though… he was stuffing himself full along with Happy.

I looked to Lucy with an apologetic manner. "I'm truly sorry about this, Lucy."

"Oh it's the least I could… hey wait! How'd you know my name!?" Oh she didn't say it yet? Hmm, I might need to be more careful about that in the future.

"Kain here is from another world! And he says that we're all part of a fictional story!" At least Natsu had the decency to swallow before he said that though it did absolutely nothing in explaining anything to anyone.

Lucy eyed me weirdly. "Another world? That's impossible!" Okay, yeah. That was a much more appropriate response to people if I had told the truth.

"It's true!" "Aye!" Natsu and Happy tried to defend me as Lucy slowly looked at me. I did appreciate them willing to go far, but now I was feeling judged for taking advantage of them.

"I don't really mind if you believe me or not, but if I may ask, why are you thanking us? I don't think we did much in the first place." She actually seemed surprised. Maybe she assumed I would say that I was just joking, or saying it was a trick. However, it looked like she pushed thoughts about me being crazy or insane on the side in favor of explaining what had happened.

Lucy explained about one of the rings the Salamander wore being something that attracts females against their will. That's a rather scary and despicable thing to do, but the thought of their being magical tools… maybe I could get one in the near future. I'd have to make another note of that.

The conversation continued on beyond that. Lucy asked who we were and after introductions, she asked who Natsu was looking for.

"Wait, a dragon? Something like that wouldn't have been in the middle of town." Lucy pointed out.

Natsu and Happy stared with dumbfounded reality.

"Don't tell me you two only thought about it now!?" Lucy said before looking to me. "What about you?"

I put the glass of water down calmly. "If the person himself wasn't here, who's to say there isn't a clue to where he is? Maybe this Salamander guy took the name after seeing Igneel somewhere else."

I was startled by Natsu suddenly standing up from the table and slamming his hands down. "What!? Really!? Auuugh! And I didn't ask him! Kain, why didn't you say anything about that!?" After rubbing his hair frantically, Natsu looked at me with shocked eyes.

"I honestly didn't think about it until now. Sorry." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Now we gotta find that guy again and see if he saw Igneel somewhere! Uhh where did he say he was going?"

"The docks, Natsu, though I think he was inviting only the females." I answered nonchalantly, it's been only a day and I already feel as if that even though I've told him, he's just going to ignore me and go there anyway.

"Then let's go!" And there we go.

He ran up before stopping in his tracks. "Ah right! Thank you for the meal!" Natsu and Happy prostrated themselves before Lucy, making the girl feel uncomfortable before he and Happy bolted out the door.

I looked to Lucy with a nervous smile. "Sorry about that. I should probably go after him. I really do hope he knows where the docks actually are though."

"Wait," She stood up a second after I did. "What Natsu said about you being from another world, is that true?"

"That's for you to decide!" I yelled back as I ran after Natsu even if it was slower than his pace.

* * *

After some time chasing down Natsu, we were all able to get down to the docks. It wasn't hard to figure out the large luxury cruise with all the women lining up to had to be the one Salamander was in.

"We gotta meet the Salamander!" Natsu tried to talk to the body guards preventing us from going close.

"Sorry, kid. Ladies only." Though… it was strange. For security guards, they looked awfully like goons or henchmen for bad guys. Not to mention, they're not even wearing proper security uniform if they worked in a cruise ship.

Then there was the **stuff** they were bringing in into the ship. The ship itself looked like it was powered by steam, since I'm assuming that Fairy Tail was early Industrial Revolution when compared to Earth, but the amount of coal they were bringing to the ship… it seemed a lot more than just for a cruise ship around the bay area.

Even if it was for refueling in the long run, there was something else that caught my attention: the amount of food and supplies going in. There was a lot more than just for the party, I may not be qualified to judge what's needed, but the amount of supplies they were bringing looked more like a trip than a cruise.

And lastly, even if I was wrong on the food and the amount of coal being brought in… there was something else. Some of those boxes had items inside them that sounded metallic and something that gave me a feeling that you shouldn't be bringing those to a wooden ship.

"Is there going to be a problem here?" It was strange to hear another voice while Natsu and the body guards were arguing—maybe he saw that Natsu was about to deck the guy before stepping in—but I noticed that he was the first person I saw that looked completely official.

He wore a white navy suit and hat and had colorful looking badges decorated on his suit. He was actually much more handsome than Salamander with his sharp but soft face, white short hair, and gray eyes.

The captain was holding some kind of container for food before he introduced himself to us. "I am Captain Fero of this cruise, is there anything I can help you two young men with?"

"I'm a cat!" Happy proclaimed.

"Yeah, and Kain here is with us too!" Natsu pointed to me while keeping his sight on the captain.

Chosen over a cat huh? Well that's a new low.

Anyway, Natsu demanded to see Salamander since he had a few questions.

"I'm sorry good sir, but he is an honored guest. I can't call him out, but I can leave a message for you if you would like. When he does come here, I will be sure to ask. You can come back here before we leave and I'll be here to tell you the answer."

"Oh in that case!" While Natsu was telling him the simple question, I noticed Fero looking at me. For one instant, I swore his smile wasn't as sincere as he made it to be.

Fero took a dish and opened up, revealing a gross and putrid looking dish that made me close my noise. "Now then with that settled how would you like to try this Purredian Broalisk Bowl created from the intestine of a decaying ice monster?" Oh god that was sick! And—oh right! Natsu has a better sense of smell than me. That's why he looks like he's going to barf again.

"N-No thanks! Come on, Happy, let's go!"

"A-Aye…"

The two ran ahead to get away from the dish.

"That's such a shame." I heard the captain say before I took one more look at him… then left after Natsu and the others.

* * *

"Ack! Ack! It smelled so bad I can taste it in my mouth!" Natsu cried as he started wiping his tongue with snacks I was sure to save before we entered the city.

"What kind of sickos eat monsters intestine? Especially a Boralisk?" Happy whined as he licked fish constantly to remove the smell and taste.

…

Something about this doesn't feel right, and no it's not asking what a Boralisk is, I can ask that later. Jerry never really told me much about the very first chapter. He really did want me to experience it myself—just not experience it while being in the story.

"Something wrong, Kain? You keep looking back at the boat."

Without facing Natsu, I answered him. "What do you guys think about that captain?"

"He seemed nice enough to me." Happy spoke up.

"Although, now that I think about it," I looked back to Natsu who seemed to be thinking about something. "He smelled weird."

Smell? "What smell in particular was it that made you think it was weird?"

"Well, he smelled like the ocean, but there was another smell. Maybe bleach? Might have been his clothes with how clean they looked, but it was kinda strong."

Bleach?

Why bleach? From the top of my head, I saw bleach used a lot in crime shows to cover up blood, but again that's just jumping to a conclusion. Maybe he was just a guy who liked being clean.

{ _Lucy explained about one of the rings the Salamander wore being something that attracts females against their will_.}

Wait a second.

Why was he carrying out food all the way to us? And now that I think about it, the 'guards' were surprised with what was in the dish too. If that was really food he was giving out, would that meant that it would have been served at the party? But Natsu didn't smell anything from the food passing us by— only the one he brought… to us specifically.

Why offer us something that wasn't going to be served?

Unless, he knew we would go away from the offer!

"Natsu, I think they were trying to get us away!"

"Huh?"

"Something's been bothering me ever since Lucy said something about the Salamander used."

"Luigi?"

"No, Natsu, Lucy. The pretty blonde girl who gave us lunch?"

"Oh yeah! Wait, what about it?"

"I have a feeling that Salamander isn't even a quarter charming as the ring he's abusing. And if I'm imagining the worse, there are people in danger. If I'm wrong, I might be just making a fool of myself."

Natsu seemed silent for a second as he folded his arms.

"They're not going to tell me where they got the name, are they?" I blinked in surprise at what Natsu said.

But I shook my head, "He might keep his word and ask Salamander where he got his name from, but I think he was trying to make sure we weren't anywhere near the boat. If anything, I think he came to us not because we were causing trouble, but because I think… he noticed we were attracting too much attention."

"So what? Do we go in there and kick their assess?"

"Under what charge? We can't prove their lying if they even are. But…"

"But?" Natsu and Happy tilted their heads.

If I'm wrong, I'm making a fool out of myself for nothing. But If I'm right and I do nothing, innocent people will get hurt.

However, I can't do anything if…

"Ugh! We need to get into the boat somehow! There's just so much bothering me but we can't do much unless we get into that boat before it sails off!"

"Hmm… oh! Hey, I have an idea!" Natsu spoke up as I quickly turned to him.

Instead of explaining, he pointed to something behind me. As I turned around, my eyes widened at the implications.

"We still have the money the Juter village gave us!" Natsu happily said.

It was insane! It was stupid! It was crazy!

And it might actually be enough to work.

I sighed and turned back to Natsu. "You are so lucky that I too would be desperate to find a way back to my dad."

* * *

"Ah, Fero! Have some lobster my man!" Salamander cried out as he was fed a luxurious meal.

"Bora," The purple haired mage flinched as he heard the sound of the Captain's voice lower. "The attraction ring works best on females without any exposure with magic. Yet it has come to my attention that you've invited someone who wishes to join Fairy Tail, in other words: a mage? You are aware that even a two bit mage can resist its power?"

"D-Don't sweat it all, Fero! I totally got this!" He couldn't stop the sweat from falling down his cheeks nor could he stop the need to pull his already loosened and opened collar. It wasn't hard to be afraid of someone whose magic they were so aware of.

"Do you realize two young men were looking for you? Ahh, excuse me, two young men and a talking cat?" He walked behind the mage sitting on the couch and slowly put his hands on Bora's shoulders.

"O-Oh them? They were just curious about me. There's nothing to worry abOUT!?" Bora squeaked when there was more pressure applied to his shoulders.

"Oh I'm sorry I should have warned you that I was going to start messaging you. You did seem tense." Fero lightly said as he did start actually messaging Bora. It felt good, but Bora couldn't truly feel at peace with it. "I know that I am simply here to chaperone you, but if I may make a suggestion? We might want to leave earlier than planned. One of those boys you met… he was far sharper than he looked."

"The pink haired brat?"

"The brown haired one."

"The plain kid?"

"Yes well, for a plain looking boy his eyes were wandering around dangerously close to things people should not have been paying attention to," Pero stopped message as he got back up and started walking. "Now I must go and make preparations to walk out. Please do enjoy the party."

Bora let loose a breath he didn't know he was holding. "If that guy's magic wasn't so creepy… bah! Time to find and see if that cute blonde is coming over!"

* * *

"Mhhmmpp! Mppphfff!"

"Happy?" I do my best to ignore my laughing purse as I try to walk in a straight line. "Please, stop laughing, they might hear you."

"MPPPff!"

"I will zip up this purse, forcing you to suffocate." I managed to whisper, making the cat try and calm himself down.

"Oh my what a lovely place to be, isn't it, Kayla?!" I did my best to ignore my throbbing headache as I looked to Nats—I mean. **Natalie** while we walked towards the boat.

"Natalie, dear sister, I do believe we should be careful not to make a scene." I can feel Happy staring at me through the purse as we both continued to walk in dresses towards the boat.

"Hello, ladies~" One of the guards emphasized with special huskiness as he eyed me down and up. "Are you here for Salamander?"

"Why it was quite an honor to be invited by him, though I do believe I ain't worth much."

"Nonsense! Come right this way, ladies."

"OhOHOho!" Natalie fanned herself while laughing in a manner that was far too much.

The two guards seemed to blanch when looking at Natalie's direction. "Err, anyway, enjoy the ride ladies!"

I grabbed Natalie before we walked up the plank.

Before we made it up, Natsu turned to me in surprise. "How the heck are you so darn good at acting like a girl?"

"I took drama classes when I was in middle school and high school. I was a fan of theater, and a few times I dressed up as women for fun." Oh those were fun—awkward as heck—but fun.

Sigh, I really do miss home—focus, Kain. Stick to the plan: survey what doesn't feel right then get out of the boat.

The plan should be nice and simple— "Are you kidding me?!" I whispered harshly as Natsu suddenly looked sick. "We're still docked!"

"I-It's still swooshing around?!" Natsu cried out as I tried to help him find some form of stable ground.

"H-Hey, are you two alright?" Crud! The last thing we needed was to be catching attention.

I turned around quickly, trying my best to put up a front. "Oh dear me! I do apologize; I had forgotten my sister has what you would call a motion sickness."

"Oh that's so sad to hear," Huh? Why did that voice sound familiar? Wait, Lucy?! What's she doing here!? "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"It's L—" *ZIP!* I don't need you to give us away Happy! I had to zip that purse! Thankfully, Lucy didn't notice my act since I was sure to distract her with my other hand by waving it at her. "Why, I must thank you so much! You truly are nice!" I thought she wasn't coming here because of the attraction ring!?

"My name is Lucy, what's yours?" Wow she really doesn't recognize me or Natsu. That cloth shop owner and his crew really did a good job after all.

"Kayla Smith and this poor gal over here is my older sister, Natalie Smith." Crap! I had a feeling something would happen but not this! Calm down, Kain, you're probably overreacting. There's still a chance that this could all be some misunderstanding.

"Kayla Smith huh? A beautiful name for a beautiful lady such as yourself." Aaannnddd there's Salamander. Crud.

He opened a palm towards Natsu who didn't seem to notice. "I can have some of my men bring your poor sister to the medical bay, in the meantime though, why not come with us? I have a private room aboard…"

Hmm? Lucy is the one who seems surprised even though I should be the one confused.

"Oh but I can't leave her, she is my sister." I faked,

However, Salamander insisted "Don't worry, my lady, I'm sure she'll be treated with the finest care!"

Natsu on the other hand tried to struggle to move as he tried to support himself on a nearby railing. "I-I'm urgh!" And then he unleashed his lunch.

There was a splatter, and a shrill cry coming from below. "OH GOD WHAT IS THIS STUFF ON M—"

"Perhaps, I should take you up on that offer." I said quickly, trying to avoid the voices and grabbing Natsu off the railway.

"Here, Natalie, take this." I handed the purse with Happy before leading both Lucy and Salamander away.

"Uh miss? My room is the other way."

"Then we'll take a scenic route then." I respond without missing a beat.

"Oh I like the way you think." And of course I noticed the huskiness in his tone. Man, women do need to be treated better in all worlds.

Hopefully, Natsu will open the bag and let Happy out—did he just open and barf into it?!

"Is she going to be—"

I chose to ignore everything but moving everyone out of the way of that mess. "Let's all walk with more urgency shall we?"

* * *

Eventually, we did come into the room. Several times Salamander tried to talk with me, and it was hard to stick to character, but I did my best to care. And when he placed a few sexual innuendos in his talks, I pretended not to be interested or naïve. All the while, I noticed Lucy seemingly on edge. She seemed to be worrying over to me but glaring over at Salamander. Does he have leverage over her? Is that why she's here?

Slamander's voice cut me out of my thoughts. "So tell me about yourself, Kayla, you've got a unique accent. Where are you from?"

"Actually, may I ask something first?" It was the first question I posed after listening to this man lie about some missions he had here and there.

"What is it, little flower?"

Ignoring the undertone, I asked what Natsu had been looking for. "Where did you get the name Salamander?"

"Hmm?" Even Lucy seemed surprised by that.

"Why, it's because I'm a famous mage of course."

"Well yes, but why a Salamander? Would not being called a dragon be more threatening than a lizard? If that's what people called me, I would not like being compared to that of a lizard, and I would have tried to be known as something else. Unless, did you hear that name elsewhere before taking it?"

Finally silence hit the room, but I was unsure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Hahaha! You are very curious, Ms. Smith," The purple haired mage laughed before calming down. "I'm not a fan of those types, but I can respect them. You see, I had heard of that name when I visited Sun Village, the home for Giants."

This one… this adventure sounded actually genuine. The Sun Village? Home for giants?

"Some giants explained that powerful fire dragons were called Salamanders, so I can understand why some uneducated people may not now, but to magical beings, a Salamander is the same as a great fire dragon, so I took the name."

"I see…" I stood up. I haven't seen much wrong, so I suppose I was just imagining the worst after all. Time to leave with Natsu. "Excuse me, but I believe I need to see my sister now."

"Ah wait!" I was stopped as Salamander physically blocked my path towards the door. Not a good sign. "All that time, and you must be thirsty! Here, have a drink." There was a fruit punch in the middle of the room someone had brought in earlier. Instead of getting a glass, some water droplets started floating towards me.

Yet while that drink was there the whole time… Salamander himself never drank from it.

That screamed suspicious. But it would be wise not to alert to him that I know what he's trying to do. I should probably just politely decline.

"That's enough!" Lucy cried out, swiping away the bubbles from me. So much for playing the subtle game.

"You've been trying to get me and this girl to sleep this entire time! It's one of your other rings, isn't it!" Huh? Sleep ring? I didn't feel sleepy at all. Weird. Lucy pointed at Salamander. "I don't care if you are from Fairy Tail, this behavior is unacceptable!" Wait what? This guy isn't from Fairy Tail.

"Oh really?" Salamander smiled in a manner that I recognized all too well on Saturday morning cartoon villains. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly the curtains all held a bunch of goons holding some of the other women in the party.

I didn't spot Natsu among them though…

Well that was one potentially good thing among this horribly descending situation.

"Something's been off this entire time." He started speaking as I backed off. Lucy quickly stood in front of me as if she was trying to protect me, but we were surrounded. "The blonde, I could understand, she knew about the attraction affects so it didn't affect her much. But you?"

He looked to me questioningly. "You showed no real signs of infatuation. Even Blondie here fell for it a few times. Wait… are you…"

D-Did he see through my disguise!?

"Are you interested in girls!?"

… What?

"I mean," Why was Salamander blushing!? "Thinking about it, this place is full of beautiful women, I guess it wasn't that farfetched to have someone here who swung that way…" he looked back at me and shook his head. "It-It's not like I'm saying that's a bad thing! I had an uncle who liked men and he's living happily with his husband!"

Oh my god.

Okay, why was Lucy slowly turning to me with a flushed face. "A-Are you into girls?"

…

Without hesitating I pulled the wig out of my head, shocking everyone in the room.

"WWWWHHHHAAAATTTT!?"

"I'm a straight male, so yes, I am into girls." I deadpanned my most deadpan deadpan.

"Wait a second!" Lucy pointed to me with realization showing on her face. "Kain!?"

"Sup? Could we take two steps this way please?" I said as I grabbed her arm and slowly started to take a few steps back.

Good angle. If I can pull this off subtly…

"W-What are you doing here!? How did you get here?! Why were you cross dressing!?"

I turned back to Lucy after she asked all those questions. "All lovely questions, but here's another one: are you ready to run?"

"Huh?"

It was such a good thing I was wearing my sneakers underneath this long dress. In one instant, I grabbed the bowl of punch, which I was assuming was a drinking agent that was the same as the one that put all the other girls to sleep, and threw it right into the surprised and shocked Salamander's face who still was trying to process the fact I was a guy. Maybe if he was prepared he would have avoided or used magic to protect himself, but the fact he was still stunned at my disguise—or the fact that he found himself attracted to me must have thrown him off his game completely.

"Bora!" Some of the men cried before I grabbed Lucy and rushed for the door, then slamming it behind us and running for our lives.

"What the hell are you doing here dressed like that!?" Lucy yelled at me with her face… wow that looked bigger than usual.

"That is a funny story I can totally tell you more about after we find Natsu and a way off this damn boat!" Oi vey, running with a dress is hard, I have to lift it up and stuff.

"Natsu is here too—Natalie? Oh how did I not see it! I really didn't recognize you!"

"It's called acting," I said as we ran, "and the reason why you didn't recognize Natsu was because you haven't seen how bad his motion sickness is. Poor guy didn't even need to act like a different person."

To my surprise, I spotted Natsu at the very front of the ship. He was hung over the rail like drape.

"Natsu! Change of plans, everything is falling apart! Where's Happy—" Why are there ropes on him?

"After hearing a poor lady with severe motion sickness aboard, I came to help in any way shape or form," Oh no, not him. He actually seemed decently competent compared to Salamander.

Oh crud, it's the Captain. And why does he have Happy tied up in a fishing rod!?

"Imagine my surprise to see a girl with a familiar blue cat covered in upchuck?" He continued as realization hit my face. "With the cat here, I put two and two together and realized my feeling about you two was correct: you were all trouble."

"Release Happy this instant!" I cried out even though I had no power at all in this situation. I spotted the men catching up to us, only for all of them to stop and leave the entire deck to watch us.

It was like they were trying to be safe from this guy!

"Are you with Bora!?" Lucy asked after my demand that in hindsight he would agree to due to his leverage over us.

"He is a client of ours, so yes I am here to chaperone him since he is a source of potential income.

Income?

My eyes widened. "Holy shit, you're human trafficking?!"

The captain said nothing as the fishing rod started unwinding and placing Happy right behind him. "Jewels are jewels, blood on them or not."

As soon as he said this, a cloud started traveling over us, making the night far darker than it should have. The only thing I could clearly see was Lucy's blonde hair.

"You heartless monster!" Lucy screamed with anger suddenly, she took out something from the back of her dress, revealing a whip and holding out keys at the side of her hand.

"Monster? I suppose it wouldn't be untrue to say that." For some reason he started unfurling his fishing rod—oh shit. That's a _magic_ fishing rod with how those strings are flying around him, isn't it? Still, if Lucy really is a mage, she should have the obvious advantage… right?

Fero sighed at the same time the cloud started passing by.

However, I realized we were beyond screwed now.

Why? Because all around us, reflecting moonlight and revealing what was not seen in the darkness... was string.

 _Magic_ string.

So not only are we trapped in a boat with both Natsu and Happy out of the way, but now we were surrounded by enemy magic that would more than likely turn us into sliced ham.

This bloody world is trying to kill me.

Fero reached the air, holding several pieces of string… **then he pulled**.

"Duck!" Lucy said even after my own body screamed at me to do so, even though I practically kissed the wood, I felt the air where we used to be cut by string. I looked back up, seeing Fero expertly trail his hands along the string.

I panicked when I saw him pull the string and rod in different directions. I jumped then heard the wooden floor slashed into pieces.

Oh yeah, magic string that can cut wood with ease. That makes sense.

There was a shine in Lucy's keys as she held one out.

" **Open, Gate of Cancer!** " She cried out as a puff of smoke appeared, revealing a guy with crab legs on his back and… a barber? The heck?

"Giant Crab!" Happy managed to scream out with… is he that hungry?! And why is he so dependent on the guy saying crab at the end of his sentences?

"Ms. Lucy, do you wish for me to cut your hair—shrimp?"

"Oh I'm disappointed." Happy, you're trapped by strings that can cut you like butter; shouldn't you care more about that?

Lucy ordered her scissor wearing-thing to cut the wires, even the one on Natsu. Quickly, I went behind to check on the guy.

"Hey man, how's it going?" I'm going to assume his moans say he wants to leave now. "Well, I'm working on it. Can Happy carry three people?" And of course he shakes his head to say no, because that would be too easy if it was.

"Hmm, a gold key? I see you are a Celestial Mage with some rare spirits. But I must ask you fairly, miss. Do you believe yourself to be the only one who was smart enough to cut my strings?"

Aww shit! I looked down and quickly jumped just before the strings could clamp down on just above my ankles.

"Cancer—AAH!?"

After I landed, I noticed that for both Lucy and her Spirit: both of them had string wrapping around their ankles. Cancer tried to move, but suddenly the strings around him tightened. Lucy acted quickly and returned the scissors barber guy back from where he came from. However, as the blonde tried to get another key, a string wacked her hand throwing the keys from her person and to the floor in an unreachable spot.

"Make any more moves, and I will cut your ankles and let you bleed to death." Fero said coldly before his eyes turned to me.

"You, brown haired boy," The captain glanced over to me. "You don't have magic, don't you?"

"…What makes you say that?" I sling Natsu's arm over my shoulder, even though I have a feeling I know what's going to happen.

"Because the only reason why I haven't killed your friends yet was that I intended to use them as bait in case your magic happened to be a counter to mine. But since you're a non-magic user, there is nothing stopping me from killing all three—four of you." He quickly corrected.

But come on brain, think! Think! He's about to turn us into pieces! What can we do!?

"Wait!" I screamed out. Come on brain work some magic!

{" _Happy, is Natsu really that motion sick?" I mean I've seen people get queasy, but to Natsu it's like Kryptonite that is sapping all of his energy like it would to Super Man._

" _Aye! He can't handle vehicles at all!" Happy jubilantly answered me as we took the train ride_.}

Oh come on, that was the best you could come up with it?!

"I just have one question for you!"

Fero narrowed his eyes while the back of my mind was screaming at me to come up with a better idea than the one I just came up with. "I believe it to be in my best interest to kill y—"

And that was my cue to choose the lesser insane evil. "Can someone get sea-sick by swimming in the water?"

"Wha?"

"What?"

"Huh?"

Well desperate times call for desperate measures! I turned with Natsu, jumping high and tossing his body weight over with my own…

AND STARTED FALLING!

"GERONIMO!" I yelled out as gravity started pulling us.

"Kain, what the hell, man!?"

Natsu finally yelled just before we dipped into the water—and dear god it hurt like hell even though I knew I had to dive to lessen the impact! Thankfully, my parents thought me how to swim while Natsu himself started swimming up with me.

"What was that for, Kain!?" Natsu cried out.

"It was the only thing I could think off Natsu! You don't get motion sickness in the sea!"

The pink haired mage blinked before he realized he was back to his normal self. "Oh right! I'm better now! Whoo!"

I looked back up. "If you believe yourself to be free, you're sorely mistaken!" And Fero looked at me as he launched his fishing rod—oh right.

However, I heard steam as I looked beside me to see… the area around Natsu was boiling?

"Oi, white suit! You're going to pay for what you did to Happy!"

Fero's string stopped as he looked down and shouted back, "You mean the cat I had the decency to clean after your little episode?"

Natsu turned to me, his bubbles boiling even more. "That was Kain's fault! I didn't know Happy was there!"

"Did you not see him get in there when I told you we had to hide him!?" I yelled back.

"Uh guys!? Still trapped up here!" Lucy's voice came out.

Natsu turned his head back up. "Oh right! Don't worry, Luigi! We'll save you too!"

"It's Lucy!" The girl shrieked back quickly.

Fero's eyes sharpened. "Enough! My rod can also kill things in the sea, regardless of what magic you have, you're as good as—"

During his little tidbit, I didn't notice Natsu inhaling deeply and taking his hands out near his face.

Then the magic circle appeared. " **FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!** " He unleashed a powerful breath of fire right where Fero was standing.

A few seconds later, Kain heard Lucy screaming something about a gate of Aquarius.

* * *

Fero's instincts screamed to him that he had to jump out of the way of the large burst of fire.

"A fire mage!? One that powerful!?" He cried out before he realized the flames had caught on his string and burned his fishing line to the point that it loosened the restraints on his captives.

"I'm free!" Happy cried out as he sprouted wings from his back. Lucy quickly capitalized this moment and grabbed her keys with a dive.

She took her opportunity to summon another spirit, seeing as how the boat was on fire, her subconscious made her choose in key in particular to combat the fire spreading on the wooden boat.

" **Open, Gate of Aquarius!** "

In another flash of light, a beautiful blue haired mermaid appeared. Happy made a comment about another fish, but Lucy urgently pointed when she saw Fero recasting his weapon.

"Aquarius, stop him!"

"Tch! Stupid girl, you dare command me in the middle of my date!?" It took a second for Lucy to recall that this spirit was rather… uncooperative.

The giant shadow that appeared behind her only solidified this fact.

* * *

"Is that a tsunami?" Natsu asked as he noticed the giant wave of water towering over them and only growing in size.

Kain, while afraid, was strangely zen at the sight of something that could easily kill him. "I was not expecting this today."

And then the tsunami hit the boat and the two young men.

* * *

Despite being tossed around like a ragdoll in a washing machine, somehow we made it back to land into Hargeon's beach.

"Oh god, how am I still alive without any broken bones?" I checked again. Somehow, I was in one piece by something that by all means should have broken at least a bone or something.

Am I more durable here?

"Mrghpff!" I looked to my side to see Natsu somehow comically planted into the sand before pushing himself out and spitting out said sand.

I heard more voices behind me, seeing both Happy and Lucy with some flying blue mermaid? Okay, I'm willing to admit that the Bubak, the crab/barber guy, and Happy are things that I'm sure as hell weren't expecting, but I'm starting to draw the line at how much I can process fictional things being real.

Happy and Lucy winced when the mermaid snapped back at them—and she has a boyfriend? Oh that's funny, a mermaid has a love life and I don't.

Wait, where's…

"Hey, guys?" I stood up and noticed the crashed ship. "Where's Fero?"

Out of the wreckage, Fero came out along with a group of bandits, along with the still sleeping Salamander.

"C-Captain Fero!? What do we do!?" One of the mugs carrying Salamander—or Bora as I heard—asked the disheveled and drenched man in a suit.

He glared at us, causing Natsu to get ready to fight—

"We leave. That for sure would have attracted the royal guards." Fero spoke up before looking over. "Leave the girls they'll only be dead weight to us. And you four?"

He looked over to us, making everyone but Natsu tense.

"I do hope we don't meet again." With that he swung his fishing rod, making debris of the ship to fall in front of them and hide their path.

It was then that alarms rang over the town, causing Natsu to drop his stance and look on with panic. "Oh crap! Royal guards! We gotta go!"

"Aye!"Happy cried out before he and Natsu started running.

"Hey!" I called out to Lucy. "You coming?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Cause, Natsu and Happy are from Fairy Tail, not that liar!" I motioned my thumb at the two making a break for it.

"W-What!? Really!?"

"Yeah. Come on, I'm sure you'll fit right in!" I managed to say before running right after those two.

After a few seconds, I noticed Lucy running after us as well.

Hopefully after this fiasco, we can finally head to Fairy Tail. And I can find some way to get back home.

Huh.

Wait one second.

Was this how the first chapter was supposed to go?

* * *

Omake: Fashion for Action!

Natsu dragged Kain into the clothes store quickly. "Yo! Is anyone here!?"

"Welcome!~" To Kain's surprise, a rather flamboyant, and round man jumped out of some curtains in a ballet jump. He landed gracefully for someone his size and twirled beautifully. "How may I help you, dear customer?"

Natsu then patted his hands on Kain's shoulders and said, "I want you to make a dress for my younger brother here!" Before the owner and Kain could question that for different reasons, the fire dragon slayer continued, "You see, it's always been his dream to cross dress but he's been too afraid to admit his passions!"

Kain and the owner gaped. For different reasons.

"Kyyyaaaa! How beautiful! Don't worry young man! The world of cross-dressing is a beautiful place that will bring you to heights unimagined!" The owner clapped his hands, revealing several other fashionable men speeding out of the back room. "Men, it's time to bring this man into the fold!"

Kain opened his mouth… trying to find anything he could do to talk out of this madness, but instead his mind made him see what they needed to do, so instead he then sighed and resigned to his fate. "Is there a possibility for me to wear a wig? I've always wondered what it would be like to have purple hair if that could work. Or about contacts? I like my eyes, but brown is kind of plain."

It was the time for Natsu and the Owner (and Happy to pause.) The Owner's smile only grew. "Y-you're going to go far… men~!"

The men grabbed Kain's arms and started leading him towards the back room with or without his consent.

However, both Fairy Tail members noticed the dark and silent glare on Kain's face before he left with them.

A little later, the dragon slayer and the exceed noticed the curtains come up and out revealed a rather beautiful young woman with purple hair and yellow colored irises.

However, Natsu and Happy's response was to…

"AHAHAHAHA! It looks so good on you, Kain!" The pink haired mage laughed so hard he was starting to cry.

"You're so skinny that you could make it work!" The blue cat cried out between the howling fits of giggles.

However, instead of embarrassed, Natsu and Happy slowly realized that Kain wasn't embarrassed in the slightest. In fact he was smiling evilly?

"Oh, dear brother," thier stomach dropped as they heard Kain speaking in a southern accent that was pitched enough to sound like a girl, but not as shrill or squeaky. "I wish to go out, but I'm too terrified to go out on my lonesome! Which is why I wish from the bottom of my heart, dear brother, that you could join me so I feel less alone?"

"Don't worry about it! Of course your older brother would do this for you!" The owner proudly said as all men now looked to Natsu like predators.

"W-What?" Natsu started to sweat as the men slowly stalked to him.

The last thing he saw before the men were upon him was Kain mouthing out the words, 'Take that you bastard.'

Natsu learned to never mess with Kain again.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Whoa. I wasn't expecting this much support for a Self Insert. Thanks a lot guys! This was just a project for fun, but wow.**

 **So, this was my take on how the first episode went. It kinda sets the stage of how the story might go from here on out, so I was a little worried.**

 **Hopefully, you'll forgive the shift of villain to a unknown OC. His purpose was more or less to elevate the stakes, rather than be more of the plot.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

* * *

"Bora, wake up. Wake up."

The purple haired mage gasped as he shot up from a bed. "F-Fero! W-Where are we?"

"Heading towards Kakanarin albeit it's a little longer route than the one we planned. I've taken the liberties to report what had happened."

The fake Salamander started to sweat. "O-Oh? I-I see." Fero warned Bora several times he was taking things not serious enough and now this happened?! He couldn't stop his imagination from thinking of the worse.

"Bora, you can calm down," Fero's usually calm voice had the opposite effect on the faker. "We were strict, but we are not going to kill you for failing horribly. We're not people who are mindlessly evil even though we do things that are officially and actively against the law."

He could hear his heartbeat slow down to an acceptable pace. "R-Really? F-For a second there I thought I was a goner."

"No, Mr. Ryan Peloth is far more merciful than he seems. However, he will force you to make amends for losses."

And then his heartbeat quickened again. "W-Wha… how will he do that?"

"This is the second time I will calm you down. I can understand he seems scary, but at times he can be surprisingly merciful. He's not some monster," Bora sighed in relief. "He'll probably send you to do kidnapping missions though."

"Kidnapping Missions?"

"Yes, for some reason, Mr. Peloth does love those types of missions in particular for his own mysterious reasons." He took out a picture that was slightly wet, but showed a beautiful woman with black hair accompanied by a flying chick. "For example: I was asked to find this person after this mission: Éclair, a four hundred year old immortal from the ancestral city of Veronica."


	3. Chapter 3

"Wow," I agree with Lucy. I've never seen a guild before. It looks cool. "It's so huge!"

That's what she said. Oh wait. Dang it, I didn't mean for that to sound like an innuendo!

After running away from the authorities—it's a good thing I'm already in college or else that might have been a blotch on my permanent record— and a few more days of travel, Natsu and Happy finally brought us to the famed Fairy Tail Guild. It was great to finally see the place up close, but since I had only heard about this series from bits and pieces from my friends I didn't know what to expect.

Surprisingly, it looked really normal. I guess since my main reference for magical worlds are Hogwarts, I was a little disappointed I didn't see talking goblins and animated inanimate objects.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail!" Happy jumped for joy as he and Natsu opened the doors.

Inside the place, there were many people around the guild of varying shapes, sizes, and color. Yet despite some 'anime' looking people, it really looked like a large bar.

However, I was so engrossed with taking the sights, I didn't realize that Natsu had started to fight with someone. Somehow, when I missed that, I was utterly surprised when things escalated quickly, dragging nearly everyone in the guild into a brawl.

Lucy and I shared a look before we took a few steps away from the ragging fight. Now that I think of it, I think this was one of the things my friends who liked the series enjoyed about how boisterous and lively Fairy Tail was. While I admit it could look fun, it must be such a pain after every fight.

"Oh is Natsu back!? It's payback for our last fight!" Screamed a man only in his boxers.

"Gray, your clothes," A woman with brown hair mentioned, making the pervert scream at the loss he didn't notice before. "How undignified…" She said as she proceeded to drink from a barrel full of what I assume would be alcohol.

It seemed that I wasn't the only one who questioned what was going on before me as Lucy let out a confused sound. "Huh?"

Soon things got even stranger as a large man with white hair followed by a pretty boy followed by girls joined the ever increasing fray.

"Oh my? Newcomers?" As I turned around, I saw a rather beautiful woman with a calm and serene smile meeting both Lucy and I.

"M-Mirajane!" Lucy cried out to the girl. Before looking nervously back to the fight. She asked Mira if there was something they could do to stop this fight.

However, I noticed something in the fight and someone walking in a certain angle. I side stepped the large 'Manly' screaming guy as his body flew and hit Mirajane.

Quickly, Lucy and I went over to the currently pinned down woman who still was smiling despite being crushed by someone clearly twice her weight.

"Are you alright?" I asked while Lucy panicked at the sight.

"I-I'm fine. B-But isn't this fun?" She said as she lost conscious…. Huh? Is that her soul I'm seeing? I can see souls in this world? Ugh, fine, I'll put that in the list of things I'm probably never going to get used to.

I looked back to see anything that might be flying in this direction. My suspicions were confirmed before I stepped away again, but as I started moving, my mind told me that I had forgotten to warn Lucy. I was too late to warn the Celestial Mage before the same thing happened to her.

And now the boxer man was fully naked and in front of a very distressed Lucy. Even though, she was yelling, the naked man didn't actually seemed bothered as he quickly asked, "Excuse me miss, could I borrow your under—"

"AS IF!" Lucy pretty much had every right to do that. But why ask the opposite gender so easily?

Still, he did ask for help, so after I spotted Lucy whisked away by that pretty boy I spotted a while I go, I went up to the naked man and gave him my hoodie. "Here, you can use this, but please wash it before you return it." As the bible always said, clothe the homeless. That does apply here right? Or in another universe, is there no god?

Which would mean I'm doing this for nothing…

Okay, another note to make when things settle down…

The black haired man stood up and tied my favorite hoodie around his… well yeah. "Oh thanks man! I'll be sure to clean it after!"

Bah, it really doesn't bother me as much as it should. "Just be sure to get your boxers back first so you could clean it easier."

"Ah right!" Then he looked back at Natsu with a glare. "You'll pay for that you bastard!" He shouted before pretty much tackling the guy without any hesitation.

I started to look around where the fighting had become much more violent. I honestly don't know how to feel about all this. Perhaps other fans might like and enjoy this environment, but I've always been the bookish type and I rather enjoyed my relative peace and quiet.

Yet my thoughts were put aside when I noticed that some of the mages were now starting to use magic.

"Ara, ara. It seems like they're all going a bit far…" I heard Mirajane say after she somehow got back up without me noticing.

It was then a loud voice echoed through the guild as a giant man towered over everyone trying to use magic in their brawl. Huh, I wonder why I never noticed that giant man in the first place?

I spotted Natsu—getting crushed as he was about to declare his victory. Despite Lucy's yelp, I was fairly certain that this happens to him often. And I don't even read this story!

" **SHUT UP!** " cried the giant before glancing towards Lucy and my direction. " **Hmm? Newcomers?** "

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you, sir." I waved, making Lucy stare at me weirdly—wait why? Did I have something on me?

Soon, the giant started… shrinking? Oh, so that was why I didn't see him earlier. He wasn't a giant, he was a midget with giant magic or something. Ha. I see what was done there.

"Oh? It's nice to meet you two. It is good to finally someone with manners come through this door though."

Manners? He hasn't seen someone with mann—

… {*Remembers everyone in this guild within the past few seconds*}

Oh.

The guild leader jumped with a great flip then hit the rail of the second floor. After struggling to get back up, he started complaining about the many character flaws that were obvious from the get go.

However, he started a rather nice and heartwarming speech afterward. With that done, everything seemed to become relatively calmed down.

Still, I couldn't help but feel strange about all this. The place seems great, but I had this bad feeling in my stomach about being here. Was it because I was from another world that I had this sense of not being here?

"Yo!" I was distracted from my thoughts and turned back to see Gray hand me back my hoodie. "Thanks again for the clothes!"

"You do remember me asking you wash this first right?" I asked as I raised my brow at the jacket.

"Oh don't worry. I got it off a few seconds later when I snatched my briefs back. Thanks, I owe ya one."

I still wanted it washed, but meh. Water under the bridge. "No problem dude."

I'll just ask if there's a washing machine… or magic washer somewhere here.

"W-Why would you give your clothes to him? Like that!" Lucy asked me in shock as she stepped away from my hoodie in particular.

"He asked for help. Wouldn't you liked to be helped if you asked for help?"

Lucy flushed at how simple it sounded. "B-But doesn't that weird you out?"

It was an honest enough question. However, the way she phrased it made me think of a single line I've heard so many times in my life that I absolutely loathed.

{ _Don't be selfish, Kain!_ }

Godammit, why did I have to remember _those_ words?

Thankfully, it seemed like I didn't visibly react even after recalling those painful memories and spoke up. "I know what you mean, but I find a lot of things don't really bother me. I mean they do, but I never put effort into showing them. I get tired easily."

Our attention was caught by Mirajane as she motioned for the two of us. "Anyway, would you two like to join the guild?"

"Yes!"

"Actually, I have a question. Can I talk to your guild master?" The two girls looked over to me with confusion. "There's something I would like to ask him first."

"I heard it." The tiny old man jumped from the rail and back down in front of us. "What is it, sonny?"

"Do you really have to be a mage to work here in Fairy Tail?" I asked.

He seemed a little surprise at my question as he sized me up. "You don't have any magic, do you?"

I shook my head.

"Well, you can't be an official member of this guild, but you can work the bar and tables. It would be nice to give Mirajane a hand at handling the guild. And we could always use more cleaners…" He sighed.

Huh. "So, I can still work here? But just not as a guild member?" I guess that's the next best thing really. I haven't even thrown a punch in my life—which might change very soon.

He nodded. "Civilians can't be mages, maybe if they were trained as mercenaries, but other than that, I can see you're completely defenseless."

"T-That's not true!" I was surprised to see Lucy defend me. "Kain was amazing despite having no magic! We were able to get out of a sticky situation because of him!"

"Aye!~" Happy flew over this time. "He helped us in our mission in Juter, and that was a much harder mission than they described!"

The small man seemed amused by all of this. "Interesting, but even if it was true, it is still against the rules. You can start cleaning the mess everyone made."

Just then we heard of another table breaking in the distance.

"My bad!" Yelled Natsu.

"Okay, I can do that." I spoke up before something came to my mind. "Excuse me, I just realized. Those papers that were burned, those were official complaints right?"

Markarov seemed to blanch for a second before looking at me wearily. "Yeah? So?"

"Shouldn't that mean there are bills and suing cases against the guild for all those violations?" I saw him flinch in response to it.

"Don't remind me…" He dejectedly said as he put his head down.

Poor guy. "You know, I went to law school for the past three years. I could take a look at them for you. I've been reviewing legal cases for those three years, and I can more than likely cancel around fifty percent of those cases against—"

I was not expecting the man to appear right in front of me, hugging me tightly with stars in his eyes that looked close to tears.

"DO YOU MEAN THAT!?" he asked in half hysteria.

"Yes? Otherwise I slaved away in law school for nothing." I sighed before the hug of the smaller man suddenly became the strongest vice grip in existence.

"THEN YOU'RE HIRED AS FAIRY TAIL'S LAWYER! WAAAAHHHHHH!" Why was he crying!?

"Oh my! I've never seen master so happy before in my life!" Mira jubilantly explained.

W-Wait what? "Have you never hired a lawyer before?" I asked in shock as I looked to the man.

"No lawyer wants to represent us! You're the first one that does!" The old man cried out.

But why would—I was interrupted by the sound of one of the pillars cracking from the brawl. That answered my question.

"Umm then do you want me to do cleaning first, or see the papers?"

"Laki and Mirajane can handle the damages like they usually do! Just please, make their papers go away!" The poor man started sobbing on my shirt now.

Oh swell.

Mirajane gave me a kind smile. "Good luck. Oh, I never got your name."

"It's Kain Reynolds." And now I have to deal with legal work.

It seems I can't escape paper work even in another world.

* * *

"Unbelievable, Natsu punched an injured little girl through a hospital wall on her birthday?!" Well it said she was possessed by an evil spirit but still, "Gray caused a wedding to crumble when he stumbled on a church buck naked! Elfman, punched a man for raising his pinky for a drink? Cana threw a fit when someone ran out of booze, and by fit, she decimated as much as Natsu! And those were just the tip of the ice berg!" I couldn't believe it.

All these cases. If not for these magic reading glasses Makarov lent me, It would have taken me years to read this all.

Speaking of the old guild master…. "Would you like to hear the good news or the bad news?" I turned to him as he flinched.

"I-I've heard so many bad news in my life, so start with that!"

"This is a lot worse than I imagined." No sooner than I said the words, Makarov slumped in shame.

"Now for the good news. It's a little underhanded, but I from all that I've read so far… I can remove 30% of the guild's debt in damages since some of these claims have no proper backing."

"3-30 percent!?" Makarov threw himself at my feet and started to cry again. "YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER!"

"Sir! Sir please, let go of my leg, you're crushing it!" He was surprisingly strong for someone his size.

"I-I'm sorry it's just—in a guild full of powerful wizards, no one has ever defeated our court filings! WAAAHHH!"

Ah yes, the weakness of even great men: money. I placed the glasses back on. "Alright, I'll start reviewing these cases again and soon I should be able to look up the ones that I can solve."

That had taken me hours to finish. It was a headache, but I was glad that I got to do something mundane again after these past few days.

As soon as I left the office, I noticed that it was already night. I was in Makarov's office the whole day.

"Ahh! Hello, Kain. A nice evening we're having?" I looked over to see Mirajane at the sink washing dishes.

"Oh, let me help with that. I was supposed to help you before I told the guild master about my law school." I quickly went up and started washing some of the dishes she hadn't started on yet.

"Thank you for that." She was a lot more relaxed now. Maybe it was because almost everyone went home and there was barely anyone left in the guild.

"No problem. But it's really weird to see this place like a ghost town compared to this morning." I noticed that the guild hall just felt… empty without anyone here.

"Yes, it's very different when the guild is open." You know, now that I take a look at her… I get this feeling she isn't really all there. "You should have seen awhile ago, Natsu and Lucy had already went out to save a friend of ours."

Man, Natsu really has trouble find him wherever he goes huh? I guess that could be said for most hero types like him.

"Then, when he came back, he started talking about Lucy and you. We were all surprised to hear about Juter, but we were more surprised to hear that Natsu said you came from another world… and even more amazingly that we were all part of his fictional story?"

I couldn't help but smile. "It's hard to believe that, huh?"

"Yes, but it seemed like Lucy had a hard time _not_ believing it. Master also says that nothing in this world is truly impossible." She then laughed as she recalled. "The part about you being from another world I mean, the one about Natsu being the main character was impossible to believe."

"I said he was famous, not that he was the main character. I'm going to have to set the record straight tomorrow, don't I?" Mirajane laughed again as she nodded at the thought. However, I also wondered something very important. "What else did he say while I was in the guild master's office?"

"We didn't mean to talk behind your back, in fact Natsu said a lot of great things about you and Happy showed us your balloon animal for him—it was so cute~" Mirajane giggled.

"I'm glad you liked it. I can make more for the guild if I can get my hands on more specialized balloons like that."

"That would be nice." She thought about it before her work on the dishes slowed down. "Natsu also told us that you joined us because you thought we were your best shot at going home."

Oh. That. I told Natsu about it. "Yeah. Sorry for putting that much pressure on you guys. None of you probably know a way that can travel to different worlds without magic."

"That's true, but Master said we would help you."

I blinked in surprise as I looked at the older woman. "R-Really? Why?"

"Natsu said you help save lives when you didn't need to. How could we say no to someone that even our resident dragon slayer vouches personally for?"

I didn't notice I was giving a genuine smile. "Thank you. This means a lot to me even if some of you don't really believe me."

"Everyone is welcome to Fairy Tail; we all have our past demons here." She spoke softly in that last part, but because of how empty the guild was, I could hear her.

…

…

"So," I clear my throat. "Where am I staying?"

"For the night, you can stay in one of the guest rooms."

Uh yeesh, I haven't even thought about moving out of the house yet, now I'm going to have to find one. That's another thing I have to put on the "to do" list.

"Thanks." It was then, something pique my curiosity. "By the way, what type of music do they have here?"

"Oh? What type of music do they have in your world?"

That was how the rest of the night went, doing chores and talking about strangely mundane things.

I eventually got to the guest room thanks to Mira's help. There, it was a simple bed, lamp, desk, and window.

There were a few magazines on the desk though; some about Entrepreneur Weekly… huh? Jude Heartfillia? Is he related to Lucy? Bah, I'll keep reading it.

After reading a few more magazines, unsurprisingly, I slept peacefully that night for the first time I came there.

* * *

"Yo, Kain!" After morning sweeping, I spotted Natsu and Happy coming up to me. "Let's go to Lucy's place for a mission!"

His call to me surprised me on several levels.

"A mission? I half expected you to go head towards Sun Village after I told you where Bora got the name from."

Natsu's energy deflated as he crossed his arms. "I want to, but we're low on jewels. I still need money to get things done and there's no job anywhere near that place."

Oh that makes sense. "But are you sure I can come with you? I'm not a guild member, just a worker."

Natsu looked over to Mirajane. "Yo, Mira! Can I take Kain with me?"

My boss/manager looked over with a smile. "There's nothing saying he can't come with you."

"Awesome!" Natsu pretty much took that as a yes. "Come on, Kain! We've got you and Luigi's first official mission to do!"

"Lucy, Natsu. It's Lu-cy." But I was ignored again as somehow Natsu had found out where she had started up rent and went into her room through her window.

Telling Natsu and Happy I was taking the long way, I walked towards Lucy's apartment door and was about to knock, when I heard her scream about her room and kick something in to the wall that sounded like two buffoons.

Then I knocked.

"Who is it?"

"Me, Kain. Natsu brought me along."

"Why didn't you try to stop these two!?" Lucy cried out from behind the door.

However, I blinked in response to that. "I was supposed to stop them?" How could I even do so in the first place? "Could you do that if you were in my place? And if so, how?"

I didn't hear much from Lucy but after a while, she let me in.

Her room was nice. I mean really, really nice. Was there a type of storage magic she had to keep all of this, and if so, where would I get it?

Anyway, after Lucy showed us how Celestial Spirits work, Natsu finally decided to show us his mission he chose for us.

Stealing a book.

… Do libraries not exist or something?

Oh wait, my bad. According to the description, it's a rare book. That makes more sense and apparently it also includes a job description of the target's…

Oh.

This was why we went to Lucy.

So Natsu can be clever when he wants to be

* * *

Lucy stayed silent, even when we found a ride towards Shirotsume Town, our destination.

However, when the ride started moving…

"Are you feeling alright, master," She said with obvious sneer. Someone was still sore about being tricked by a simple-minded person. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"A-A barf bag would be nice…" Natsu said before I took one out.

"Here, I had a feeling we'd get into another one of these and the last thing I wanna repeat was the boat incident."

"That was your fault Kain!" Happy pointed at me, still a bit annoyed. Though in his case, no one wants to be barfed on by their best friend.

"I said I was sorry." Even though it wasn't fully my fault.

"No you didn't!" Happy cried before looking to Lucy, "And I'm supposed to be the master here!" Huh, it seemed like he took that seriously from a while ago.

"Shut it, cat!" The blonde celestial mage exclaimed. "By the way, why did you want me in your team?"

I stayed silent for a second. As Natsu described, closer mages in the guild form teams. Natsu went on to say simply that Lucy was nice but weird.

But I was surprised he asked me to come along. I'm not even a mage. "Wait, but why did you have me tag along? I don't have any magic. I don't even have the sticker from the guild."

"Oh you didn't get one?" Happy asked.

"Well don't you need to be a mage to have one?"

"You can still get one. I mean it's not wrong to say you're a part of the guild." Happy continued eating his fish.

I would like to have one of those stamps. "I'll talk to Mirajane about that one. But you still didn't answer my question."

"You're a smart guy. You made some awesome plans from before!" Natsu managed to say through his sickness.

"My plans… you mean how we just ran like hell, how we disguised ourselves as women, and how I made us jump overboard a boat to escape an assassin in order to give you your powers again?" Those are not what I would call planning.

"They worked didn't they?" The way Natsu says that is as if that is all it takes.

"To varying degrees." I heard Lucy whispering about how she almost got caught on Natsu's fire blast after I said that. "But alright, I hope I won't drag you guys down too much."

"Speaking off, I think it's time for our pay scale. Since I'm doing all the work, the split should be seventy, ten, ten, and ten." How generous of Lucy to say.

"You want only ten percent Lucy?"

"I'm the seventy!" The blonde girl shouted at Happy again.

I laughed a bit before looking again at the job flier. While this was kinda fun and exciting, something didn't feel right about this quest but I couldn't put my finger on it. The last time I had a wrong feeling, it turned out Bora was actually a human trafficking ring. Ugh, I hate this. If I actually read the story I could have prepared accordingly.

I don't even know if this is part of the story or not!

Despite my thoughts, we soon we arrived in our destination.

"Shirotsume Town." I read the sign as the four of us walked into the small bustling town.

"I'm starving," Natsu sluggishly moved as we walked into a group. He must still be feeling the effects of motion sickness.

"Can't you just eat your own flame?" Lucy asked curiously. Though, even I had a feeling that eating flame was more of an energy thing and not really substance like food did.

"Oh yeah and while we're at it, you eat Plue and that cow guy?" Cow guy? Is he referring to another spirit Lucy keeps around?

"Eww, no! Why would you say that?"

"Then it's the same thing."

Oh, I didn't know that.

Lucy seemed a bit bamboozled. "So you can eat fire, just no your own? Isn't that weird?"

"Lucy, you have the ability to summon three spirits from another dimension, we've met over a dozen quirky personalities on our first day of Fairy Tail, and last time I checked you were kidnapped by a Vulcan yesterday, but you think Natsu not eating his own flames is weird?"

"He's got a point, Lucy." Happy concurred with my statement before the girl seemed flustered.

"Seriously, I'm more surprised you're not reacting to any of this! Besides Mirajane, you're probably the closest normal guy I've seen and you claim you're from another world and we're all fictional characters!"

"I am reacting; I just don't give outward reactions. As for that last part: there is a possibility of all of us being imagined as fictional characters. Maybe I'm one too." Ha! As if I was some fictional character created by some loser.

It was then Natsu perked up and pointed to a restaurant. "Oh hey! Let's eat over there!"

Lucy on the other hand, started walking away from us. "Nah, it's alright. You three go ahead."

Natsu folded his arms when he saw her leave. "What's with her? We should be eating as a team."

"A good idea, Natsu," I speak up as I turn to him. "But I wanna do a little more research about our target, and nothing says information like rumors. I'm going to move around town a bit and ask what people know about the guy."

"Ahh man research? Are you for real?" Natsu seemed to be sad.

"There's no shame in gathering knowledge for what you're going to do. You two go on ahead, I'll meet you there soon." With a wave I too left them, this book stealing job sounds oddly suspicious, but I suppose for now I just have to know more about our target.

* * *

"D-Don't you…" I gasped hunched over and trying to support myself by my knees. "Think… we ran out there too quickly?"

After meeting with our client and learning only about how desperately he wants a book destroyed, Natsu ran out with Lucy and Happy before I could ask why he was so determined to see one specific book burned.

"You should exercise more." Happy noted with ease and a hint of superiority.

"I'll work on that. I promise… once I get a stable hold in Magnolia." I got back from my knees. "Okay, since we're doing this, you all should know about what I learned about the duke while we were still in Shirotsume town."

All three listened carefully.

"First off, he's far richer and more influential than he seems. His Mansion could double as a fort with how much security he's put up to keep people away even if they don't mean any harm. Next are the rumors of his personality. I heard from towns folks is that he's as egotistic as they come and it's not helped by the fact that he could ruin a person socially and economically without any effort because of all of his money."

Natsu seemed to glare somewhat. "I already hate this guy and I haven't met him yet."

Lucy looked back at me, looking unease. "Anything else?"

"Well there were other weird rumors I heard about the maids he hired…" The blonde girl put a hand in her chest. She was probably scared or worried about all of this. "Well from what I heard they're weird apparently."

"Weird how?" Lucy's body language obviously said she didn't like how that was said.

I shook my head. "They were all too vague. But what I _wasn_ ' _t_ told that caught my attention was that none of the rumors were described as good."

"Uuhhh that doesn't make me feel any better…" Lucy shivered at the thought.

"Hopefully, you'll only have to be there for a while. First, Natsu should sniff the area, if he has magic or machines hidden in the forest, would you be able to sniff them out?"

Natsu seemed to think about that for a second. "I can't really smell magic, but now that you mention it, magical items do have a distinct smell I could probably track."

I suppose that's the best we could pull off right now. "Keep your nose open for those. It might be the way he can figure out proximity alerts. Lucy, we'll try your maid thing and work from there."

Eventually, we did make our way there, hiding behind a tree, the three of us watched Lucy walk up… and after a rather interesting sight, get rejected.

"Just couldn't do it huh?" Natsu sighed disappointingly when Lucy returned only to sulk under a tree.

"I tried! That guy wouldn't know beauty if it bite him in the behind!" Lucy's tears were visibly falling as she said this.

"Uh-huh." Happy shallowly agreed.

"I actually respect that he can see the beauty in girls who society labels as ugly. It's kind of progressive if you think about it." I commented out loud, which didn't really help Lucy in comfort.

Natsu then smirked with a familiar and dangerous smile. "Okay, it's time for plan T!"

I had a feeling I knew what that meant. "I'm assuming you mean plan B and just assail the place with fists blazing?"

"Actually, it was called Plan T because we were supposed to take them by storm, but I like how you phrased it way better!"

"That jerk is going to pay for this!" Lucy seems all fired up. In all fairness, her ego's been wounded, so I guess that makes sense.

"Do you think we should do this in the day though?" I asked, making the three look at me strangely. "If we're going in one way or another, wouldn't it be better to attack when they're asleep?"

"No way, there's no fun like that!" Natsu said. It wasn't really a good reason, but I won't suggest something if he really doesn't want it. Still, storming head on isn't the best idea, so there should still be something else we could do.

Thankfully there was another one among us who started thinking. "Actually, I don't want to go to jail," Lucy spoke up. "We should just break in and burn the book ourselves."

"What? I wanna bust down the doors!"

It wasn't a bad idea honestly. "Lucy does have a point, Natsu. The Duke is still very influential. Whatever battle we might have with him might have backlashes through official and political scandals. If we get in there and get out without him noticing, it would be the best for everyone."

"Aww," The dragon slayer of fire obviously didn't like being outvoted.

I looked up to the Mansion and spoke up. "You three should go in. Try flying into the roof top through Happy."

"What about you?"

"Oh me?" I repeat with a smile as I take out my bag pack and start fishing for items Mirajane let me borrow. "I'm going to be a distraction to ensure you guys pull this off without the Duke noticing. But first: Lucy, do you have a clothe color changer on you? I learned a fun fact from my manager last night."

* * *

As I spotted Happy up in the air with Lucy, I walked up to the mansion and started bagging on the door. Checking to see if the color swapping magic was still on, I started yelling out.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Is anyone home?"

Again, the large pink haired maid came out of the ground because screw you doors and normal people….

"Yes? Who is it?"

I wave kindly, trying to appear professional and calm. "Hello, I'm Ronald Mcdonald from Entrepreneur Weekly, I'm here to possibly discuss with Duke Everlue about him being in the next cover for our next month issue." I say as I hold up one of the magazines I kept from the room. Who knew keeping just one of these things would help so much?

Suddenly, the ground behind me shot up as the Duke himself came back with stars in his eyes. "Entrepreneur Weekly is finally letting me be on the cover?!"

"After your letters, they've decided it was time. Would you like to get started on your interview?"

Even though I was just guessing he sent letters and assuming with how excited he sounded, it seemed like I was right on the money when the duke huffed with pride. "Of course! It was only a matter of time before you'd finally give in! Now I kind of regret planning to get back at your company… but come in! Come in! There is much I can't wait to tell you!"

Good, the rumors about him having a huge ego were right. I had a feeling someone like him would have demanded to be on a famous magazine. What better way to stroke someone's ego than to get them to talk about themselves?

"Feast your eyes on my magnificent home! The best of the absolute best!" Huh. That's a really large gold statue of himself. I actually like the detail they did on his tongue, I think I can see taste buds on it.

"Oh. That's a lovely sheen your statue is giving off, is it a special kind of wax?" Despite his obvious tastes, I know enough about home decorating and some gold to see this stuff really is fine quality.

He actually nodded in agreement to my question. "Sharp eyes, my friend! You see my beloved statue is coated with…" He went on, explaining everything in the living room. With him here, it should be easy for Lucy and Natsu to sneak in and get the book.

As he was talking, I spotted something from the corner of my eye. It was a door opening and I saw a trace of blond hair.

That must have meant that Lucy and Natsu were in and that the room they landed in wasn't the one we were looking for.

I took out a pen and a small notepad. "So let's start from the beginning, where were you born and what was your childhood like? Could you tell me that while we go to your courtyard? I'd love to see what you did with the place."

"Why! Of course! Of course! I'll have Virgo prepare us a snack while I regale you of a grand tale! Boyoyo!"

And so he began to tell me the story of Everlude as he walked ahead towards one of the hallways. I gave a wink towards the direction of where Lucy and Natsu were and followed after him.

* * *

"I didn't know Kain was such a good actor. I would have flinched every time he talked about himself." The celestial mage admitted as she watched the two leave. "And I didn't know the color changing magic could make clothes look like other clothes…"

"See, I told ya Kain was smart!" Natsu cried out.

Happy raised a paw. "Aye! He's definitely more useful than Lucy!"

"Shut it, cat!" the blond quickly snapped. "Let's hurry up and find that book! I don't know how much time Kain can buy us."

* * *

"And after my dramatic battle with the King of Hurilium, I won my case! Boyoyo!"

"So brave!" "So handsome!" "So smart!" Everlue's maids showered praise to the man after his tall tale.

After writing down the story—yes I wrote notes on it. I had to be as realistic as possible and to be honest it wasn't that bad.

Even if I could tell most of it were lies.

I told Everlue a half lie in the form of sincere truth, "You should make a story out of your life. I bet it would sell by the millions."

Suddenly, my host seemed to stop in the middle of showing me his pool and he scowled. "I tried to, I even got the best writer money could buy, but that stubborn old man…" He sneered before looking back at me. "Ah, never mind that! Is there anything else?"

"Do you by any chance keep horses? I hear Equestrians really bring life to these types of places. Why, I once saw some in the Heartifilia mansion." I really should ask Lucy if she really is related to that guy, but that's a question for another day.

Before he could open his mouth to continue his tour, a voice came out towards us.

"Mr. Everlue. Pardon the intrusion, but I was looking for you."

I turned to see three intimidating men walk towards the duke.

One was an old man maybe around his late sixties or possibly older, but his hair was already aged grayish-white and he was dressed in a red suit. He had a broadsword sheathed on his side and he seemed to have a calm demeanor about him.

The two behind him had no such air.

One was a giant of a man with hair shaped like a starfish wearing a blue long sleeve and white pants. His presence screamed overwhelming power.

The one on the opposite side of the older swordsman was a shorter man in white and black Chinese based clothing. He was holding a giant pan for some reason.

"Ah, Master Zash and the Vanish brothers, how may I help you?" He turned to me. "These are my current bodyguards, here to ward me off any trouble."

Master Zash, the older looking man with a full but short face beard bowed politely to the man. "About that sir, it seems while on patrol, we had found one of your windows broken, I asked Virgo to check around before I came to you. I felt it was necessary to tell you this before we could handle it ourselves."

Duke Everlue fumed. "WHAT!? How did they get in!? And why didn't you try to hunt them down!?"

"Because sir," The old man calmly stated before looking towards me—aww shit. "They came the same time as him."

Everlue glanced over to me in shock. But even so I tried to remain calm. "Excuse me sir? I don't know wha—"

There was a slashing sound as I looked down… the colors spell that was hidden in my hoodie pocket was cut in half, revealing that I wasn't wearing a suit, but my same clothes I came into this world with.

"It appears he was a distraction. He's not really with Entrepreneur Weekly, sir." The old man… d-did he even take out the blade? It was like he… slashed my pocket with just his scabbard!

"WHAT!? You were lying to me!?" Everlue glared at me with furious rage.

The one I assumed to be Master Zash calmly told his two followers, "Yan, Ying. Please, tie up this young man and follow me back into the mansion. You also might want to hurry and help find the intruders, Duke Everlue."

"Yes, Master Zash!" They zealously repeated before they both got rope out of seemingly nowhere.

"Y-You guys wouldn't happen to take a joke, right?" Despite my nervous laughter, I really do hope that Natsu and the others are doing fine.

* * *

"This is horrible!" Lucy cried out as right after they had found the book, they were being confronted by none other than Duke Everlue himself.

"So you thieves are looking to pilfer the Daybreak from me, are you? Boyoyo!" The portly duke observed from the scene before him.

"See slowpoke?" Natsu looked to Lucy as he pointed to the small duke. "You were the one saying we shouldn't waste time!"

"Sorry about that."

The duke smiled darkly. "I had a feeling something was off when a maid and then a fake scout came here, but who would have thought it would be wizards trying to steal something. But I never would have guessed it was that stupid book, Daybreak."

"Stupid?" Natsu repeated with slight confusion.

Lucy had the same thoughts, but she wondered why something that was paid for to be rid of so desperately is unwanted by the same man who kept it?

"But this works out great! If you don't want it, I wanna keep it!"

"It's mine! Get your grubby hands off it!" Everlue threw a fit after Lucy excitedly asked.

"Greedy pig."

"Shut your trap, ugly." And with that casual retort, Lucy felt more damage in her life than she had ever before.

Natsu wanted to burn the book already to complete their job, find Kain, and get the heck out of there.

However, Lucy wanted to at least read it first. She even sat down on the ground to do so.

Everlue, sick of not being the center of attention, cried out, "How dare you put your hands on my possessions! Come forth, Vanish brothers!"

The three looked to one of the opening secret passages to see two men walking in followed by an old man and…

"Kain!" Natsu cried as they saw him tied up in rope.

The brown haired boy looked up and saw Lucy with a book. "I thought we were supposed to get rid of that?"

"Lucy is being Lucy!" Happy pointed to the girl like a child blaming his sibling for breaking the family vase.

"Wait, are you using my name as an insult!?" Lucy looked back up from the book to shout at the blue cat.

"Don't be such a Lucy, Lucy!" Happy fired back.

"Can you believe these mages? Thinking their hot stuff…." The younger and taller Vanish brother, Ying scoffed as he looked at his opponents.

Happy pointed over to their emblems. "Those guys are from the Southern Wolves Mercenary Guild!"

"Wait, there's more than one type of guild besides mages out there? How many are there?" Kain asked with confusion.

"That's an odd question: are you not from around here?" The older man answered the question with another question.

Natsu; however, pointed over to Kain. "You let our friend go, you bastards!"

Everlue played with his mustache like some kind of movie villain to Kain. "I'm afraid I'm not letting him or any of you get out alive! Boyoyo!"

"Isn't that a bit extreme, Mr. Everlue?" Even when tied up, Kain supposed he thought this was a bit much..

"Shut up, Ronald Mcdonald!" It seemed as if Everlue missed Kain's real name being heard somehow. "You don't get to talk anymore! Vanish brothers and Master Zash, finish them!"

However, at this moment, Lucy stood up. "Hey, Natsu, hold them off. I think there's a secret in this book."

"Huh? Okay." He asked as Lucy already went ahead away from the fight by using a different door.

Everlue started to wonder in surprise. There was something in the book he had missed after all this time? This unsettled him. Perhaps there was something in that book that he could use after all.

"You three take care of this. I'll go after the girl." Everlue darkly muttered as the floor beneath him lowered.

That action from the duke made Kain blink in surprise. "He's a mage?"

"Happy, go after Lucy." Natsu said as he cracked his knuckles, earning a curious stare from the old man holding Kain's rope.

"Are you sure?"

"I can handle these bozos!" Natsu said proudly before Happy ran off.

"Yan, did you hear this guy?" The bigger but younger bro asked in shock.

"I did, Ying. Looks like we have to teach this one a lesson." He then pushed a hand back. "Please Master Zash, allow us to take care of this one!"

However, the old man in question seemed to pause as he eyed Natsu up and down. "Hmm… young man, you are from Fairy Tail, right?" The old man asked, surprising Natsu.

"Yeah? What about it?"

At the confirmation, Zash gave a small laugh before smiling towards him. "How is Markarov these days?"

That surprised everyone in the room. This guy knew their guild master?

"You know, gramps!?" The pink haired man cried out in shock.

The old swordsman flushed as he scratched his nose. "Ahh, well…. I remember him. He defeated me in several occasions, all very humiliating, but humbling. I doubt he even recalls me. But if you do see him again, could you give him my thanks? I learned a lot from those after my younger days."

Natsu seemed to stare hard at the old man until he nodded. "Hmm, alright. You seem way nicer than these two."

"Sir! Please! He's just a mage!" Yan declared.

At the sound of that, Zash put a hand on his head as he sighed. "You two are skilled, but you're both making the same mistake I did where I believed myself to be the strongest," He paused for a second before giving a small smile. "You two alone must fight this mage. Under no circumstances are you to underestimate him. Am I clear?"

"Huh? We can handle this guy no problem, Master!" Ying cracked his fists in response to his master's challenge.

"I dunno," Natsu gave a cocky smile. "It sounds like to me that you should have listened to him." As fire started coming through his fists he shot up and tried to punch one of them. However, Yan blocked Natsu's punch and negated his fire as soon as his fist connected with.

"We do especially well against a fire mage!" Yan admitted before Ying circled quickly around Natsu and kicked him out back into the main lobby. This made both Vanish brothers run after their opponent.

"… I know that I'm powerless, but it kind of sucks being completely forgotten." Kain admitted out loud as outside the fight between the three started to intensify.

"You seem to be quite calm given the situation." Master Zash admitted as the sounds of moaning and grunting could be heard outside. It would have been considered awkward to listen to if not for the other sounds of kicks and punches accompanying them along with small explosions and fire blasts.

"Well," Kain stopped for a second so Natsu could scream his next fire attack. "To be honest, compared to all of my friends, I seem to be a safer position with you."

Zash waited for the loud explosion to die down before talking. "Oh? And what makes you say that? Are you aware that I've killed more people than you met in your life so far?" The old man's voice suddenly got dark as he slowly reached his hand towards his blade.

Kain nervously blinked, but then a second passed of nothingness—or rather a second passed with all three fighters below screaming their lungs out at each other throwing fists, kick, and fire blasts.

Afterward, Kain then looked surprised. "Actually. I would be afraid, but… you just seem nice. You treated Natsu in a kind tone and you admitted respect for someone who beat you easily. I think you've got high standards for morals."

Zash lowered his hand at the thought and just shrugged. "Damn my old age, I do have standards now."

"Prepare to die with our Ultimate Technique!" The Vanish brothers' voices were heard even back at the second floor.

At the sound of that, Zash rolled his eyes. "Oh those two. They've got potential, but their heads are too far up their own asses." He stopped speaking when the mansion shook hard. "Haha… kind of like me when I was their age. Dear me, I must be going senile in my old age if I'm reminiscing with an enemy."

Seeing the old man relax, Kain was prompted to continue his conversation despite still being tied up. "I still think you look great for someone your age. Even though you're wearing a suit, I can still see toned muscles. And I'm not a warrior."

Zash gave a small smile. "Huh, so that's what a real compliment sounds like. I like it when it sounds sincere."

After a very loud explosion, and the ground shaking somewhat, a voice cried out in disbelief. "Impossible, no one has ever survived our signature attack!"

The old man put a hand on his head after hearing his younger members. "I warned them not to underestimate their opponent." The elder sword master let go of the rope, freeing Kain. "I don't see a reason to shed unnecessary bloodshed, so you are free to go. You are a strange one, but I did enjoy my conversation with you."

The brown haired boy blinked, and noticed that both the rope and the old man had vanished in that one instant. He quickly ran out the door to see Natsu's recent fire breath absorbed by the frying pan one of the brothers was wielding.

Then he reflected it back at Natsu… who swallowed it whole. And then with that new power up, he quickly attacked again.

" **Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!** " The pink haired mage cried as a large torrent of fire slammed into the Vanish bro—

*SLASH!*

In one instant, all of Natsu's flames dispersed and Master Zash stood between him and his students.

And his sword was still sheathed!

"That is enough please. You've won this fight." The old swordsman stated as he stood back up after his swing.

"What, but master—"

Zash turned sharply to his students. "I warned you time and time again: never underestimate your opponents. Not only did you both reveal your trump cards too early, you lacked any judgment in realizing your opponent was not a conventional mage! The best ability mages have strong mental and physical strength, something you refused to acknowledge in your opponent. Had I not stepped in, you both would have lost. I am very disappointed in both of you."

The two brothers deflated after hearing those words.

However, Natsu seemed to smile and the flames around him started to emerge as he pounded his fists together excitedly.

"Huh! You're pretty strong, old geezer! I guess you fighting gramps wasn't just all talk. How about now you and I settle the—!"

Zash suddenly kicked a nearby stone up to the ceiling for everyone to watch. As the stone reached the height of its throw, a loud gasp was heard that sounded like a cry of pain.

Everyone looked down and was shocked to see Zash punching Natsu hard in the stomach.

Zash retracted his fist, making Natsu of all people keel over and start coughing. "Gods, you remind me of Markarov in his younger days as well. I'm sure one day you'll grow stronger."

The sword user looked up to Kain. "Please take care of your friend. We're no longer going to stop you from your objective. I have to retrain some of my students."

"M-Master, how did you do that?!" The oldest of the Vanish brothers asked.

"Come along you two, I have to scold you to your mother."

"W-Wha? Master please, you don't need to do that." The nervousness was definitely noticeable on their faces.

"I don't but I will." Zash gave a coy smile as he started walking ahead.

"W-Wait! Master!" Ying cried out before he and his brother shared a panicked look and ran after their old man, begging him not to tell their mother.

Seeing such a strange sight before him end, Kain quickly ran to the downed dragon slayer who was still coughing violently.

"Natsu! Are you alright!?"

Slowly, his coughing stopped to a halt. "Y-Yeah. He hit me right in the lungs… god that hurt like hell."

"The lungs? Come to think of it, that would be a good way to disrupt your magic, wouldn't it? Especially your flame breath one."

"Dang it! I want a rematch!" Natsu punched the ground, obviously unsatisfied.

Kain's expression turned deadpan. "Natsu, I am ninety percent sure he's the guild master of the Southern Wolves. And since he has battled our guild master several times, I think it's safe to say he's just below the level of Markarov, which basically means you don't really stand a chance against him right now." Honestly, why did it feel like he was the only one trying to be thoughtful about all of this?

"What!? I can totally take him and gramps! At the same time!" Natsu stood up quickly but then flinched in pain.

Kain gave his not-convinced look to the injured fire mage. "Well, I don't mean to tempt fate, but it was nice to finally see a stroke of good luck go our way. If the master was a bad guy, I think we would have been screwed."

It was then that both Natsu and Kain looked to see a large maid with pink hair, Virgo if they recalled, stand up and start to move.

"Hey, where do you think you're going!?" "Natsu, wait!" Natsu cried out while Kain called out after him.

Natsu climbed on to the very bulk woman's back and grabbed on to her top as she started to vanish. Kain, in panic, slid and held on to the ape like woman's leg as a portal opened up and sucked in all three.

Suddenly, they all saw stars in a vast cosmos like area and a large giant in fancy armor with really large nose-hair mustache drink from a tea cup with his pinky out.

Kain reacted accordingly to the situation, "What the f—"

And then all three left the starry dimension in a puff of smoke.

" **Hmmm,** " The Celestial Spirit King put down his drink and started stroking his magnificent mustache thoughtfully. " **That's something you don't see every day...** "

* * *

"—ck?" That made no sense what so ever. And just when I thought I could train myself to get used to how weird magic was in this world.

"Natsu!" That sounded like Lucy and Happy. I looked up, seeing both of them with shocked looks on their face along with Duke Everlue and Cancer.

"What the!? Kain!? You're there too!?" Lucy finally noticed me as she looked down. "How did you two get there!?"

I didn't really answer since I was still trying to process what I just saw. Natsu seemed to answer for us though.

"Well, we saw her getting up, so we jumped on her and then all of a sudden we ended up here." Why was he not saying anything about that odd thing we saw?

"Wait a second, so you both grabbed on to her in the house!? That means… you both must have passed through the spirit gate with her! That's impossible!"

"Spirit gate? Does it explain anything about a giant with star mustaches?" I managed to blurt out.

Natsu looked down. "Oh yeah, I forgot about him." Natsu, it had only been a less than 30 seconds ago.

"Giant with a mustache!?" Not only Lucy, but Everlue seemed surprised as they both shouted in shock. "You saw the Celestial Spirit King!?"

Celestial who now?

"Never mind that, Lucy, what do I do!?" Natsu cried out as I took time to get out of the way of the giant maid.

Realization hit Lucy as she told Natsu to finish the fight. The celestial maid went for Natsu, but he easily overpowered her. Lucy had used her whip to catch Everlue and launch him right into Cancer.

"Shrimp!" Cancer cried out as he snipped all the hair off the small, greedy man and turned towards his contracted partner. "Okay, I'm done. Does this look fabulous or what, shrimp?"

Natsu had also hit Virgo to the ground unconscious. "Oh yeah, way to go crab man! Huh? Shrimp?"

However, we had no time to celebrate our victory simply due to the fact the entire place started shaking.

"Okay, everyone out!" I screamed out as we all made a beeline for the exit.

As we got out, we all watched the mansion collapse into the ground with varying levels of emotion.

"This was pretty well done! We went out with a bang! You two are definitely going to fit in Fairy Tail."

"Natsu," I spoke up, watching the same thing as him but getting something different. "You do realize we destroyed approximately 10 billion property worth of jewels right?"

"10-10 billion!? He was that rich!?" Lucy cried out.

"Did you not see the fully plated gold bathrooms? Because he showed me at least thirteen before we got to the courtyard." They were… well who was I to judge personal tastes? "Though, with that in mind, we should probably head back to our client before the local enforcement comes."

That motion was carried in unanimous decision.

* * *

Soon we returned to our client, but to my utter surprise, it was revealed that the book was the client's father's work. Lucy had revealed that the secret of the book was actually a spell designed to rearrange the book to seem like a mess when in reality it was a great crafted story.

But still…

"I don't believe it," Lucy was still sulking even on our way back to Fairy Tail. "Who turns down 2 million Jewels?"

"If we had taken the money, it wouldn't have looked good. You gotta think about Fairy Tail's reputation."

"Aye."

Lucy still tried to argue to Natsu after he and Happy gave out their reasons. "But we made him happy right? We got the job done and we're walking home?" She emphasized bitterly. "And then to find out their not even wealthy… and they were just renting that house so everyone would think they were."

"Well," I spoke up. "Now that Kaby has that book, if he does publish it, he and his wife will more than likely get rich with how good you implied it was."

"See! We could have got a loan from them!" Lucy pointed over to me after I said that.

"Come on, Lucy, what's done is done." Natsu spoke up.

"By the way… the house… how'd you know it wasn't really theirs?" Lucy turned to Natsu curiously.

"Hmm? Oh that was easy cause they smelled like another house. Seemed pretty obvious."

"Aye."

"I figured it out the second time we entered because I noticed that there were no servants for such a big place and their courtyard wasn't as kept as Everlue's. If they were really rich, they would have kept up appearances." I added in.

"Of course you two animals and one weirdo would think that."

Well that's not very nice. "Hey, I think Happy is pretty normal as they come." I spoke up.

"Yeah!" The cat repeated.

"You're the weird one!" Lucy snapped at me before I smiled back at her.

I did my best impression to look calm and smug before answering, "I know."

"Hahahaha! He totally got you!" Natsu laughed immaturely as he pointed to Lucy. Even though he wasn't all that sharp, he figured out that I was just messing with her.

"Ugh! Can we get something to eat now!?" Lucy screamed. Despite the fact that even though it was night, we could easily see her blushing face.

We agreed with her. After all, we had to do something for unofficially completing a mission.

But considering this as my first official quest in Fairy Tail… it was rather fun.

Still, I've gotta find a way back home. That's number one in my goals right about now.

Yet, number two also is a curious thing…

How did I end up here in the first place?

* * *

Omake # 2: Don't _wine_ about it.

"Ahh, welcome back!" Master Markarov greeted the returning four. "How was your first mission?" He directed to both Lucy and Kain.

"We caused approximately billions worth of property damage in the span of less than an hour." Kain unashamedly stated, causing the small old man to choke on water.

"W-WHAT!?"

"Don't worry sir. We later found out the owner had pulled over a hundred illegal activities to gain his money, so no one is going to bill us for this damage at all."

The guild master put a hand on his chest to somehow stop his beating heart. "D-Don't scare me like that."

"Oh yeah," Natsu removed his bag and started fishing for something. "I found this in my bag that was addressed to you."

"What is it?" Lucy asked.

Natsu took out a bottle of wine before handing it to Gramps. "When I got my bag back after we trashed the mansion, I noticed it was open, but something was put in rather than stolen. I smelled the Master of the Southeren Wolves' scent on it, and since he seemed nice, I saw what he put in there and decided to give it to you."

There was a note on the bottle's side that Kain quickly picked up and started reading out loud.

"Dear Markarov, you don't remember me, but I wanted to thank you. A long time ago we were enemies, but you defeated me so easily that I eventually became a better person. Please accept this token of appreciation. -Zash The Slasher."

"I remember him. A powerful swordsman… it's good to see he's changed his ways." The master mused before looking at the bottle. "Hmm? Wow this is some expensive wine." Without wasting a second, he started drinking some.

"Aaahhh! That's some really good stuff!" The third guild master gasped in pleasure.

However, the bottle was stolen from him by Cana Alberona as she also drank some of the bottle. "Damn that is some good stuff!"

"Cana!" Master said with disappointment in his voice as he saw one of his guild members drink it as well.

However, Lucy noticed something in the corner of her eye. "Huh? Did the letter change?"

Natsu and Kain looked down back on the letter, revealing that it did indeed change. "If you're reading this, Markarov has drank the wine. Consider this payback for those humiliating defeats, you old fart!"

Everyone froze for a second before slowly looking back at the guild master with varying degrees of worry.

"W-Wha?"

And suddenly, his stomach growled and the third master toppled over.

"W-Was it poison!?" Lucy gasped at the thought.

Natsu gripped his fist, anger all over his face. "Why that bastard! I trusted—"

It was then that a loud farting noise was heard.

Everyone quickly covered their nose from the repulsive smell that quickly covered the guild. "Oh god, master!? Did that come from you!?" One of the guild members cried out.

Markarov quickly grabbed the bottle with an extended hand. Unfortunately, he was still releasing gas as if he was a machine gun and each smelled worse and became louder than the last. "T-That bastard," his voice was surprisingly high pitched and in obvious constipation despite what his bottom was doing. "There are powerful magical laxatives in here!"

"Wait," Kain said with his nose pinched so hard, water could barely get in. "Didn't Cana drink this too?" His somewhat squeaky voice asked.

Everyone slowly turned towards the heavy drinker of Fairy Tail with a flushed face.

"I-I don't feel so…"

The laxatives lasted an entire day, causing misfortune to everyone in Fairy Tail.

Meanwhile…

"Master, you seem to be in a good mood despite our lost." Yan admitted as he, his brother followed their master back to their guild.

Zash's smile only grew into something mischievous. "That's the lovely thing about losing sometimes, Yan. It makes payback that much sweeter."

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Just because he's trying to be a better person, doesn't mean he isn't afraid to stop being a better person for two seconds and act like a petty teenage boy.**

 **Thank you all for the support this story has been getting. In just two chapters, I got 20 favorites and 31 follows in the span of two weeks! That's amazing! I am so grateful.**

 **What do you guys think so far? Anything I can do to make the story better?**

 **-I decided to make up names for the Vanish Brothers. I might be using them again over the story more than author did because of certain plot points.**

 **-I'm a little more excited for the Lullaby arc. It's where things start to diverge in a somewhat different direction.**

 **Thanks for reading, see ya soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

The Magic Council, formed by Albus D. Merlin was then created in X5, five years after the Great Magic Gathering, a cataclysmal and horrible war where due to the lack of regulations, caused the land of Fiore to be caught up in a five year civil war between various kingdoms and clans. Almost seven hundred years later, in X686, Mavis Vermillion, the first Fairy Tail Guild master, formed Fairy Tail.

Whoa X686? According to the calendars I've been studying, it's now X784. Fairy Tail is about to have its 100th anniversary soon. I wonder what we're going to do for it? Having a guild last that long must mean something good.

"Uuuuhhhh! Kain, please stop moving around so much, I'm getting dizzy and stressed just watching you!" I momentarily closed the history book with my pen inside it as I heard Happy whining on another nearby table. The poor cat was staring at me this whole time? I really was just walking around and studying more about the laws and history of Fiore.

"Actually, I'm glad to have another book worm in the guild." I followed the voice back to the table where Levy Mcgarden was speaking.

When I had first asked around for the library, Mirajane pointed me over to the blue haired mage in the first place. She was the one who not only directed me to the library, but helped me pick out which books I could use to study Magnolia and Fiore history. She was really nice.

"Though I have to ask," She caught my attention as she pointed towards one corner of the table I had littered with books, pens and papers. "What are those?"

It took me a second to realize after she pointed that she was not pointing to Natsu and Gray. She was pointing at the origami animals I had made which Natsu, Gray, and Lucy were all playing or observing with.

"Oh right, you weren't here when I started making these. Those are called Origami. When I was a kid, I always felt jittery when I was told to sit still, but a classmate name Wu taught me something called Origami where you could fold paper to look like animals. Whenever I sit down and start studying, I sometimes turn the notes I'm trying to memorize into animals to help me remember them better."

Levi seemed to absorb that knowledge as she looked back at the table with paper animals. "Huh I've never seen such a way to study before."

I responded, "To be fair Levy, do you want to go to other people and watch them study?"

She laughed at the thought. "Point taken."

I turned back when Natsu called me out and brought a rather elaborate origami up. "Hey, Kain, what's this one?"

"That one was hard to master: it's a Chinese Dragon."

Natsu seemed confused as he looked at the snake like creature. "This looks nothing like a dragon." It made sense for him to say that since he had lived with one most of his childhood.

"Well in my world, and in that country, dragons are depicted without wings and look more snake like. It's kind of like how some mystical creatures are found only in mountains and some in forests, they have different ecologies and different biology to adapt to their home."

Natsu looked at me with a blank stare. I knew immediately what to say. "Different place equals different looking people and dragons."

"Ooh!" Natsu put his hands together as he got that.

Levy gave another small laugh. "You've been here less than a week, and you already know how to handle our resident Dragon Slayer?"

"I'm the kind of guy who rolls with the punches, so I do try to adapt quickly."

Lucy caught my attention as she pointed to an elephant origami. "How did you do this? I didn't know you could make a piece of paper look like an elephant."

"I can teach you later about that one." I told her simply. It wouldn't be too hard, and maybe I could teach Levy if she wanted to.

Then it was Gray's turn as he held up a sea turtle. "I don't recognize this one." It took me a second to explain what it was.

"Ha! You didn't know it was a sea turtle!" To be fair, I didn't put a lot of effort into that one, so Gray wasn't all at fault in that one.

"What was that, pinky!?" Of course the two wasted no time butting heads both metaphorically and literally as they both stood up and slammed glares at each other.

Wait a second.

"HEY!" I yelled, stopping both of them as I pointed down. Their combined energy was affecting the poor paper animals by lighting them on fire or freezing them over. "I worked all night on those! Will you two cut it out!?"

However, rather than stop, the two only seemed to intensify in their fight.

"Look what you did, lizard!"

"What I did!?"

I slammed my hand on the table to catch both of their attention. I can manage those two fighting since it's their thing, but I will not tolerate them destroying _my_ work for something so small. "Stop it. Now."

The two looked nervous but begrudgingly looked away from each other.

I heard a small gasp as I turned over to Mirajane. "I've never seen anyone but Erza stop the two of them from fighting."

"Erza? Erza Scarlet?" I heard Lucy repeat before claiming that she heard of her, but never saw any pictures of her.

I've seen her name a few times in the cases I went over. She's an S-Class mage isn't she?

"She's the strongest female mage in Fairy Tail," Mirajane seemed to correct me as if she knew what I was thinking. However, I noticed that she was the only one smiling while everyone else except her and Lucy seemed to have the life drained out of them by just hearing her name.

Yet I later remembered an old saying: speak of the devil and he will appear.

The reason why I recalled this was because a few seconds later, one of the guild members came through the door with a loud bang and gasping for breath, Loke if I recall?

"She's back! Erza's back!"

If everyone was drained by just mentioning her name, the knowledge of her being here suddenly put everyone into frozen panic.

Curiously, I then heard loud footsteps in the distance as a large figure was obscured by the sunlight. As the figure walked in, I noticed a beautiful woman with red hair carrying a large horn or tooth of some kind that was decorated with jewels.

This woman was Erza Scarlet? After silently agreeing with Lucy's comment about her being pretty, she placed the object on the ground revealing that it was indeed heavy.

"I have returned. Where is Master Makarov?" The scarlet haired wizard asked.

Mirajane was the only one who stepped forward without any change to her character. "Welcome back, Erza. The master is at a conference at Clover Town right now."

"I see." A sand mage, Max, asked about the giant horn. "This is the horn of a monster I defeated. The locals were so thankful they decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir. Do you have a problem with it?" She asked that last question a little more defensively before everyone, not only Max, screamed out that they wouldn't have a problem at all.

"Now listen up!" It wasn't long before she got everyone's attention only to scold everyone for their misbehavior in recent events.

"Man, she's really tearing people a new one. It's like she's a disciplinarian." Lucy whispered over to me.

"That's Erza for ya!" Happy somehow heard Lucy's comment even though she spoke to me. Maybe it was because he was a cat.

Soon the red haired woman's gaze turned elsewhere. "Are Natsu and Gray here?"

"Aye!" Happy flew and pointed over to the—what the? Why are they hugging like that?

"Oh hey there, Erza! We're just hanging out like good friends do!" The hell?

"Aye!" The double hell?

Why was Gray saying nice things about Natsu? And why was Natsu acting like Happy?

Lucy had the same idea as she repeated, "What's with Natsu?"

Even though she just asked that, I looked over to see Mirajane already finishing a cartoon picture of Natsu getting beat up by who I assumed was Erza. "Natsu challenged Erza when they were young and lost pretty badly to her."

While that did explain one question, it brought up another. "How did you draw that so quickly?"

I was ignored as Erza turned back to Gray and Natsu before asking them for help. Considering how everyone was murmuring, I'm assuming something big is going on if an S-Class mage is asking for help.

On the side, I heard Mirajane gasp and claim that this was potentially the forming of Fairy Tail's best team.

Erza soon left, explaining she was going to prepare. As she did, she brought the large horn with ease.

Eventually, everyone went back to how they were, Gray and Natsu leaving to do their thing with Happy following after Natsu.

When I was going to clean up my notes, Mirajane walked up to me and Lucy. "Lucy, Kain? Can I ask you two follow them?"

Lucy was just as surprised as me. Technically speaking neither of us were all that strong by ourselves. What could we do to contribute to them and not get in their way?

I could decline, since I know I might get in the way, but…

"Please come, Kain! I don't think I can handle them by myself!" Lucy begged after agreeing with Mirajane.

As much as I would have liked to say no, I did have a soft spot for people who asked me for help. I eventually agreed with her as she then had to worry what to prepare for tomorrow.

However, this now meant that I needed to somehow do anything to prevent a repeat of last mission where I was captured by our opponents. I only came out unscathed because our enemies were actually nice.

"What's wrong Kain? You look worried."

I answered my manager. "I need to go shopping. I need things that will make me less useless if—when a fight breaks out." With Natsu, a fight was bound to break out.

"How about you go to the Magnolia Shoppe Center? They have a large amount of magical items there than can help." Levy answered for me.

"Really?" A shop that sells magic? Weird, why didn't I think something like that could come up in this world? "Where is it? I still don't know Magnolia all that well."

"If you need help, it's only a man's job to get on it!"

My attention was caught by that new voice as I looked back to see Elfman in high spirits as he usually was. The tall and bulky man slammed a fist into his chest as he declared, "I'll help lead you like a real man!"

The screams were a bit much, but I really appreciated the sentiment. "Thanks, Elfman, but are you sure I'm not bothering you?"

"A real man never gets bothered by anything!" Okay, I take that back, that man thing is getting very old very quickly.

"Ah, Elfman, please buy groceries on your way there too? We're low." Mirajane said to her younger brother—yeah, I still don't see it—as a reminder.

"Groceries are manly!" I'm going to assume that Mirajane was going to take that as a yes.

"Alright, Elfman, give me fifteen minutes to put everything away."

"Sure thing!" Oh thank goodness, he didn't say man. "Patience is a man's virtue!" Dammit.

I am so tuning him out whenever he says man now.

After a little travel, Elfman brought me to the Magnolia Plaza Mall. It was much grander than I had anticipated; almost looking like any major mall back on earth besides the fact that it didn't have any parking lots. As I entered, I was greeted by sales people selling magical objects of all shapes in sizes. Some where lacrima objects that worked like television; clowns were using magic to change their face colors and look more cartoonish; and there was one corner where there was a giant line of little girls waiting to ride a unicorn.

I felt a large hand on my shoulder, making me look up at Elfman. "First time huh? It surprised me when I first came here a long time ago."

"I've never thought it would be possible to buy magic in my wildest dreams." I admitted to him as I watched a large amount of paper air planes pass us by and turn into animals running on the ground.

This started to feel more and more like something out of Harry Potter.

"Do they," the words I was speaking made me recall why I was here in the first place. "have a place that can sell magical gear that comes with magic already?"

Elfman was eager to point me to the right direction, a place that sold magic shoes. These shoes made someone jump three times higher and run four times faster while feeling light as a feather. After working for a while as a waiter and a lawyer for Fairy Tail, I had been given a kind bonus by Makarov for my hard work in making money less of an issue for him. So, paying around seventy percent of my savings, I bought the best shoes they had available which allowed me to run at sixty miles per hour for ten minutes straight and that could recharge over time by itself. These would be more than helpful if I got into another sticky situation.

However, other than those magical shoes, I couldn't find much else that could help. Things I saw in other stores were either too expensive or not good enough to catch my attention.

The shoes were great, but they clearly weren't enough for this mission.

Just when I thought about going back to see if I missed anything, I was distracted by a loud sound catching my attention and I turned to look over towards it.

I couldn't contain myself as a wide and surprised smile spread across my face. "No way! That's here too!?"

Elfman probably followed my gaze as he also spoke up. "Huh? You know that place? But it's mostly for just kids though."

Despite his obvious hesitance, I blazed right to the store in question. The bright colors, the sound of things whizzing past my head, and the overall chaos… it was just as I saw it so long ago as a kid.

What could only make this would be the people if they were—

"Now don't you think this one is a bit old, George?" I froze. Even through all the noise, all the screaming of both parents and children running around, all through the chaotic magic around us, I heard that voice.

"I don't know, Fred, if he's old that makes our mum ancient." The other voice sounded similar but at the same time different. It only confirmed my suspicion and made me as giddy as that one kid I saw faint just a second ago from smelling something at the do-not-smell sign.

"Oi, let's not talk about our dear old dinosaur like that! Bless her scales!"

It was then I noticed the shelves were where the voices were coming from. The voices didn't come from behind the shelves, from the shelves themselves! Soon said shelves started to transform into two familiar red heads.

They threw their hands out and welcomed me to a place, I've only seen once in movies.

"Welcome to Weasely's Wizard Wheezers! Where we manage mischief."

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! It's them! Maybe a version of them, but none the less it's my favorite movie twins, Fred and George Weasely!

I loved Harry Potter! Their movies are one of the major reasons I got into magic tricks in the first place! These two in particular where my favorite characters!

In front of some of my childhood heroes, I could only manage a single word. "Wow."

"Funny, we usually have that affect on toddlers. Geroge, you didn't accidentally give one of these tykes an aging potion did you?"

In response to his identical brother, the other one replied without missing a beat. "I seem to recall you giving them to these little buggers so they could get into the 18 and above stores."

"I was proud of them for coming up with that."

"Aye, it put a tear in me eye."

I was distracted when I heard Elfman behind me. In the narrow corridors of the store, Elfman seemed stuck because some animated book shelves were bullying him. Well that was something you don't see everyday even with magic.

One of the twins—I could never differentiate between them—circled an arm around me as he pointed to Elfman. "Ah, we see the problem: you're looking for a body swap potion to get this balooka's body for yourself eh? Not a bad plan if you think girls are into to muscle brains."

"You might want to shave his hair though. He looks like our Aunt Dende that one."

Elfman was more than a little defensive at hearing that as he pushed the animated book shelves to yell, "You are not shaving my hair!"

I said I wasn't going to, but I did get out of who I was assuming Fred's arm and turned to the two twins.

"I'm here to buy some specific gear." I swear my smile could unnerve even the Grinch at that moment. "What do you have here that costs the least but can cause the most amount of mayhem to a large amount of people in very little amount of time?"

Ever since I entered into the store, the twins were finally silenced. They looked at me, seemingly trying to process what they just heard until they both gave a smile that slowly formed as if they were one in two bodies.

They then spoke some of my favorite words,

" _We solemnly swear we're up to no good._ "

* * *

A day had passed and I had just arrived a little late to the Magnolia Train Staion. I was carrying a bag pack and wearing my new running shoes when I spotted Lucy sitting down on a bench watching Natsu and Gray fight while holding Plue in her arms.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. I just wanted to be prepared in case things went south." I decided not to mention the chance of that happening might have been one hundred percent.

I was only greeted by Lucy. "Kain, stop them!" Okay, that wasn't a greeting, but I suppose I could pretend it as one.

"You shouldn't be pushing the responsibilities to Kain, Lucy." Happy noted.

I just chose to look at the blonde and respond accordingly. "Lucy, I only stopped Gray and Natsu the first time because I didn't want them destroying my stuff. I doubt I can tell them both to stop now."

A few seconds later, we heard Erza's voice coming behind us. "I'm sorry I'm late. Did I take too long?"

"No, of course not." Lucy seemed to answer Erza and not me, but then I noticed she looked surprised. I finally turned after spotting Natsu and Gray act buddy-buddy to see Erza carrying a large amount of gear with her. I mean large as in, there is enough to fit a small storage room.

After Erza commented towards Gray and Natsu, she turned over towards us and asked who we were since she hadn't met us yet.

After saying our names and introducing ourselves, Erza seemed to recognize us. "I believe I've heard rumors of both of you fending off the wanted magi assassin, Fero, The Hangman. It's an honor to have both of you aboard."

Fend off? We were almost killed by that guy if it wasn't for stupid luck. I opened my mouth to say that there was some kind of mistake. However, Lucy quickly closed my mouth.

"Oh no, it's a pleasure to meet you!" I gave Lucy a look. Why not admit how screwed we might be if she asks something impossible off us?

"Erza!" Natsu walked up to her, no longer pretending to be Happy 2.0. "I want a condition for coming along this trip!"

After ignoring Gray's warning, he pointed to her.

"I want a rematch when we get to Fairy Tail!" It was pretty ballsy of Natsu to declare that.

Erza accepted the challenge after admitting Natsu's growth. This prompted the dragon slayer to get fired up—until we got in the train. Motion sickness really was the weakness of this poor thing.

Erza offered up a way to help him. Though I wouldn't use the word help to describe her punching him so hard, he gets knocked out.

Thanks to Gray's insistence, Erza explained her circumstances for this call in that she had accidentally stumbled upon a dark guild and did not recognize them until later. She overheard their plans about a forbidden magic called Lullaby. She assumed that a dark guild consisting of criminal mages would no doubt use forbidden magic for their own nefarious magic.

It's one of the reasons why she asked for Natsu and Gray's help: in order to fend them all off.

Which basically meant Lucy and I were fodder or potential meat shields… I mean I've heard of caught between a rock and hard place, but in this case the rock was a guild of evil mages and the hard place was my own friends who could pretty much level a town if they wanted to.

Can someone say overkill?

Eventually, we did reach our stop. However, while we made our way out, I noticed that I had forgotten to pick up Natsu's bag when I dragged him out of the train.

"I forgot Natsu's bag in the train!" I quickly handed Lucy the incapacitated dragon slayer for her to carry. "I'll go and get his stuff."

"The train is going to leave soon."

I nodded in appreciation to Gray's warning before I ran back to the train. "I'll try to be quick. If I'm not going to make it, I'll buy a ticket back!"

Unfortunately for me, after getting into the train, the doors closed behind me and started to move. I sighed and started to walk back to our cart which should have been three carts up ahead.

As I went through the second one, I heard a rather loud voice speak out. "Why is this thing so damn slow!?"

There were only seven people in this tram, and it was easy to tell even without magic that the air around those seven people didn't feel good. One of them was like some kind of chicken man, one looked like a gray gremlin, one was holding a crystal ball of some kind, two were a pair of twins, and the last one looked awfully like Shikamaru from Naruto.

The one holding a crystal ball spoke out. "Beware what lurks within. The option you loathe shall be your salvation."

Okay. That sounded ominous as hell. I should just walk passed them and…

*SLAM!*

… Why was the door locked?

"Hey you!" I turned back with all the speed of a turtle with weights. The Shikamaru Lookalike was heading his way towards me. "You're from Fairy Tail, aren't you?"

I glanced to the back of my left hand. I had recently just got this purple stamp after the Daybreak quest. I never knew something so small would bite me in the butt right now.

"Well yes?" I nervously answered, but why did they want to know about that?

"Ha! You official guild members make me sick!" Official? Why did he say official guilds? What are they unofficial like dark gu… aawwww shiiiiittttt.

I head a sound coming from behind me that sounded a lot like a magical hum. Before I could even turn, I suddenly found myself kissing the floor a second time.

Excuse me, Ms. Floor, We've got to stop meeting like this.

Jokes aside, I fought through the pain to look back up. But I only saw the sole of a boot stomping on my face.

"Ha! Remember this: just because you're in an official guild doesn't mean you're hot stuff!" Either he was putting more pressure into my face than I thought, or he sounded like something straight out of a kid bully's mouth.

I tried to move to somehow lessen the pain. But as I glanced up, I saw something that really caught my interest: a glowing flute that had a skull on it which was given three eyes.

The one who was planting his boot into my face seemed to stop his smug smile as he noticed the look of confusion on his face. As he did, he looked down and saw the flute he was carrying.

I suddenly felt the pressure from the boot lift from my face. However, I later found a greater pain soon followed as I was kicked into the door that made my body scream out it was in pain to my brain.

"You saw it! You saw Lullaby!" Wait, Lullaby? Isn't that the forbidden magic—god I'm slow. These guys are Eisenwald members aren't they? And we were in the same train as them!?

"Now we can't let you live!" The raven haired man darkly said as the cart suddenly became darker and colder by what I assumed was his magic.

It wasn't just him; the others also got their fists ready filled with magic to incinerate me into dust. I could have sworn my life flashed before my eyes at that moment if the Shikamaru lookalike didn't say these next few words,

"Any last words, fly?"

It was then that even though it wasn't much, I did buy things in case for an emergency.

I quickly reached for my pocket behind my back. "Yeah. _I solemnly swear I'm up to no good_."

In that moment I threw something at them and closed my eyes instantly. I knew what would happen next: I made the mistake of not listening to the twins when they first used it as a demonstration.

Cracker Spheres.

They were miniature fireworks. Small in size, but not in sound and light, effectively making them flash bangs that last far less and have much less impact. Minus the one I just used, I had two left. But this was all I needed to distract them from their magic and allow me to bolt out of the cart.

Activating the running shoes I had, I blazed through two carts down before reaching for Natsu's bag on top of our previous seat. I then figured it wouldn't be long before those guys would catch up with me, but if a fight broke out here, others would be in danger.

I eyed the room, looking for anything until I spotted something this train still had: an emergency stop switch.

There was an explosion two carts down, meaning they were already trying to go after me. Wasting no time, I pulled the lever down hard.

I held on as the train came to an abrupt stop. But I heard voices coming from the cart in front of me. With haste, I ran ahead into the door and shouted, "Everyone get out! There's a dark guild in the train!"

Another explosion. One cart closer. Time was running short, but everyone was still in panic. I couldn't let them go through here. I went back into our cart and closed the door behind me. Thinking rapidly, I got ready to jump out of a window, but as I was about to get off the door blasted open.

Needless to say, I wasn't glad to see an angry shadow mage staring at me with likeness to the devil.

I slipped out and started to run. Thankfully, the shoes gave me decent speed even if they wouldn't last that long. However, it obviously wasn't enough as I saw several blats of magic whizzing past me.

"Get him! Kill him! We can't let him live for seeing it!" I was just going to assume that was the Shikamaru lookalike barking like a dog as I bolted towards the forest and farther away from the civilians.

Hopefully the forest would help cover me from—okay no it did nothing to slow them down with how frequently increasing the blasts coming at me were.

"Get back here!" Oddly enough the magical hum came from beneath me this time. I looked down, realizing there was a magical circle right below me. Cursing my breath, I stuck out a right hand and jumped, making me grab onto a tree and making a hard right turn to avoid the magical circle from entrapping me with sand.

At this rate, they all would reach me. Thankfully, I still had some other party tricks the Weasely twins gave me.

This one was going to be a godsend, so of course I dropped it to the ground.

"Nausea Marbles." These devilish small spheres create a magical field of imbalance. Anyone who steps or passes by or over them will automatically trip if they are caught in their range. And I just dropped an open bag full of them while my pursuers were after me.

There was an obvious smile on my face as I heard the sounds of panicking and screaming in the distance and growing more faint.

I wish that could have been just it, but it seemed like today was not my lucky day as I noticed a shadow chasing after me. I guess you can't trip while moving in a shadow. Though I don't know how that works exactly.

I quickly fished my pockets. The crackers or the marbles wouldn't help here, which left the last trinket I bought from the Weasely brothers as my last way to defend myself.

A few seconds later, I was tackled from behind.

It was the Shikamaru lookalike as shadows formed behind him while pinned me down to the ground. "You're going to pay for that kid. But don't worry, we'll make sure you won't be going alone… huh?" he paused as he seemed to take a closer look at me. "Are you eating something?"

"Wanna see?" I blow—revealing another item I had bought: Trouble Gone Bubble Gum.

The gum bubble quickly expanded as I blew air into it. It hit my would-be assailant before exploding with a pop. Suddenly all the pink go wrapped around his face and constricted it tight to the point it looked like a second layer of skin.

With the weight of him lifted off me, I pushed him down and stole something from him before running like hell again.

I ran and ran until the magic in my shoes became low putting me back to normal speed, but by then I had already done what I needed to do.

I gasped for breath as adrenaline died down, but I threw my hands in the air. "I did it! I did it! I survived my first encounter with evil mages! Take that Universe! Who's the man? Kain's the man! You can't handle all this Kain!"

I may have been tooting my own horn a bit. In my defense, I was proud and didn't realize that I had just tempted the universe in my hubris.

"Kain!" "Kain!" The sound of several voices screaming to me caught my attention. At first I thought it was Eisenwald, but then I remembered none of them knew my name.

I turned to see Erza driving some kind of horseless carriage to a sudden stop. Soon everyone I was with, except Natsu, got out of the carriage with worry as they ran up to me while I removed Natsu's bag off my shoulders.

"Guys! H-How did you get here? I thought you'd all be on your way towards the hotel by now."

Erza stepped forward, clenching her fists. "Please forgive me, Kain! While we were on our way out of the station, we had found out that the emergency brakes were pulled in the train! Suddenly, we overheard one of the attendants claimed that a Fairy Tail guild member had called out an evacuation because of an appearance of dark guild wizards!"

"We put two and two together," Gray picked up from where Erza left off. "You were the only left in that train who had our emblem, but that also meant that you had meet with Eisenwald already."

Lucy worryingly put a hand on my shoulder. "We all knew you didn't have any magic whatsoever, so we feared the worse. Natsu was one of the first to try to get you back, but well he…" I followed Lucy trailing off and looking back into the car with Natsu slumped out of the vehicle. The poor guy looks like he had it worse than me.

"I am so sorry for not seeing this from happening! Please, feel free to punch me for my mistake!" Erza, I really appreciate that, but let's be honest: I'd be hurting myself more than you if I touched or attempted to punch you.

But that's not really the point here. "No, no! It's fine! In fact, it's better than fine!" I declared proudly. "Guess what? Those guys I ran away from? They were the ones who had Lullaby with them!"

Everyone's reactions were what I expected them to be. Erza especially seemed to tense at the thought. "Lullaby was that close to us!? Tell us where you last saw them so we may pursue them posthaste!"

I smiled while feeling proud of myself for this next part. "There's no need—"

"What do you mean there's no need!" Screamed the demon that instantly killed all joy I had in that one moment. "May I remind you the dangers that they can perform with forbidden magic at their fingertips!?" Erza's voice was calm, but the area around her along with her hair floating up, scared the crap out of me.

However, even with this traumatic scene in front of me, I still remained cool, calm, and collected.

"Waitnoplease! Don't hurt me! Don't hurt me! I can explain! Please don't let me die a loser!"

… as cool, calm, and collected as a scared little boy was anyway.

I didn't hesitate to reach for my jacket. "They were carrying Lullaby, but during my escape," I took the scary flute out and revealed it to everyone, making them all—but Natsu— gasp. "I was able to steal it from them before I lost them! Ladies, Gentlemen, and Happy, I give to you… Lullaby in all its spooky, dark magic goodness! Now with glowing ominous eyes! And it's yours for free if you call this number! "

I grabbed the thing just a second before I pushed the shadow mage off me. I wasn't going to return empty handed if I knew I could end it all that easily here and now.

"You stole Lullaby from them!?" I've heard of knocking the socks off people, but I wasn't expecting to knock almost all the clothes off Gray with that revelation. Though to be fair, I'm just going to assume he stripped at that time.

Lucy seemed especially happy. "Great job, Kain! Now we don't have to fight an entire guild for it!" Oh yeah, we didn't did we?

Happy also seemed to be in high spirits. "Aye! I'm sorry, Kain, I thought for sure you were going to die."

"To be fair, Happy, so did I on several occasions." Not even Happy's comment could bring me down.

"This is stupendous." Erza nodded at me with respect and admiration which really felt great. "With Lullaby in our hands all we have to worry about is Eisenwald. But half the danger is already gone. Excellent work, Kain!"

I instinctively put my free hand behind my head and closed my eyes with a smile. "A-Aww come on guys, you're making me blush."

"For someone without magic, you did well." Gray admitted. "The praise is worth it for now."

"That is true, but let us not get complacent. Our next step is to find Eisenwald before they go back into hiding. Kain, please hand the Lullaby to me."

"Sure thing!" I was all too eager to get rid of this freaky, glowing thing. Wait huh?

Erza pulled.

…

But the flute was still in my hand.

She pulled again.

It was still in my hand.

"Kain, let go." Her voice sounded with confusion and a bit of rising anger that I did not want to see again.

"I-I'm trying! My fingers aren't listening to me!" No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my left hand to release Lullaby!

"What?" Gray and the others gasped.

Now Erza was pulling with enough force to tear my arm but she was still pulling even through my pained cries.

"Oh no! Had Lullaby cursed Kain!?" Lucy gasped in shock.

Erza stopped pulling and summoned a sword out of thin air. "Then there is no choice! Apologizes, Kain, but I must cut your arm off before the curse spreads!"

"CAN WE CALM DOWN FOR A SECOND!?" I may or may not have shrieked in pure horror at that point.

Erza stepped closer while I jumped back away. "We must cut off your hand!"

"But I need it!" I desperately cried as I tried to pry the cursed flute off with my other hand… only to later find out that **both** of my hands were now stuck to it.

"It's getting worse! I must cut both arms off!"

Needless to say the thought of losing both of my arms was not only horrifying, but making me start to tear up in fear. "I'll die if you do!"

"We'll have Natsu cauterize your wounds!" I even saw Gray, Lucy, and Happy flinch at how hardcore that sounded.

"That in **no way** makes me feel better!" Cut and burned!? God dammit all!

"I shall apologize later!" Erza screamed as she ran up to me, making me scream in horror which may or may not have sounded like a little girl.

Suddenly, the flute started glowing in a blinding purple light, distracting Erza and saving my life…. I think.

"(Stop.)" A dark voice came from the glowing flute. "(I will not have it end like this.)"

"T-The flute talked!" Happy cried out in fear despite the fact he should be more focused that I'm in a hostage situation by a flute—how the hell are my adventures topping each other in how weird their getting?

"Could this be the magic of Zeref, the Black Sorcerer?" Erza then tensed as she pointed the sword at the flute… which meant she was pointing that really sharp blade at me. "I demand you release our comrade this instant!"

"(I refuse.)" Suddenly, large arms burst out of the flute. "(Attempt to follow me, and I shall end this pathetic, small, weak, skinny, maggot-like, unassuming, not at all charming—)"

"Why are you listing all those insults at me?" I can't believe I'm being insulted by a demon flute. That's a new low for the week.

"(Attempt to follow me, and he dies.)" He slammed the hands dooooOOOOWWWWNN!?

What the heck!? Did he just jump with large wooden hands!?

OW! OW! Why was he jumping like some super frog!? I can't handle this!

I knew I shouldn't have—ow—tempted the universe.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **No seriously, if you guys look back at the episode where Erza first appears, Mirajane somehow draws a picture of Natsu getting beaten by Erza in almost a second after Lucy asks why Natsu is acting like that.**

 **Like, how did she do that? Is it like putting all her magical power in her hand to draw something cute so fast?**

 **But I'm actually excited for my take on the Eisenwald Arc. It's where things really start to get fun and things start to diverge!  
**

 **I also noticed a lot of OC stories don't really do much around this arc, which is a shame because there is a lot of cool potential in here that I can't wait to show you guys.**

 **Just a little note: I've change Lullaby by adding some things to it. Who knew adding just a few things could change the story so dramatically?**

 **Thanks for everyone for supporting this story. It's honestly amazing how much support this is getting by the like and favorites.**


	5. Chapter 5

"We have to save Kain!" Natsu cried out heroically.

As heroically as someone brought to crippling nausea could muster mind you, but it was something still worth praising would one could argue.

The celestial mage, Lucy Heartifilia, looked outside the fast moving cart with worry. "I hope Kain is alright."

Fairy Tail's strongest team was in hot pursuit of their kidnapped member, the non-magical Kain Reynolds, who was abducted by none other than the ancient and dark magical flute Lullaby, created by Zeref himself.

"How was Lullaby even able to hold him hostage like that? Was it because Kain had no magic?" Gray spoke out loud while he was doing his best impersonation of The Thinker, but with boxers instead of being fully naked.

"Gray, your clothes!" Lucy shrieked as the ice mage panicked to see his clothes off him again.

Suddenly, the car moved faster. Everyone in the carriage looked to Erza who was clearly more than ticked off at this point. "I should have seen it earlier! Kain has no magical affinity whatsoever, so of course if he was to hold something with so much dark magic, he would have no resistance if it tried something when he touched it! I should have had more insight to warn him!" Her anger was more placed to herself for endangering the most vulnerable of their group.

"Don't push yourself too hard Erza," Gray was somewhat nervous when he said this and as he put his jacket back on. "We still need you for the fight. What I wanna know is where the flute was heading when it took Kain?"

At the mention of that, Lucy's eyes widened. "Wait. When he left, I saw Lullaby following the direction of the train tracks."

"Wait that's the direction of Eisenwald; is the flute heading back there!?" Erza heard Gray say this and somehow applied more pressure into the cart to make them move faster.

Struggling to stabilize herself, Lucy added more to that thought. "But why would Lullaby go back to Eisenwald!?"

* * *

Has there ever been a time where you worked so hard to avoid someone, but no matter how hard you try you still end up meeting the people you didn't want to meet? What did Oedipus Rex and Kung Fu Panda always warn? One often meets their destiny in the path they wish to avoid it, right? I really should pay more attention to fictional works, they might have actually had some clever warnings I didn't pay attention to.

My current situation was something a lot like that, only it was real in a fictional world.

Lullaby made us land with a boom at what I assumed was Kusanagi Station if I recalled the map of the train before we got on. However, instead of meeting a large group of people who would be surprised at my appearance, I saw Eisenwald mages staring right at me and with some goth I assumed was their ace, Erigor.

Why is he wearing eye liner?

"Lullaby…" Oh wow, over doing it much? "How do you have it, fly?"

Okay mind, this guy is obviously really close to killing me. I have to say something clever enough to make sure he doesn't do that. Don't fail me now years of studying and late night work!

"I got it as present?"

The hell, brain? At least the jumping off the boat plan worked.

My eyes widened as I saw Erigor raise his scythe upward.

I can't believe out of all the ways I could have possibly died, being killed by an emo edgelord was going to be the one that did me in.

However, as he put pressure into his swing, I noticed Lullaby glowing and suddenly repel the scythe back.

"(Yield, mage. You shall not harm my host.)" Out of everything, Lullaby was the one who spoke up for me. Why was this the case? I have no idea.

"Lullaby," Erigor stared at the flute. What? So am I just not that important compared to a demonic flute that can kill people? … I probably am in all honesty… that does not help my ego. "So the rumors of you having a dark spirit within are true."

"(This host has interested me.)" That caught my attention. Why did it say that? "(I will ally myself with you in your quest, but make no move against this host, or else I will not hesitate to activate my song then and there.)"

As if to further emphasize this point, he then started making his eyes glow, making the Eisenwald mages except Erigor back away slowly.

The leader of said dark guild looked back to the train. "Where is Kageyama?" Something told me that was the name of the guy who looked a lot like Shikamaru.

On one hand, I was glad that people were no longer paying attention to me, on the other I saw what happened to the others when Erigor was done with them. Needless to say it wasn't pretty. He beat them all up pretty bad for failing to catch me, and that was the best understatement I could say for it.

They were put on duty of watching over me and making sure I didn't escape this time.

Needless to say, it was really awkward sitting right in front of the guy who tried to kill me a while back and is now forced not to harm me. If you looked into a dictionary and saw the word 'unrelenting', you'd find a picture of Kage looking right at me.

As the train started to move to the next station, Kageyama stood up to tower over me. "Listen here!" However, whatever attempt he had to intimidate me was foiled due to the fact he flinched in pain from the beating Erigor gave him not to long ago for almost losing Lullaby in the first place.

One of the others with us, the guy who told my fortune, tried to calm the shadow mage down. "Hey, Kageyama, chill man."

"Like hell I will!" He raised his fist and quickly punched me off my seat. It stung like hell, but it was nothing compared to what happened next. "This is your fault, you stupid fairy! You just had to butt into our business! Until we get to our destination, I'm going to make you live in hell!"

His idea of that was kicking me while I was down like some soccer ball.

In his defense, it really, really hurt. Being a law and magic nerd was obviously not helping my physique.

It also seemed like the flute wasn't choosing to do anything and seemingly let me suffer as long as I didn't die. I so hated this.

"Why!? Why are you doing this!?" I blurted in between the kicks.

"WHY!?" He stopped kicking, which only meant something worse was going to happen. Pulling me by my neck was a bit much though. "You don't know what it's like to be treated like a known criminal when it was the council that took away everything from us!"

Wait, that's not how I heard it from Master Makarov. "What the hell are you talking about!? You knew that taking jobs of assassination were illegal but you still kept doing them! You abused your rights, which is why they were taken from you; don't say that they were stolen from you! Is that all you do, blame others for your own incompetence!?"

That last sentence might have come from the fact that it was taking a lot for me to stay conscious or the fact I received a few blows to the head, but I didn't stop there.

"Let me remind you that I was trying to leave you alone but you were the idiot that locked me in and tried to beat me up for no reason! You were the one that got close to me so I could easily see the flute in the first place, and now you're blaming me for when it was obviously your fault to begin with!" I started to stand back up as his hold lessened.

"Well guess what, fancy-pants? Blaming other people for your own mistakes does absolutely nothing! You want something? Go and get it; don't just sit on your ass blaming everything that happened when you could be out there, doing something to make it better! Did you even try to explain to the council why you should keep your rights? Did you go to them and demand that your rights not be removed!?"

"Shut up!"

"No, you listen! It sounds to me you're not even trying to explain yourself!" I looked around to all of them. "Now tell me: why did you all become mages!? Was it just for the money? For fame, glory? Why kill if you know it brings only money, when other legal jobs can give a large amount just as easily!? Why did you all become a mage!? Just to use your powers to bully people!? What did you want!?" I shouted out and gasped for breath after my rant, seeing everyone oddly silent.

A strange thought occurred to me as I spoke much quieter. "Are those complaints really yours? Or are they what Erigor told you to feel?"

Their silence spoke more to me than any of their words so far.

But it was the sound of the door opening that broke the silence first.

"What is all this racket?" Speak of the devil and he will appear. Or in this case: speak of the wannabe goth and he will model walk into the train cart like it's a runway.

"(They were planning to betray you before forcing my host to play the song and have me kill everyone but them)"

I stared in horror at the flute as he stated one of the most remote lies in that moment in a calm manner.

"I-It's not true!" Kageyama and the other started to shiver as Erigor turned to them with eyes that screamed murder.

My eyes widened as he raised his scythe. He wasn't even going to let them defend themselves!? He believed the _demonic flute_ over his own team!?

No! No! No! They can't die!

With everything I had left, I stood up, jumped, and slammed Lullaby into the back Erigor's head with everything I had left.

I had less than half second to feel proud for what I did, but I was too slow to enjoy it due to the fact I was distracted by a blast of wind magic and got thrown through probably… my mind was spinning around here so… I guess one or four carts down? I was still in one piece even though my body was super numb but somehow still in pain.

On the bright side, it seemed that this confirmed that I was indeed more durable than I thought I was from before. Despite all the pain I felt, nothing seemed broken which was practically a miracle by my old home's standards. Downside? It was only enough to keep me alive, not prevent me from feeling almost everything sore. And the numbness made it hard for me to even move anything left.

Man, having no powers in a world full of them sucked all ass. No wonder everyone always writes giving original characters powers when they enter into their favorite worlds. They rather be kicking ass than getting their asses kicked.

… which was happening to me.

"(Interesting, I sense your mind moving quicker than ever before.)" Of all the darn senses I still have why did hearing have to still be fine? I'd rather have white noise than listen to this jerk. "(I see your mind is attempting to distract the pain by focusing on sarcasm. How… rudimentary… but considering your state that is rather efficient.)"

Oh so that's why I've been extra snarky lately. According to him I'm doing it to avoid focusing on all the pain and fear that's bubbling up behind me. I guess that is the lesser evil here.

But why was he sounding more intelligent? He didn't seem as talkative as before and why did he lie?

"(I've been trying to tap into your mind, but for some reason, I cannot fully control you. However, I have been feeding off your essence, a rather studious and overtly calm headed mind and character. My magic has automatically decided that these traits would help me so I adapted them into my own being.)" In other words, he became smart by leeching off me. Go figure.

But what was that about him not being able to fully control me?

"Brat," I managed to look up to see Erigor finally walking over to me. "You dare touch me?" Said the guy who blew me through like four carts after just getting tapped on his head.

"You," Ouch just saying one word seems to take a lot out of me. "You shouldn't… hurt… guild members…"

Erigor looked even more edgier—I mean angry.

"You dare question me!?" I would have said yeah if I had more energy… and if he wouldn't kick my ass again if I did say something like that…. and if Natsu and the others were in front of me… okay so there were a lot of reasons why I couldn't talk back to him, but I liked to think I could. "I would kill you if Lullaby himself said he needed you. But seeing the fact you are writhing in pain like the worm that you are will have to do."

He then moved closer to me.

"But that is not enough."

With him glaring threateningly at me, I found the opportunity to finally do what I needed to do.

"Question: just what mascara did you use? It really brings out your eyes."

My question was answered with him grabbing my head and slamming me into the floor.

"So," I coughed several times. "L'Oreal?"

I learned that people's boots taste different. I say this because first Kageyama planted his foot to my face and Erigor kicked his foot into mine and they both tasted weird. "Take this punk into our special gift. I hope he likes being chewed like a rag doll."

Everything hurt as I was dragged into somewhere dark, cold, and metallic and thrown into it.

"Oh god," I gasped as I tried to at least sit up right despite by body pretty much being a jerk and not listening to what I wanted it to do. "I'm bleeding, yeah. There's blood on me. Ooooowwwww."

"(Your attempts to calm yourself are bizarre.)"

"W-Why," I asked. "Why did you lie?"

"(It seemed like an opportune moment to test a theory. How easy is it to kill humans without using my song? The answer surprised even me.)"

Oh great, not only was he an ancient demon bent on killing people, now he was becoming smarter, more cunning just by being trapped in my arms.

"(But if we are asking questions, who are you?)"

"Wha?" I gasped.

The flute went on to explain that he still didn't have full control of me. I was probably knocking on death's door and all he could do was ensure that my fingers were stuck to him. I had a surprising magical resistance despite my nonexistent magical affinity.

I thought he was absorbing my essence or something, but he explained something was… filtering what he could and could not do. Example: sometimes he could hear my thoughts like a while ago, and sometimes he could not like now.

That interested but confused me to no end. I lacked any magic, so what was preventing an ancient demon from fully killing or harming me?

"(Hmm? We are not alone.)"

I looked up from the flute to peer into the darkness.

I wasn't expecting a large pair of amber eyes to stare right back at me. I quickly looked at the wall I was leaning on and then I noticed there were runes carved all over the place that I was too injured to notice right away along with the fact that it was really dark.

The large metal cage was actually bigger than a normal train cart now that I was paying more attention. And then the eyes went up as well, revealing that there was indeed something big and scary in here.

In my hands, Lullaby started glowing brightly, and created a purple light that surrounded the box.

My eyes widened as I saw what I was locked in with: a wyvern. It was a thirteen foot tall, crimson scaled red wyvern with chains around its foot and neck.

I knew it was a wyvern because they usually had two large wings and two legs while a dragon had four legs and two wings. This one, I could easily see people mistake it for a dragon. It looked vicious, angry…

And it was staring right at me.

I coughed a little more violently this time, spitting blood down on the ground. "G-Good wyvern?"

The creature took a step towards me, sniffing me while breathing his really, really burning hot breath.

Suddenly, the collar around his neck started to glow, making the Wyvern screech in pain. It really didn't help my recovering ears since I couldn't close them.

"(The chain around its neck is what is keeping it bound by the other mages.)"

Okay, screw pain, I got up and moved when the wyvern tried to bang his head against my fragile body.

"Can you get it to stop!?"

"(Why should I? In fact, this is opportune. It kills you and now I'll have a better body to posses.)"

Well shit.

I avoided another headbutt by jumping to another corner, but I almost got hit by its tail.

I had to think of something, but I was still feeling snarky to just complain and not really deal with this…

Wait a second. Maybe sarcasm and wit can get me out of this!

"Or," I said mischievously as I looked to Lullaby. "you _can't_ do anything."

"(Excuse you?)"

I avoided the dragonic cousin from biting me by sliding under him, but hurting myself more in the process. "Oh look at me, I'm Lullaby, I can't even control a bratty, wimpy kid! Eeiee! Face—Ak! F-Face the facts, three eyesSSSS! Y-You can't remove those chains. You can't even posses me!" I managed to somehow avoid the wyvern several more times in that sentence alone.

Gotta keep moving. Oh crap is he using his fire breath!?

"(You accuse me, the great Lullaby as weak!?)"

"Yeah, I bet their chain magic on this wyvern is too much for you!" I can't avoid his breath! Crap! Work!

"(I'll show you!")" With another flash of light, Lullaby stretched several tendrils at the chains of the wyvern and cracked them into pieces.

"(Do you not see the impudence of your pathetic calls, mortal!? I keep you around because you interest me, anything else, and I will not hesitate to kill you by ripping your heart out of your chest! Do I make myself clear?!)"

"… Crystal." I smile with all the smugness of an internet meme. "And adults always told me that I could never learn from cartoons. Thank you, Bugs Bunny."

There was a moment of silence until the flute opened up with a stronger voice. "(YOU TRICKED ME!)"

"For someone getting my essence, you sure don't know how to use it." I laughed before realizing one thing.

I only broke the collars.

The wyvern was still there.

I looked back up to the creature, who was kicking away pieces of the chains that surrounded it. Now that it wasn't trying to kill me, I noticed that it looked just as injured, with broken and cracked scales, as me. Well, it was obviously in much better condition than considering I had just lost all feelings in my legs again—oh here we go.

*Thud!*

"Oooooowwww…" Adding insult to injury, I heard the wyvern walking up to me. I tried to get back up, but instead, the wyvern just seemed to stop just before me, and gently nudge it's head on mine. It felt really hard and hot…

But it strangely felt nice and warm.

I… I was so tired. So I… closed my eyes and leaned into the wyvern.

I… I… I still want to see Natsu and the others.

* * *

Despite how urgently Team Fairy Tail—name still pending—was heading towards Oshibana Station, Happy seemed distracted by something as he tried to talk to Lucy about something important.

Unfortunately, he couldn't recall it and just kept calling Lucy weird when trying to actually recall it.

However, everyone turned their attention when they saw smoke up ahead.

At the station itself, there was a large group of people gathered around. And so the five—even if you counted how out of it Natsu was from the trip over—tried to get into the station.

This was also the part where Lucy found out more about Erza's character via the amount of knocked out guards by head butt related injuries when they didn't answer her instantly.

Through this, they found out Eisenwald was holed up in the station and a group of militants tried to go in and stop them. They later found out that said group were beaten like toys and stood no chance against a guild filled with mages.

Soon Team Natsu—name still pending—came face to face with the entire guild of Eisenwald.

Erigor was the first to speak to them while sitting above a train. "Welcome! Step into our parlor, fairy tail flies! We were getting bored just playing with this one."

Natsu, previously dizzy, suddenly snapped out of it when he smelled blood and looked up.

Fairy Tail was horrified to see Kain, bruised, beaten, bloody, but still holding on to Lullaby while Erigor dragged him out into the air.

"C-Can I just say you guys are the worst rescuers… ever?" Kain managed to weakly laugh as he saw his friends.

"For the love of god, why won't you shut up!?" Erigor was more than a little peeved to see nothing he did could stop the blasted one from talking. He did however punch him in the gut.

"Ahahaha!" Kain managed to gasp. "Your minions hit harder than you."

"I cannot wait to kill you."

Kain returned the glare Erigor was trying to give even though he was weakened and injured. "I'm not intimidated by bullies."

"Don't worry buddy," Natsu pounded his fists. "I'll make sure these guys pay for what they did to you."

"We don't take kindly to those who hurt one of our own." Erza's voice and glare could scare death into cowering fear.

"Same, you're all going down!" Gray also prepared himself as things were looking like a scene before bloodshed.

"Tch." Erigor flew up with Kain in tow. "Deal with these brats while I go make preparations."

The scythe using mage then flew out of the window, much to the charge in of Natsu as he bolted right after him.

"Gray, go after him!"

"What?"

"Go." Erza demanded, scaring Gray as he ran after Natsu.

Seeing two mages go after Erigor, two other mages also vanished to go after Gray and Natsu.

"You think you're all hot shit, don't ya!?" One Eisenwald mage declared as he got a strange device and pointed to a large metal container that was moving up and down violently. "Well feast your eyes on this bad boy!"

Ht then pressed button, opening the cage and revealing a very, very ticked off wyvern.

"A wyvern!?" Erza looked at the creature as it started glaring and growling angrily at everyone around it.

"Hahaha! This was a gift we bought and it comes with a controlling shackle that'll allow us to make it attack you!" He motioned to the box he was holding. "Listen to me you stupid wyvern and kill—"

That person didn't get to finish his sentence due to him suddenly catching a curious case of a wyvern foot stomping him down into the ground.

The large red wyvern gave an ear splitting screech before promptly attacking all Eisenwald mages around it, making them all panic and cry out in surprise.

"Wow, it's attacking them!" Happy threw his paw out at the obvious sight before them.

"Oh!" Lucy then took a closer look. "They said it had shackles, but I don't see any on it. I think I see fragments of chains in the box they opened."

Erza looked over to Lucy. "So they've lost control and now it's attack them for enslaving him? I suppose that is most fortuitous."

One of the Eisenwald mages was thrown nearby them, disbelief on his face. "H-How? As long as the chains were on him, he would listen to us…" his eyes widened, revealing all the red veins in his eyes. "Was it that fairy brat?! That does explain why he wasn't injured after we locked him in there…"

And then he fainted.

Overhearing this, Lucy smiled. "Did you hear that!? Kain released the wyvern that's now helping us!"

"He has earned much of my respect for doing so much even for someone in his state and condition. All the more reason we must try and rescue him from Lullaby and Erigor. Come on. We can deal with the wyvern later, Kain comes first—"

However, before she could leave, Erza jumped back, pulling Lucy and Happy before a large flame breath almost singed them into cinders.

They all looked back to the wyvern roaring angrily at them.

Lucy and Happy were obviously scared by the presence of the creature. "W-What's going on!? I thought Kain helped it!" Happy cried out as he hid behind Lucy.

Erza got into a fighting stance. "It must believe we're with Eisenwald! Lucy, move!" She shouted as she ran away to avoid the flames. Despite wearing armor, she moved swiftly, picking up a blade from her space and running towards the wyvern. The wyvern then suddenly increased his speed, surprising the scarlet haired mage as she was whipped into the wall by his tail.

Erza braced for impact but then landed back on her feet.

"What?" Happy looked scared. "I-I've never seen Erza nervous before in my life!"

Lucy quickly looked to see that Erza was indeed starting to sweat as the wyvern stalked closer. In truth, Erza could handle a wyvern… if she was at her full strength. However, she had spent a large majority of her magic getting here in the first place. The Eisenwald mages, she could handle. An opponent such as the Wyvern who seemed intelligent and skillful as he was strong and ferocious would prove to be a problem to even Tatiana at her current state.

"No choice. Re Equip!" In a flash of light, Erza had changed armor into a red and black armor with a fire themed sword before charging right for the wyvern.

In retaliation, the pseudo dragon spewed fire onto her, only for the armored mage to slash through the flames and kick the dragon's chin upward. The pseudo dragon staggered back but then stood firm as he tried to swat away Erza. Thankfully, Erza backed off before getting hit by the tail again.

The wyvern snarled and fired another large fire breath at the S-class mage. With another swing of her fire blade, she cut the flames in half—

"Huh—AAUUGHHH!?" No sooner than she did, this time, a talon was waiting for her as the wyvern swooped in and slammed her into the wall with his talon. Then he quickly wrapped his tail around her body and slammed her into the ground opposite from where she was before lifting her up and tossing her aside.

The red haired mage braced for impact, but this time she felt something a lot softer break her impact, like she was caught or something.

"Good job, Taurus!" As Erza opened her eyes, she noticed a giant cow mentioning something about nice body and slowly put her down.

Lucy looked over to her, getting her whip ready while also somewhat sweating a little. "Erza, let me help to!"

The S class mage gave a small smile. "I appreciate it." She slowly prepared her blade at the wyvern. "Be cautious, this wyvern is more skilled than he appears."

However, it was then that Erza noticed something. The wyvern was now panting hard. Was it actually weakened as well? Now that she was paying more attention, she noticed several cracked and cut scales, the dirt all over it, and how one of its wings kept twitching.

Was the wyvern also battered and injured? But it kept fighting even in its weakened state, why?

Suddenly, there was a loud humming sound heard across the station. Everyone panicked for a second at the thought of it being Lullaby, but instead the outside suddenly got covered by a large gale of wind.

The wyvern looked away from his opponents and roared with anger as it flew right for the wind wall.

"It's ignoring us?" Lucy asked before seeing the wyvern bash its head against the powerful winds.

Erza also watched it as it tried to break through, but then stepped back as the wind wall repelled the pseudo dragon back into the station.

"That must be Erigor's magic trapping us in. Where could he be going if he wasn't planning to use Lullaby here?" The red haired mage looked towards the injured dragon and turned back into her normal armor.

"Huh? Erza, where are you going?!" Lucy cried out as she saw Erza run up to the fallen wyvern.

The S-class mage didn't know what compelled her to walk up to the creature, but all of her instincts told her that there was something about this mighty creature that seemed… sentient. The way it fought even when it was tired, how quickly it adapted to when she went through his flames. How it seemed so angry… as if a friend was taken away from him.

"Stop!" The knight mage placed a hand towards the pseudo dragon before removing one of her shoulder pads. "Do you know this symbol?"

Her hunch was validated when she noticed the wyvern relax.

"You do know it, don't you? And you do understand me? Then please, listen to me when I say the friend that freed you was our friend as well! We need to work together in order to escape and save him, will you help us?"

Lucy tried to speak up. "Um Erza? I'm not sure that…" The blonde mage became silent as the wyvern nodded.

Erza smiled at the reaction and jumped off, allowing the wyvern to stand up, albeit weakly.

"You were quite a fierce opponent. Perhaps when we are both at full strength, we can have a proper match." The wyvern, in response to the red head's comment, just snorted weakly.

Lucy walked up somewhat hesitantly, eyeing the red dragonic beast carefully while speaking to Erza. "Now what?"

"We need to find a way out of here. No doubt that wind wall is Erigor's doing. I doubt I could break through if this wyvern here couldn't."

Erza looked around and then spotted a still conscious Eisenwald mage slowly getting back up. Unfortunately for him, this meant Erza would now pick up him by the collar and glare dangerously at him.

"This wall of wind, what is it and how do we break free of it!?"

The Eisenwald mage seemed to look afraid before noticing the Fairy Tail brand on Lucy's hand. His eyes widened as he looked to the swordswoman. "You… you're with that boy, aren't you?"

To be fair, the S-Class mage seemed to be taken by surprised by that question. She was half expecting this man to be difficult. "Yes, we are. And we will save him from you."

The man's eyes widened at the sound of that. It looked as if some part of him wanted to honestly help them but he seemed hesitant and fearful. He looked down to his right to see a cracked crystal ball before sighing. Now he looked more resolved as he looked back towards the woman holding his collar. "He saved us and six others from Erigor. Even though we treated him badly, he still saved us from our own guild mate. His actions and words changed us," after pausing for a while, the fortune teller continued. "That is Erigor's spell and it can't be broken through. However, look for Kageyama, he can probably de-spell it. He's the black haired man that went after your friends, and he also was one of the men your friend saved."

After hearing all of that, Tatiana nodded at the man. "You have my sincerest thanks."

"Traitor!" One Eisenwald mage in the distance coughed. Erza Scarlet glared at this man in particular in response to that.

"The only traitor I see is your guild who was so quick to get rid of your own members!" Erza then turned to Lucy and Happy. "Tie the rest of them up but leave the man who helped us in a different area. Keep him safe from the rest."

As she left to find Kageyama, the man who had shouted traitor slowly whispered to a wall. "Laracka, get out here!"

A magic circle appeared discreetly from the other's notice. Out of it, a man cautiously poked his head out. "I'm sorry, but I was scared."

"Go to Kage before they do, now!"

"Please don't make me! I'm no good at fights!"

"Calm down," the eyes of the mage looked desperate despite his calm voice. "It's a simple job, even you could do it."

* * *

I… I can't… stay up much longer. My eyes are getting really heavy and I'm so tired along with hurt like crazy.

Erigor is shouting some kind of profanity at me, but at this point he's just a broken record. Maybe I should have done the choice in not going with the main story.

…

Too late for that; I like these guys I've met even though it hasn't been long. They were fun as my friends back home.

Though I'm sad to say that it's looking more and more like I might not make it.

Dammit. I didn't even start finding a way back home. I'm really sorry dad.

I'm really, really sorry.

"…"

Huh? Oh right, the town. Even I can see it through my heavy eyes. Dang. I can't rest yet. I need to find a way out of this…

Ugh… so tired… so hard… I can't…

"We've got you now!"

Na…tsu? Either I'm dreaming, or is that Natsu and Happy coming at us like a missile— ow. What?

I…

I'm… sorry. I couldn't stay awake anymore…

…

…

…

"…in!"

Ugh.

"K…"

Oww…

"Kain!"

"W-What?" I opened my eyes slowly. As my focus slowly returned I saw Lucy, Gray, Erza, Happy, and Natsu all smiling at me. Either I died-wait no. I'm still in pain.

"Kain! You're alive!" Happy cried while sniffing tears.

I managed to give a smile even if it did kind of hurt to move just some facial features. "Of course I'm alive, Happy. Who else is going to cover up Fairy Tail's law suits?"

They all seemed relieve to hear that, even though my voice was somewhat weak. "You guys suck, you know that? I expected rescue like an hour ago."

"We promise to do so a thousand times better next time." Erza admitted.

I then felt my arms, which was weird because I thought I was holding Lullaby. I looked down to see both of my hands were free.

Happy was the one who noticed this. "It seemed like when we knocked you and Erigor in the sky, we must have disrupted even Lullaby's hold on you to make him let go!" Then the cat pointed over to Lullaby who was just a few feet away from us.

"I hate that thing." I managed to blurt out.

Natsu was all too eager to concur by pounding his fire fists together. "Me too! I'm going to burn it to cinders worse than Erigor for what he did to you!"

That made me realize that Natsu was also roughed up somewhat as I looked beyond the team to notice Erigor in a crater, unconscious and smoking.

"Oh, you beat him up? I was hoping to see you kick his ass in front of me though."

Natsu gave me a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about that, Kain! I kicked his ass hard for what he did to you!"

While I greatly appreciated it, I noticed something moving behind everyone. I tried to speak up but I was too slow as everyone was forced to move out of the way by the carriage along with… Kageyama?

"Thanks for Lullaby, suckers! You shouldn't have left your guard down!" I don't know why he was here, but I saw him run away in the carriage while using a shadow to snatch away Lullaby.

However, seeing all of our hard work gone to waste made me a little more than peeved because of that.

"Alright," I felt pain when I realized my face was making a frown. "who brought the douche bag?"

Gray instantly turned to Natsu. "Fire Breath did!"

Natsu seemed angrier at Kage than Gray at that moment. "That bastard! After what we did to help him!?"

Erza was the one to quickly stand up. "We must go after him!"

"How!? We don't have a way to catch up with him if we're dragging Kain and Erigor along!" Lucy pointed out.

It seemed like fate was going to help us once more as a loud roar caught all of our attention to the sky.

"Oh hey! He followed after us after all!" Natsu waved as the Wyvern dove down towards us.

"The wind wall must have died down instantly when Erigor was defeated! He must have flown after us even when we left him behind after using Virgo!" I have no idea what Lucy said, but I'm just going to ask later.

"This is perfect." Erza said before looking towards the Wyvern. "We need your help. Will you assist us once more?"

The pseudo dragon nodded and soon Erza and Lucy helped prop me atop the wyvern's back while Gray and Natsu hung on to the wyvern's talons. Erigor was tied up by the wyvern's tail as it then started to fly up with Happy hanging on to Lucy.

"Oh wow!" I managed to weakly say. "So this is what it's like to ride the back of a wyvern. It's kind of like how I imagined ridding a dragon."

"I know right! It's so cool!" Natsu declared.

"Oh? Natsu, you don't seem to be having motion sickness." Lucy noted as the wyvern flew higher.

"Why would I be motion sick on a wyvern?" Natsu asked simply.

"Regardless, we must go after Kage!" Erza shouted while pointing in which direction we had to go. "There is no telling what kind of damage Kage could unleash!"

* * *

None.

He. Did. No. Damage.

Okay, no. No! That's it!

"Time out! Time out!" I ended up shouting out loud and stomping over to Kage after he dropped Lullaby to the ground following Master Makarov's conversation.

I know I was just recently healed thanks to Master Bob and probably shouldn't be pushing myself, but I was having none of it as I walked up to Kage.

"I was attacked, chased, almost killed, tortured, was locked in a steel box with a wyvern, dragged like a doll in the sky, dropped down to the ground like a boulder because it was all for the sake of stopping Lullaby. And you just choose NOW to do the right thing? Where was any of THAT earlier today!?" The anger and hysteria coming to my voice as I ended my rant was very noticeable.

I heard Natsu laughing in the distance and I quickly snapped my head back and barked, "Dragneel, I have access to the guild's debts! Do not make me triple yours!"

That shut up him up almost faster than Erza ever could.

"Uhh well?" Kage started before looking to Markarov, who was wisely stepping away from this. "Y-Your words and actions inspired me? A-And thank you for saving my life?"

I was later told that my eyes were twitching dangerously without me noticing after he said that.

"N-Now, now Kain. The important lesson is that he did learn his lesson. And while he may be punished for his actions, he'll live to see a brighter future." Master Makarov tried to say to help put me at ease.

I inhaled deeply and calmed myself down. I heard everyone behind also seemingly sigh in relief as well.

…

Screw it.

I punched Kage in the nose.

The man groaned before cradling said broken part of face. "W-Whab waz thaf door?!" Huh did I break it? I mean, I tried to give what was left in my body into that one punch but it looked like he was pretty weakened too.

Yeah, I'm not even sure a saint would forgive the whole torture thing. Maybe they would, but I sure as hell ain't no saint. "I'm a petty son of a gun. Consider us even." I dusted my hands off.

"And you guys are telling me that he isn't a mage?" Guild Master of Quatro Cerberus Guild, Goldmine, asked with some nervousness even though I was somewhat far away. It was a quiet night despite everything that happened so far, so I guess that made some sense. "Yeesh, Maky, do you only bring in odd balls?"

"I think he's quite the looker! Men love battle scars, even if they are healed." Guild Master of Blue Pegasus, Bob, gushed from the audience from the side. Considering those people we met in Hargeon, I wasn't all that intimidated by him. In fact, he seemed like a really swell person. I really do have to properly thank him for healing me better with magic.

Wait.

I feel like I'm forgetting something very important.

"(I see.)" How the hell did I forget about a talking demon flute?!

We all turned to Lullaby, who was now floating mid air and glowing purple.

"(You have my thanks, Kain Reynolds. Had I not been tricked by you, I would never considered this possibility.)" Okay, if it's thanking me, it's obviously not a good sign.

The flute suddenly levitated off the cliff and several dozen magical circles started appearing and covering it like some kind of cocoon. In a flash of light, Lullaby reappeared around ten feet tall with a long humanoid but wooden body.

" **This is my original form albeit made smaller.** " The new voice of the demon said as he started viewing his own body. " **I have learned much from our short encounter human. As your reward,** " He pointed a palm towards me. " **Your death shall be swift.** "

Erza, Natsu, and Gray all got in front of me. "If you want him, you'll have to get through us!" Natsu declared with all the rage of fire itself.

"You say you made yourself smaller? Well then this should be easier to knock you off your feet!" Gray got prepared to attack.

"You will end today, Lullaby!" Erza declared as well before all three charged for the wooden demon.

Erza was first to—get knocked back into the hill cliff before Lullaby moved with uncanny speed and crescent kicked both Natsu and Gray right into the guild master's building.

Lullaby slowly lifted his hand. " **Power… is nothing without mastery.** " Then he made a crushing motion with his fist as he finished. " **I understand that now.** "

"This might be trouble." Makarov noticed darkly as Erza, Gray, and Natsu went back to fighting Lullaby, only for the wooden demon to dodge and counter Fairy Tail's greatest team with relative ease.

"I-I don't get it!" I yelled to him. "I had no magic power whatsoever, so why does he say he gained something like a power up from cursing me?"

Makarov looked to me before sighing. "It's because you've obviously got a sharp mind, Kain. That's far more dangerous."

"What?"

"From my understanding, Lullaby was bent only to kill humans by playing his song. However, by cursing you he gained something that made him even more dangerous: cunning and the ability of observation. These aren't necessarily physical strengths, but they give him the ability to know how to fight against those stronger than him." I looked back to the fight in horror as Lullaby grabbed Natsu by the head and pinned him to the ground like a basketball player would slam dunk a ball.

"I can sense extraordinary power within Lullaby, but he's using that power in a compact body that is boosting his speed and accuracy than raw power."

I grit my teeth as I see all three of them get knocked back into the building with relative ease. Erza came out in a different armor that made her move faster. However, her sword was blocked by a magical circle that was used as a barrier. Lullaby opened his mouth, and fired a beam that hit the S-Class mage and exploded some parts of the forest.

"Erza!" Lucy cried out.

I couldn't take this anymore! This was all my fault, but I'd be damned if I just let everyone suffer for my mistake!

I looked at Lullaby as Gray called out an Ice Lance attack. Again, Lullaby created another magical barrier to block the attack before jumping out of the way when Natsu tried to burn it with his dragon flames.

It was then that I noticed something that went on as the fight continued. I quickly looked back and ran up to the wyvern that brought me here.

"I need your help! Please!" I told the creature with urgency as he allowed me to get up on his neck. I looked to Lucy and Happy and shouted, "You two, get to the others!"

"What?"

"I have an idea!" I yelled back to the celestial mage as I motioned to the wyvern to fly up. Up in the sky, I noticed Lullaby looking over to me. In that second I felt my heart skip a beat out of fear, but I shook my head and told the wyvern to burn him.

The wyvern unleashed a powerful fiery breath, but Lullaby did what I expected it too in that he summoned a magical barrier to stop the flames. I held on tight as the wyvern followed my next instruction and swooped in, talon first to kick Lullaby along with his barrier into the trees beyond.

"Oh thank god, that barrier could only handle one attack at a time." Pressuring two attacks, the flames then the talon was more than enough to finally land a blow on him.

Acting fast, I jumped off the wyvern and pointed to where Lullaby went. "Can you do me a favor and hold him off for as long as you can!?"

Again, the wyvern seemed to understand and obey me instantly as it flew after the thrown Lullaby with a roar.

I looked towards Natsu and the others before running up to them. "Guys, listen! I have a plan!"

"Well speak up," Gray grunted in pain before continuing. "So far what we're doing doesn't seem to be working."

I nodded at what he said. "I noticed something when you guys were fighting him. He kept avoiding all of your attacks. I then remembered he said that he miniaturized himself. By making himself smaller and faster, I think he's more vulnerable to a good hit because he sacrificed power and defense for speed and accuracy. There's a good chance he might still be vulnerable if we land some good hits on him."

"That's all well and good, but he's way faster than he looks!" Lucy noted.

"Actually, I have a plan for that." I responded. "But we're going to need everyone to beat him."

"Go on, Kain," Erza began. "tell us your plan."

I was about to until a loud dragonic shriek caught our attention and we saw the Wyvern was thrown back at us.

We all scattered to avoid being crushed but also saw Lullaby walking towards us.

"Looks, like we're doing it on the fly! Natsu, Gray, Erza hold it off for a second!" I yelled quickly as the three didn't hesitate to go back to fighting the demon.

I ran up to Lucy and pointed to Lullaby. "Get Aquarius out when I say so!" No sooner than I did, I already saw Natsu get knocked back through several trees.

Lucy saw this too, but only started to panic even as Natsu got back up...only to be tackled by a flying Gray thrown his way. "W-Wait Aquarius?! B-But there's no water!" She cried out to me.

There was a large magical hum in the distance as Erza avoided several magical based attacks from Lullaby. However, instead of hitting their target, they exploded right behind her, knocking her off her feet and allowing Lullaby to kick her back through the guild master's building.

"Can you do without it!?" I turned back after Gray and Natsu were able to charge at the demon, and ward it away further from us.

"I-I think I can?" Lucy responded a second before Erza got back in the fight.

It had to be good enough. "Summon her now!" I turned towards Natsu and the others. "guys, back off and get back to the cliff! Lucy, Happy, and I will handle it from here!"

All three mages seemed to hesitate for a second. I think I heard Lucy gasp before the three did as they were told. Lullaby, seeing his first opponents flee, turned towards me and Lucy's direction.

"K-Kain!?" Lucy cried before I looked back and saw that she didn't summon Aquarius yet.

"Hurry up, Lucy! Happy, get ready to get Lucy out of here!" I yelled as I put on my shoes and started running. They were fully charged but I was to run up to Lullaby and do my turn with distracting him.

" **What are you up to, mortal?** " The three eyes of Lullaby looked down on to me.

I forced a smirk despite how I knew was shivering. "What? I thought you got my essence. You should know that I'm doing a plan to beat you up."

" **Then it's best to kill you now.** " I wasted no time and jumped back to avoid him striking at me. He was much faster than the others, so even with the shoes it was getting somewhat hard to avoid him.

"Lucy!?" I yelled before sliding under a beam of energy that blew behind me.

"I-I got her out!" She yelled as she pointed to the angry looking blue mermaid.

"What do you want girl!? This obviously violates our contract—"

"Hey, fish girl!" I yelled, catching the irritable spirit's attention instantly. I cupped my hands and shouted out loud. "You're a whore and your boyfriend has never been sober in his life which is the only reason he puts up with you!"

Damn, I expected some reaction from the aqua spirit, but not from Lucy looking so horrified that the color from her left her body.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, PUNK!?" The devil herself screamed as a large amount of started water started to gather.

"Happy, get Lucy out now!" I yelled, snapping both the cat and the girl out of their stupor and doing what they were told.

I looked to the shocked and surprised Lullaby before smiling. "See ya!" I yelled to him before I ran quickly to the wyvern, who was getting up from his beat down, and then flew away instantly as I climbed on to him.

It was fast enough to dodge the tsunami coming in to us that swept away even Lullaby.

Despite that, the wyvern started to fly erratically as shots of water came our way. "I will drown you asshole!" The spirit was relentless in her attacks to knock me into her grasp.

Seeing the angry spirit, I yelled back to her mage, "Lucy, put her away!" I yelled as Lucy did so right from the cliff with the other masters.

I pointed down to the water. "Gray, freeze it now!"

Gray seemed surprised for a second, but that was his only hesitation as he jumped down with a magical circle as he landed on the water, instantly freezing it as he touched it and quickly encasing every ounce of it with ice.

As the cold magic quickly went after the water, Lullaby tried to get out. However, he wasn't fast enough as his lower torso was caught mid freeze of the liquid while trying to get out.

"Good, we got him!" I knew he would try to get out of it! I was a bit afraid if he got out too quickly, but I guess I was right in that he was swept farther down than he wanted to be which slowed his time to get out.

I then pointed again at the frozen Lullaby. "Everyone, hit him with everything you've got!"

"Aye sir!" Natsu and Happy had both cried out with fervorous joy and were already way ahead of me, flying to the trapped demon and unleashing a powerful blow of fire after powerful blow of fire into the wood demon, finishing his combo by kicking up high into the sky.

Gray created an Ice Bazooka and blasted the demon mid air, sending him flying further into the air… where Erza already was holding a sword and wearing a black armor to unleash a powerful amount of slashes on Lullaby mid air.

I was let down by the wyvern nearby the others as it sped back into the fight. After Erza finished her final slash, the wyvern ascended up, the dove down right into the airborne Lullaby and made him crash into the frozen tsunami, cracking every corner of it into many pieces and crashing Lullaby into the ground like a high speed meteor. Out of the cloud of smoke, the wyvern flew back to us and landed along with everyone else to watch the dust settle.

A few seconds later, the cloud parted, revealing Lullaby, injured, cracked, and singed but standing tall and turning his pale, purple gaze towards us.

At this point, I heard Lucy's panicking voice. "K-Kain, do you have any other plans?!"

"I'm working on it." Okay, I was sorta hoping that would be enough to take it down. Come on brain, what else do you have!?

Lullaby took one step towards us—then fell into his knees with his hands propping him up.

Everyone else thought what I was about to say. Natsu, Erza, and Gray didn't hesitate to unload another barrage of long range attacks down on the weakened demon. The wyvern as well fired his own flame breath on to the demon. All attacks mixed together to form a powerful explosion mixing from the three magic and wyvern's breath.

This time, after the cloud passed, there was no sign of Lullaby anywhere.

"W-Where did he go!?" Natsu yelled.

I felt the air was much lighter than the heavier pressure from before, but a horrible feeling washed over me the more I looked for any sign of the demonic flute.

Much to my dismay, I didn't even see a fragment of his skin, let alone his flute form broken and weakened. "H-he must have escaped." I realized.

"What!? Come back here coward!" Natsu took one step forward then tripped with the grace of a bear trapped in a small room filled with fine China. He didn't get back up from that fall as easily as well.

I also was completely tired as I dropped to my knees and gasped for breath. "I wanna go home."

"You did well, all of you." Master Makarov walked to all of us after seemingly watching our fight.

Erza bowed her head in shame. "Forgive us master, Lullaby escaped."

"It could not defeat you, even when all of you were weakened fighting the whole day. There is no amount of words to show how proud I am of each and every one of you for today."

It was really nice of master to say that. But I really needed more than just that after what we went through. "Hey? By any chance, can we get a reward for this? I think there's a reward for Erigor's wanted sign if I recall and we had him tied up and brought here."

"Wait, that guy had a wanted poster? Sweet!" Natsu threw his fist out in cheer after getting back up from his fall.

Makarov nodded before looking towards the guild master's hall. "I'm sure you all deserve that and more for saving…"

He trailed off as we all heard a deafening sound coming to our side. It seemed like the building couldn't handle having three mages thrown through it a few times along with not being able to handle a random tsunami in dry land.

Needless to say that it could no longer support itself and collapsed into watery rubble.

"Our meeting hall!" The other guild masters cried out before looking in our direction. "Fairy Tail!"

Our master looked like he was about to die, but I just rolled my eyes.

"Hey, Mr. Wyvern? If you would please?" I closed my ears as the wyvern roared at the mad mob to silence them. I stood back up and cleared my throat.

"Excuse me, but if you have any complaints, please file to the Fairy Tail issues center."

"Who are you?" One random bloke asked.

"I am Fairy Tail's lawyer. And any complaints you have against my client can be and will be used against you if you try to sue us in court." I smirked darkly. "I just hope that you are all aware of the concept of counter suing. By any rights, we have the right to sue you all for negligence for not assisting us in our battle to protect you from Lullaby."

I then narrowed my eyes at them. "If any of you dare try to pin the blame on us, I will make sure all of you know how horrible the legal system can be abused by someone who knows it inside and out."

They all were silenced from their complaints.

I gave a fake smile and fixed my torn up jacket. "Then we have no problems at all!"

In my little show, I felt a familiar vice grip around my legs. Makraov was crying as he threw himself at my feet again. "You are Fairy Tail's greatest member!" He said through the sniffles and ignored the cries from Gray and Natsu.

It was then that I looked over to Kage. He seemed tense that I noticed him but I gave him a calm smile. I didn't quite forgive him, but I was pretty cool with him now.

All's well that ends well.

* * *

It had been one day after the Lullaby disaster. Kage and the others went to jail and Fairy Tail got rewarded for putting them all away. The complaints that were filled against us were weak and I was more than willing to expose all of their combined insurance actually covered attacks by hostile parties, which did include demon attacks, making them unable to file complaints about us.

Master keeps saying I was his best member ever just for getting rid of the complaints. While I appreciate it, I know it's only because of that he keeps saying it.

I was bought a new batch of clothes while my old ones were being repaired. Gray actually gave me some of his spare clothes from when he was a few years younger that seemed to fit me well enough.

It was a smaller, but black version of the long coat he 'wore' (I use that term loosely since it's almost always stripped off at least once a day) with a white T-shirt and black pants. I honestly felt cool.

He said it was only natural that he'd give me his clothes since when we first met I did the same for him. I had forgotten that little fact in actually until he bought it up.

However, there was obviously one other thing that changed dramatically from the Lullaby adventure.

… "I can't believe he's following me around."

And by 'he' I meant the giant red wyvern. It's still following me around even though I tried to set it free after helping us with Lullaby and Eisenwald. He's now currently in the back yard of the guild because he was unnerving the people in the town by waiting in the front.

While I was standing in front of the beast and staring at it, I looked behind my back because I heard something. That something was the guild master walking up to me and eyeing the wyvern.

"It seems grateful you freed it," Makarov noticed sagely. "but to follow you even here. Does it not have its own home?

I flushed because I was thinking of something else since it wouldn't go no matter how many times I've told it to leave. "Actually… I wanted to keep him."

Makarov looked at me and sighed. "Wyverns are not pets, Kain. They are powerful and wild creatures."

Well, he's not wrong, but this guy seems smart enough to not be a pet. I put my right hand out to rub the wyvern's nuzzle. "Counter point: you keep Natsu and Gray around."

The guild master paled as he did realize both were wild and powerful creatures.

Sometimes worse.

"I heard that, Kain!" Natsu yelled out from behind me from the open back doors of the guild.

"Do I hear you saying you want your debt quadrupled?!" It was a bit mean, but now I technically had leverage over all Fairy Tail members since I had access to their debts. I also took some accounting classes when I was in college so I did really know how to manage finances. God, the jokes were right. Lawyers were evil.

Natsu muttered something as he went back to eating.

"So can I keep him? Please? I never had a pet before and he looks behaved!" I begged the old man like a small kid.

Makarov seemed to sweat. It looked like he was having an internal struggle before he put his hand on his head and sighed. "Alright, you can keep him!"

"Whoo! Now, what to name you…" I looked over back to a pink haired mage. "Hey, Natsu! You're dad's name is Igneel right?"

"Yeah?" He said with a steak inside his mouth.

I nodded and turned back to the red wyvern. "I'll call you, Ignis! I think the name suits you perfectly."

Ignis seemed happy for that name and lowered his head down for me to pet him again.

"Oh wow, you seem happy." Lucy walked up to me while eyeing Ignis carefully.

"Of course I am. I'm feeling much better after that fiasco, and best of all I have both my arms back. No more magical object fusing itself to my skin anymore!"

*Chomp!*

…

…

Huh. Why was everyone looking shocked and stunned in my direction?

And why can't I feel my right arm?

…

Oh, Ignis was clamping down on my right arm while I was looking away.

…

"U-Uh, K-Kain?!"

…

"Yes, Lucy?"

"D-Do you n-notice that…"

"Lucy, I am very aware of what's happening to me right now."

"B-But why are you so calm!?"

"Hahaha. Calm? **I AM PANICKING ON THE INSIDE!** " I yelled out in horror as I tried to yank out my right arm.

Before anyone could get to me, Ignis let go, freeing my arm and making me fall to the ground.

"Ignis, what was that for—" I froze as I saw my right hand again.

It wasn't harmed at all: no puncture wounds despite Ignis' fangs, no blood, not even saliva was on it.

But there was now a strange object that was wrapped around my wrist that was as long as an arm brace.

"What?" I blurted out in shock.

Then the brace started to glow red as it suddenly shrunk and turned into some kind of strange looking wrist band with a red wyvern head on it that reminded me far too much about Power Ranger morphers.

"What?!"

I didn't know what it was, but I had to get it off me.

…

 _Why was it not coming off?!_

"What's that on your arm?" Lucy asked as she looked at the red object, but suddenly her attitude changed when she suspiciously looked in the direction of where my face was. Her face looked of both pity and surprise.

"Hmm? What's going on here?" I heard Erza's voice. Erza!

"Hey, Erza!"

"Hello, Kain. How may I… why are you crying?"

Ignoring the fact I was probably crying, I raised my right hand where the strange object was attached to my wrist.

"Can you cut off my arms now?"

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Poor Kain, bad things always happen to him.**

 **Okay, that was a lot longer than I expected to be. I hope you all enjoyed how differently this Lullaby Arc went!**

 **As Kain spoke about in chapter two, "The Butterfly effect" also works here! Just a small change has impacted the future of Fairy Tail in this story! I can't wait to show you all what it has caused.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading! Look out for an Original Arc coming soon after a different take on the Deliora/Galuna Island Arc!**


	6. Chapter 6

"Faster, faster!" I heard the young Romeo Conbolt whoop in joy.

"Are you fastened tightly?" I yelled out to him, making the young boy chuckle and nod. "Well, you heard the boy, Ignis!"

The red wyvern growled lightly before diving down with amazing speed, I heard the young boy shriek in utter joy as the g force hit him. Ignis moved forward with expert grace as we then started moving quickly past the buildings all across Magnolia like an elaborate obstacle course, passing over their rivers, flying sideways on narrower streets, and even scaring some people who still weren't used to the daily flights I've been practicing with Ignis these past two weeks.

Can I just say it is awesome having a wyvern as a partner? (Let's be honest, if anyone was the pet in this relationship it would be turned to me in less than a heartbeat.)

Ignis is literally the best, he goes off to get his own food hunting the wild life in the early morning and late night, and he washes himself by diving into the sea to catch more fish for him to eat. He's basically already house trained and here and I do spoil him with left over butcher goods sometimes because he's surprisingly docile.

It's like I get all of the perks and none of the hassle!

"This. Is. AWESOME!" The black haired kid cried out as our lap around Magnolia was drawing to a close as we ended up back at Fairy Tail's backyard near a rather moderately large stable made just for Ignis by Fairy Tail's mages. "Let's do it again!"

"On no you don't!" We all looked over to a worried Macao Conbolt running hurriedly to us. "Kain, you said that you would take this carefully!"

I blinked as I processed the words. Before we had left, the father of Romeo had indeed warned us to be careful. He must have seen us flying at such speeds and assumed that we weren't. "Yeah, I did. I made sure Romeo was fastened on to Ignis' saddle—the one everyone pitched in to make so he could hold more people without bothering his flying—then I let him go around half of Ignis' top speed."

"That was half!?" the young mage snapped his head back at me.

I continued even after the young aspiring mage's comment. "But I do get what you were saying, Macao. I really did make sure Romeo was safe, but I knew it would also be fun if he got some taste of ridding a high speed wyvern. I'm sorry that I misunderstood you somewhat."

Romeo seemed to pout somewhat. "Dad, what are you doing? Kain and Ignis did what you said, don't be so hard on them!"

I ended up petting the boy's head. "It's really alright Romeo. Come on, you've got to get ready for school. I have work to prepare for."

Eventually he did relent and got off, before saying goodbye to us. I dropped off Ignis and walked towards Macao.

"I really thought it would be alright."

The father of the young boy looked away and rubbed his head as he sighed. "No, I was too hard on you. You did listen to what I said and you just wanted Romeo to enjoy his first ride."

I felt myself soften after hearing something like that. "Macao, it's alright. I know what it's like to have a dad say something mean when all he cares about is their child's safety. My dad was a lot like that, I just didn't really appreciate it now that I'm away."

The father sighed again as he heard that and turned to me with an honest look. "I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"No, really. I should be thanking you. I really do need to be more active in finding a way back home." I waved good bye to Ignis as I motioned the older man back into the guild. "Come on, I'll treat you to a free non-alcoholic drink."

He seemed to raise his brow as he asked optimistically, "Care to make that non-non-alcoholic?"

"Macao, it's morning. Don't push it."

I noticed the older man roll his eyes. "Yeesh. Fine, I guess I've grown to like the new smoothies you and Mirajane added to the bar. I want two of those."

"I'll be sure to buy a third for Romeo before you bring him to school."

"Thanks. By the way, how's that…" I know what he was trying to say as I brought up my right arm to reveal the wyvern brace still stuck to my arm.

"It's still a mystery. Though I haven't really had time to check what the master said about it until today."

Ugh, just remembering what went down last week is giving me a headache.

* * *

It began after Erza unfortunately denied trying to cut my arm off. It now later occurs to me that I am one of the few people in the world (or cosmos?) who considers his arm not being cut off a bad thing.

After calming down, I was brought back into the guild where everyone gathered around to stare at my arm as if it were a second head.

"So what is that?" Natsu poked it several times as if it was some kind of animal. "It looks like a gear of some kind."

Erza added her own two cents into it. "I can sense something off about it. I want to say it feels like magic, but the word doesn't feel right." At the time, I did not like how she said those words.

"Where did master go?" Gray looked back to the second floor. "I know he told us to wait, but what's he doing up there?"

As if on cue, the master jumped down from the second floor and into the table we were all crowding around.

He sighed as he put down a piece of paper. "This is why I had a strange feeling from seeing it."

Everyone seemed to gasp as they saw some kind of 100 symbol stamp on the really old piece of paper.

Mirajane looked on with absolute fear seeing the picture. "Master, are you serious!?"

Her only response was the master simply nodding. Everyone else began to murmur and pale while I was still confused as all heck.

"I would very much like context here please!" I shouted out loud to snap everyone out of their stupor.

Makarov looked at me before handing me the piece of paper. "We talked about it briefly while going over some of Erza's reports, but there are what's known as S-class missions. Do you remember what I said about those?"

I nodded, recalling that only those given the rank of S-Class could take expensive and very dangerous quests. Erza and four others in Fairy Tail could take this quest.

"There are quests even above those: the SS-class, the one year quests, decade quests, and the very top of them all: one hundred year quests. These quests are so dangerous not even I and the other Wizard Saints want to take them."

At that last one I looked down at the paper he put down. It didn't take me long to figure out that the one hundred logo I was staring at was non-other than something that even the top wizards of Fiore would have trouble dealing with.

I gulped and reached for the paper, as I did the logo changed into a picture of five shadowy objects and a large description at the bottom.

Huh? The date… it's 222X?! This has been a job request for almost five hundred years!?

Seeing everyone around move closer to me, I coughed to clear my throat and began reading aloud, "To any who hear this message, listen to my plea. Legend tells of a time when the planet was young, a powerful entity fell from the stars and into our world. This entity was dying, but gave his powers to five powerful warriors who had ventured to his grave. The five were said to gained powers that could bend continents individually, but together held the potential to destroy the entire planet. Countless kingdoms of old came together to stop these maddening warriors. The battle was bloody and long, but the five warriors were defeated.

However, while the warriors themselves were defeated, their powers all crystallized into strange objects that allowed anyone to use their might. These five items have caused devastation and chaos wherever they go. Yet time can sweep even the greatest of horrors as their legend faded into existence.

Many assumed this to be a simple tale, until one day on the year 98X—"

I paused from reading for a second. "Hold up a second, this was a thing even before the posted date of this quest?!"

"Hey, keep reading!" "Yeah, it was getting good!"

I rolled my eyes before continuing the tale. "On the year 98X, one man wielding a black colored device described in legends… single handedly decimated the small kingdom of Zavkx."

"The kingdom of Zavkx… is half the size of Fiore. Or was in this case." Makarov added to give us all an idea of what was happening.

To think one of these had the potential to decimate a small country. No wonder this was beyond S-class. If any of those were real, that would mean that would mean one entire country would be endanger if just one of those were found again.

The entire guild was silent. I swallowed hard as I continued to read. "The warrior disappeared, but now it is believed that these five objects exist and have been scattered all through the world. To those willing to take this arduous task, know that you must find all five of these horrible artifacts known to drive men insane and either destroy or seal them away for good. Be warned: they are small, but by now they are scattered all across the planet with no clue how to find them."

I stopped reading as I turned towards the device on my arms.

"Okay, Erza, cut my arm off."

"Not that again!" Lucy cried out as everyone blanched at how causally I said that.

Erza shook her head to my disappointment before I turned towards our celestial mage. "Lucy, the last magical item to attach myself in my arms was an ancient demon, an ancient demon that became smarter after possessing me if I may remind you! Now it's a super ancient mystical weapon! I am not taking this chance!"

"While it is true this is part of a hundred year quest," Makarov started, making everyone look to him. "The fact remains is that this is only a theory I have. It may just be a random thing that has no relation to it whatsoever."

I sighed. "I really hope it is. The last thing I need is going more insane than I already am."

Mirajane looked down on their leader. "So master, what do we do now?"

"Hmm, I should probably tell the council. But even then they probably don't know what to do. This quest was posted on a country on the opposite side of the planet, Gorandor, over five hundred years ago and has spread out ever since. No one knows how to approach with updating a quest that's been around for a long time as the council has."

"That's really weird, but if it really is one of these five weapons, what was it doing in Ignis' stomach?" Macao was the one who asked this.

I rubbed my head. "I really don't want to think about it."

* * *

I found myself rubbing my head again even after remembering that.

After the event, I tried to study the thing. I did everything, try to open it up—only to break every tool that tried to open it; I tried to get it to work and see if it was like an actual Morpher from Power Rangers and while there was a button, nothing seemed to activate it, making it nothing more than some fancy bracelet; and lastly I even tried asking Ignis about it, but beside a few head-tilting looks like a confused newborn dog, I got absolutely nothing.

"Hey you remember when Erza and Natsu had their fight right after that?" Macao half laughed as he said this. I could tell he was trying to change the topic from something else that didn't bother me but his choices weren't exactly the best.

"Yeah, that didn't really help me considering I tried to be Erza's lawyer to put up some defense." I then narrowed my eyes on the mage with a five o clock shadow. "I seem to recall you allowing Natsu to make a fool out of ourselves."

And by fool, I mean storm the council room, break near everything within ten feet of him, and claim he was Erza while dressed in the most foolish get up imaginable. It was horrific. Funny if you weren't in our situation, but horrific. Because I tried to defend Erza legally, I was thrown into the brig with them.

The older mage scratched his chin nervously at my glare. "I-I owed him a favor."

You choose _then_ to repay it?! Luckily, I said nothing more about that.

"I was put in magic jail because of that." There were luckily no dementors in there but still. "Magic. Jail. And I wasn't even a mage!"

The fire mage nervously laughed. "At least you got out?"

"Yeah, at least." Not even a month in and I went into this world's jail. That has got to be some kind of record if we're talking about people sent into different worlds. That does make me wonder if they are real if it happened to me?

As we got back in and ordered some drinks, I heard someone saying Natsu and Lucy were returning from a job. Nervously, I got up and headed towards my room.

"I'm going to go pack up for my new job. I'll see you later tonight, boss!" I told Mirajane as I left.

"Ah wait, Kain!"

I didn't really want to wait for her and went ahead.

* * *

Macao watched as Kain left for his room at the back before Natsu came in, arguing with Gray.

"Is Kain still avoiding Natsu?" The fire mage asked. "I thought Natsu must have scared the poor kid off, but nothing like this."

The white haired beauty sighed. "Natsu's been in a slump after noticing Kain's been avoiding him a few days in. Whenever he and Happy try to bring him on a quest, Kain has been making excuses in not going and taking new simpler jobs around Magnolia to escape talking for too long with Natsu."

"What? But Kain seems like a nice guy, I'm sure he would forgive Natsu."

Mirajane shook her head. "I don't think it's Natsu that's the problem. Ever since the Lullaby Incident, Kain's been sluggish at almost everything he does. I'm getting worried about him too."

There was a gasp as both Macao and Mirajane looked towards their right to see Makarov finishing a drink. "It's rude to gossip about your own friends."

"Ahh, right sorry master," Macao admitted nervously. But as he looked back, he saw Natsu and Gray still fighting. The sight made him worry about something else. "But, do you know what's with Kain?"

The old man paused before he relaxed and placed a hand on his head. "The poor boy seems to be blaming himself for Lullaby escaping."

"What? No way! That's not his fault!"

Makarov looked back to Macao. "What do you think I've tried to say to him? But then he fears whatever horror Lullaby is causing out there right now, it'll be on his hands." The master placed a hand on his head. "Just thinking about the conversation gives me a headache. I tried to talk him out of it, but I had forgotten he was our lawyer. I ended up not being able to get to him that night."

"I… I didn't know Lullaby has still been bothering Kain." The older fire mage seemed to worry at the thought.

"I'm sure it'll end soon. Though it might take a push here and there." Makarov then had a look of sudden realization wash over him. He then looked over to Mirajane. "That reminds me, what job has he taken today to get out of Fairy Tail?"

"He said it was charity work…" Then, the entire guild heard the sound of Ignis taking off and leaving the guild, meaning Kain was more than likely leaving already.

* * *

Kageyama flinched as he walked into the corridor. His trail was coming up and to be honest, the charges stacked against him were looking bad. I mean, it looked not as bad as he was making it out to be. Considering all he did, he should be glad he was eventually going to get out in a reasonable time.

Still, he wanted to be selfish and not get the maximum sentence of two years in prison.

However, who called him out of his cell? And why now when he was still worrying over a lawyer to get?

When he was led into a room, his eyes widened. "What? No way…"

Sitting down on the table was none other than Kain Reynolds wearing a suit and a smile on his face.

"Whassup?" Out of everything, Kageyama was not expecting such a relaxed statement coming from someone he beat to near death.

"K-Kain!?"

The brunette wearing a suit relaxed into his seat and offered Kage to sit across from him. "Do you know any other Kain? If so, please tell me. I always thought it was fun to meet people with the same name."

Kage, slowly and in disbelief, sat down and stared. "H-How? Why are you here?"

The brown haired boy laughed. "I'm the lawyer that volunteered for your case. Apparently, it's easier to become a lawyer in this world than it is in mine. And I'm here to shorten your sentence."

The previously dark mage could not believe it. "What!? Y-You're helping me?!" After everything he did to him, heck after that sucker punch to his nose even! He still was going to help him?

"Well for one, I was given a second chance, so it's only fair to make sure you do well with yours too. Secondly, this is a great way to earn more money while not having to take dangerous missions all the time." The young man listed.

Kage seemed to pause for a second. He finally got his bearings straight after getting over the initial shock to notice something was off.

"There's a third reason, isn't there? Why else would we be in a sound proof room?" he spoke as he noticed where they were.

"Well, lawyers and their clients are allowed privacy. It's in the rules I've learned." But then Kain's smile lessened. "But you are right. There is another reason I thought I could do besides helping you."

With a more serious tone, Kain asked, "Where did you guys get the wyvern?"

The former dark guild mage blinked. He certainly wasn't expecting that question. "That creature? Why?"

Kain explained, "It grew to like me and follows me around. But most wyverns are found in high mountains or low valleys. How did Eisenwald come across him?"

The shadow mage seemed to absorb that. There was obviously something else, but he wasn't in currently the right ground to question someone trying to help him. "We didn't. We bought from another dark guild: Preator Hunters."

"That guild… they're wanted for hunting endangered species aren't they?" Kain recalled seeing them briefly among the wanted posters when he was collecting Erigor's reward.

Kageyama nodded. "They had caught the beast somewhere they didn't usually find wyverns in and thought to enslave it. No matter what they did, it always resisted and they grew tired of trying to break it. We thought we could break it in for them, so we bought him. But why are you curious about it?"

"Something really weird happened." Kain responded simply.

"Does it have something to do with that weird thing attached to your wrist?" Despite Kain wearing long sleeves to hide it, Kage did notice the red device.

Seeing no choice but to tell the truth, Kain admitted, "Yeah, it won't come off no matter how hard I pull."

Kage was a bit surprise he would answer honestly, but then again, he had a hard time reading the younger man in front of him. "I don't know what that is. So other than what I told you, I don't know a thing. Preator Hunters are a mobile dark guild. I still think Eisenwald is more powerful, but almost no one knows where they're going to be."

"Thanks anyway. Now, let's talk about your case." Kain took out a folder as he began with what he was really here for.

* * *

After reviewing Kage's case, I flew back to the guild.

As I walked in through the back door, I was greeted by Lucy.

"Hey Kain! Why are you wearing a suit?"

"I'm applying to be an official lawyer here in this world. It's so much easier than my world and the rules are a lot more simpler." I answered politely.

"I see." She said as she looked behind her.

My eyes instinctively narrowed. "You're waiting for Natsu, aren't you?" I saw her flinch, but not only her, but some other people as well. "Look guys, I don't hate Natsu. I just… I just don't want to go on quests anymore."

"Why not?"

As I looked around, I noticed not only Lucy but the others also seemed to be paying a lot of attention to me.

My eyes fell on Macao who quickly broke eye contact with me to stare at an old musty wall that caught his attention so greatly. God dang it, he let it slip didn't he?

I opened my mouth.

"I feel sleepy."

But then I closed it as we all looked to Makarov who was the one who had just said that.

I was about to ask what he meant before Mirajane suddenly fell to the ground asleep, followed by Lucy, then everyone. I even spotted Natsu in the distance falling asleep as well as he just came in.

Makarov then looked over to me. "How curious, it doesn't affect you at all."

Curious, I obviously asked. "What do you mean?"

"He's here." Following Master's gaze, I looked over to see a man covered completely in heavy clothing to the point I couldn't even see his eyes. Though, as he walked straight through the quest board to get one job, he seemed to glance towards me.

I felt a chill in my bones in what felt like days, but as one second passed, he looked back to Master Makarov before the small old man had asked him to lift the sleeping spell.

As he left, everyone but Natsu seemed to get back up from slumber.

"Aww man, was that Mystogan?" I heard Droy speak up about that along with several others as they slowly got back up.

Before I could ask who the heck that was, I overheard Gray and Elfman explain to Lucy who the man was. His name was Mystogan, and I do remember some of his job files that Makarov helped me through. Man, the guy is just as mysterious in person as he is in the reports.

I also heard something about him being called one of Fairy Tail's strongest mage, but I heard from Makarov that Gildarts Clive was considered their strongest. Then again, he left for a hundred year quest that looked harder than the one my armlet was from.

Then, I heard the voice of someone else. Laxus Dreyar, the grandson of the master. I've seen his files and he is quite the powerhouse. It's rather amazing to finally meet the guy.

Unfortunately, the guy's kind of a dick with how he's showing himself off and calling everyone weak.

Natsu got up from hearing the man's voice and quickly challenged him to a fight. Unfortunately, he was shot down by master for trying to head towards the second floor.

I quickly realized that everyone was no longer paying attention to me at this moment. I then snuck away and closed the door behind me before I heard someone ask where I had slipped into.

I felt bad again for avoiding Natsu.

God, I'm a coward.

Fighting the thoughts away, I just fell into my bed and in no time at all, I fell asleep…

"Kain! Kain! Wake up!"

My eyes snapped open as I reached for a small lamp lacrima near my bed. As the light opened, I saw Natsu and happy staring excitedly at me while holding up a job request with an obvious S-class marking on it.

I glanced over to my door, seeing that it was wide open. Apparently, I did not lock the door behind me before entering here.

Whatever time it is right now is too early and-slash-or late for this.

"Hey Kain! We got a S-class mission!" Oh no. I wasn't dreaming. "We should take it with Lucy and show Gramps we can totally take one no problem!"

It was the moment I was dreading. Looking at that S-class mark made me think of a skull with cross bones. "I-I can't."

"Aww come on, why not? You haven't been going to any of the other jobs I tried to ask you on."

Before Happy could agree I blurted out. "Natsu, I can't go. Not anymore."

"Huh?" That surprised both of them. "Why not?"

I sat up from the bed and inhaled deeply. "Natsu, I almost died during the Lullaby quest. If the S-Class quest is at least just as dangerous, I don't think I should go…"

"What? What makes you think that?"

I looked at him hard before I noticed the pink haired mage was unusually nervous. "I don't have any magic, Natsu. Even when I prepared, I still ended up being a burden then an asset. I'll just get in the way."

"Hell no! You weren't in the way at all! Lullaby was annoying, but you were the one who came up with a plan to get us to defeat him!" Happy instantly agreed with Natsu.

Even though his voice was getting louder, I did notice the outside looked dark. It must have been when the guild was closed that he snuck back in to get me.

"Yeah, but that was after I had messed up in the first place." I countered as I noticed him getting angrier.

"You don't know that! He could have escaped even if you weren't there!" It didn't take much to figure at this rate he would probably drag me along with him whether I liked it or not.

Before he could, I just decided to say what I've really been fearing. "Natsu, I… I can't fight."

"So?!"

"I might die."

Instantly, both of them seemed to be silent after hearing that.

"I was lucky all throughout our adventures. Even in the Lullaby one, I was close to dying, but by stupid luck I was kept alive by Lullaby. Natsu, I really do appreciate everything you've done for me, but it think it's best if I just stay and do desk jobs here in the guild. These adventures are getting more and more dangerous, and eventually… I just feel like I'll die if this rate keeps up."

I looked back up after my speech. Natsu looked like he wanted to argue, but it was obvious the memory of me being near death was a very good staple to my argument.

"I won't tell Master you stole the S-class quest. I really do hope you succeed though."

I went back to bed. Half of me expected Natsu to ignore me and bring me along after all he was the kind of person to believe in the best in people. Maybe he would think by bringing me along, it would make me realize that I did belong here.

"Come on, Happy, let's go."

…

By the sound of the door closing behind me, I guess I was wrong.

…

I should be happy that I'm not going on quests anymore.

…

So why don't I feel any better?

* * *

The morning afterward felt like a blur. I didn't even seem fazed when Gray offered to bring back Natsu and Lucy.

However, when he left, I felt other eyes go towards me. I even overheard rumors in why I wasn't going with them.

"Hahaha!" I turned my gaze up to Laxus Dreyar laughing as he seemingly was looking at me. "This kid here gets it! The weak should know their place!"

"Laxus!" Mirajane snapped darkly when he tried to talk to me.

However, I looked back at him and stared.

"Oh what? What can you do? Stare at me to death?" He gave a cocky smile as he looked back at me.

I seemed to have caught everyone's attention as everyone noticed how I seemingly glared back at Laxus. Yet, I wasn't really bothered by him insulting me. In fact, I was sad considering what little I heard from master when I went over his cases.

"You of all people should understand what it means to be weak."

In less than a second before people could even gasp, Laxus appeared in front of me in a flash of lightning. Words like anger and wrath could not describe the look on his face at that moment.

"What did you just say!?" He barked right in front of me. The air around him was actually popping and I saw traces of electricity dancing around him as he towered over me.

"Laxus!"

Makarov barked with darker undertone that made the blonde S-class mage relent. He begrudgingly turned back to his grandpa before he looked back at me.

It was strange. Last night I feared for my life and I just said no to a call to adventure that could potentially kill me. Yet here I was messing with someone who could kill me in an instant, but I felt nothing. Not even anger, or hatred towards someone who laughed and belittled me.

Laxus still glared at me angrily, gritting his teeth. "You're not worth it."

As he started walking away from me, I felt the need to say something else. "I don't think you're as mean as you pretend to be."

Again, my mouth had silenced the entire guild as Laxus stopped walking and looked back to me with something like an unreadable face.

I shrugged my shoulders. "To me, you seem a lot nicer than you let on."

"Nice?" He scoffed and turned away. "There is no room for nice in the strongest guild."

"I thought the strongest make the rules. Wouldn't strong people be able to do anything they want without thinking what others say about them?" I automatically pointed out.

Laxus started moving back towards the second stairs, seemingly not responding to my last comment. "God, you're more annoying than Natsu. Shut up, will you?"

Laxus and Makarov shared a look as the S-class mage stood in front of the stairs.

"You told him?" Rather than a question, he just sounded surprised.

"The boy is our lawyer. He gets a hold of all job request reports from all our members. I help answer some of his questions and you came up some times." He took a drink. "It's not my fault he picks up things faster than most people in this guild."

Laxus seemed to grunt at the passive answer of his grandfather and went up.

I sighed as I went back to sweeping the floors. It took a while, but everyone seemed to go back to normal. But I felt every now and then people were looking at me weirdly. No doubt I was now the topic for gossip.

* * *

Mirajane walked over to Master Makarov. "Sir, it think it's getting worse."

"I don't know. Laxus did need a good slap in the head. It would make sense that Kain would win in a battle of words and wit though…"

"Master," Mirajane folded her hands. "you know what I mean."

The small Wizard Saint grunted. "Bah. I hate seeing people down too much. … I heard that Erza is coming back later today."

Mirajane seemed to light up at the thought. "Do you think…?"

"He should have one more chance. Otherwise, this might get messy fast." To fight a coming headache, Makarov continued to drink.

It didn't help at all. He just now was having a headache even while drunk.

* * *

As the day went on, I left to go and help Kage for his court hearing. However, when I came back with Ignis, I was greeted by Erza of all people who seemed to return from another quest.

"Kain."

"Hello, Erza. How are you?" I gave a polite smile as I landed with Ignis.

She nodded at me. "You need to come with me to bring back Natsu, Lucy, and Happy." The red haired woman… wait a second.

"What?" I looked confused before I looked back to see master Makarov and Mirajane looking at me from the back door.

Did they have something to do with this?

"Gray hasn't returned with Natsu yet. At this rate, all three of them are now at Galuna Island and the fastest way there would be for you to fly me there with Ignis." She stated plainly.

I couldn't really see myself saying no to Erza, so I sighed. "Sure, just let me change and I'll be out in five to ten minutes."

"Very well. Do hurry."

* * *

The flight would still take a while from the guild to Galuna, according to the map. That left a very quiet and awkward flight period as I flew Ignis over to the island where Natsu left.

… "Did… Master Makarov ask you to bring me?"

After a second, she answered. "Of course; Ignis listens to you most of all, so I was told to use both of you to get to Natsu and the others. I was told also that you should try to convince them to return before I stepped in."

She paused as she looked at me. "But that was not the only reason."

Here it comes.

"I've been told you've been feeling guilty since the Lullaby incident."

God. That's one way to put it. "On one hand yes. But I'm mostly terrified now. I guess I'm just… too afraid to die since I don't have any magic to defend myself."

"Magic doesn't define your worth." Erza looked out in the distance as she said that. She seemed to have the same look Mirajane once had when she spoke about past tragedies. It was vacant and distant. "You can do great things even without it: the fact you helped us with Lullaby strengthens this fact. Just because you cannot fight, doesn't mean in any way possible that you mean less than anyone in the guild."

"I don't really feel like that—ow!" I felt my head sting as something metal hit me hard on the head.

"Apologizes, you're being stupid." She said simply.

Even rubbing my head, I didn't really feel better. "I feel stupid too, but I don't feel any better about it."

"You really shouldn't be saying such things. Do you really think that the guild allowed you to join because you had magic?"

"Well, no…" I deflated as I did realize that. I was welcomed to the guild even with my bizarre circumstances.

"Exactly, if anything, you deserve that crest in your arm for everything that you did do." That made me turn back to her with surprise before Erza started talking. "You helped an utter stranger save a village; you stopped dozens of women from being kidnapped; you helped a man finally honor his father's legacy; you stood up to a mad man even without powers, and not only inspired others, but gave them the courage to fight back and help you. And lastly, I will not stop admitting that we only won against Lullaby thanks to your quick thinking. Our guild is proud to have someone with a strong sense of compassion regardless of their magical ability."

I had forgotten about all the good I had done. It was really hard to remember that when I was focusing only on the bad.

I then felt Erza's hand on my head again, but not as a punch, but as a light pat on the head. "I actually envy you in many ways. Even while captured, injured, and without magic… you inspired people all by yourself and changed them even after fighting. You are very, very strong in that regard." There was something in her voice. It almost sounded like envy and… nostalgia? I had the feeling that I might have reminded her of someone she knew before Fairy Tail, but I decided not to pry.

The kind words were… really touching. I felt like blood was rushing to my cheeks as she said that.

"Are you sure though, it's that amazing? I mean, what is that compared to shooting fire, ice, or having an arsenal of powerful weapons?"

"Our magic is a tool. What you have: courage and kindness, makes you a more important than a mage who doesn't have those." She smiled as she patted the back of the flying wyvern. "Ignis here is proof that there is more to you than just magic."

The wyvern roared proudly that echoed through the night sky in response to that.

Erza gave a small chuckle at the sound. "See? Ignis feels the same as I."

"… Thanks…" As her words settled, I felt a lot better. "I really was being stupid, wasn't I?"

I felt Erza rubbing my hair messily as if I was something like a little brother. "It's alright. Our guild is full of idiots in the first place."

Man, I guess I really was being stupid. I owe Natsu an apology then.

I looked up as Ignis started to growl. In the distance, we saw an island as the sun was starting to set.

Even though I felt better, a small part of me was afraid still.

How long can I keep myself from dying in such a dangerous place?

* * *

 **{Author Notes.}**

 **Hey guys. A small chapter dedicated to character growth. Sorry if it's not plot or joke heavy like some other chapters.**

 **I thought it would be a good idea to show some character development for Kain since he really doesn't have any magic.**

 **As fun as people believe it to be to go to Fairy Tail, it's surprisingly dangerous for any normal human to be in. Even Lucy is potentially superhuman with her durability: remember episode one? I'm sure that tsunami would have broken any normal person's bones or killed them by the pressure or made them drown.**

 **Yet not even one of the goons died. All of them were just shaken up by a tsunami.**

 **Kain is a lot like a normal person. Because of this, him dying is really, really easy without powers or magic of some kind. (I mean think about it: there really are so many things that can easily kill a guy like Kain thrice over.)**

 **But what I tried to make it so that Kain has a lot of the same old traits we love to see in heroes: empathy for others and heroic bravery. He just sometimes doesn't let something like being powerless get in the way of doing the right thing. (though at the rate things are going, being powerless might be the end for him.)**

 **Anyway, thank you all for taking your time to read, follow, and favorite this story. It feeds my ego even though it means nothing in my social or economic life. #TotallyALoser.**

* * *

Deleted Scene #1.

(Context: I actually did try to write out the part where Erza and Natsu's first fight was interrupted, but thinking it over, I felt like I wasn't really adding much to that story at all and decided to scrap it. When I reedited this chapter, I just skimmed over it completely since it was just basically the same as the anime and manga with only Kain being there. However, there was at least one part of the old work that I did think was worth showing to you guys since this chapter was a little somber.)

(It begins while Kain and Erza are waiting for the S-class mage's sentence.)

Later on, as we went into the courtroom after a strange meeting with one of the council members, I finally got what they were doing and sighed in relief.

It looked like it was just going to be a staged arrest, nothing really worth worrying over. The council was just doing something official so these guys wouldn't lose face. I'd have to contact everyone later to tell them about this.

But it's good to see I was worrying for nothing.

BOOM!

Why was there and explosion behind Erza? Why was Natsu here wearing a fake Erza costume? Why was he destroying the place?!

…

 _Why do I suddenly have the urge to spill blood?_

* * *

Everyone stared in befuddlement as Natsu started throwing fire blasts claiming he was the one who did everything wrong. However, they all then noticed Erza's lawyer, Kain Reynolds, walk up to the imposter with a rather uncanny and forced looking smile on his face.

"Erza?" He emphasized this word carefully as the faker suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Could you look there for a second?" He pointed to nothing in particular.

"Huh? What are you talking about KaARRKK!?"

In one motion, the young man had kicked the back of one of Natsu's knees, causing him to bend backward so that Kain could grab the guy by the neck and put him into a choke hold. Natsu started coughing and was having a surprising amount of trouble getting out of said hold by the slightly smaller boy.

"Shhhhhhhh." Everyone started to feel a cold chill from the brown haired young man as he whispered like the wind flying through hollow dead trees on a dark night. " _Go to sleep, Natsu._ "

"…Kain?" Erza coughed to get his attention.

When Kain turned around, the magic council saw how his right eye lid was twitching furiously and how the veins in his eyes were vivid and noticeable.

"Please let him go."

" _Do I have too? I'm sure he's close to losing consciousness._ " He pulled harder, making Natsu's trashing much slower and his gasps much louder.

Erza sighed and bowed to the courtroom. "I am so sorry for this."

After a second of stunned silence, minus Natsu's attempt and threats to kick Kain's butt for this, they ordered Fairy Tail to be locked up.

(End of Scene.)

(Context: As funny, as I thought this was, I did later try to explain that while Kain was 'broken' he doesn't angrily rage like Natsu. His revenge and anger is cold, calculating, and sometimes maniacal. Even though Natsu is far stronger than Kain, I explained in the first draft that he could do it because he made sure to aim for pressure points since he subconsciously recalled that in this version of the Daybreak Mission, Master Zash aimed for Natsu's lungs and that translated that even someone like Natsu is vulnerable to the right pressure hits. The second reason, and one that is more likely: Kain was still healing from the Lullaby Mission and while Natsu doesn't really hold back, he doesn't want to purposely injure friends who can't fight back. So if you read this, those are the reasons why Kain could do those things.)

(Any who, thanks for reading. The Deliora Arc here is shortened a bit, but thankfully right after is the first attempt at an Original Arc after a small filler chapter. I thank you all for taking your time to read this and do support this story with favorites and likes.)


	7. Chapter 7

**{Author Notes}**

 **Okay, one of you said this, and obviously did not understood what I wrote. Perhaps that is my fault, but I want to state this clearly right off the bat.**

 **I said specifically that the device on Kain's wrist was** _ **very much like**_ **a Power Rangers/Super Sentai and that Kain himself thought it was like it in many ways, but** _ **it is not**_ **an actual power ranger morpher. It is heavily based off it, but it is in no way similar to it story wise (Kain is not leading a five man team in the future, and there is no Mega Zord that will fight monsters on a weekly basis) In fact, since I have a feeling that you might misunderstand me, only Kain is currently going to have this device which has its own plot down the line.**

 **It is heavily inspired by Power Rangers/Super Sentai, but it's origin is based off Fairy Tail and my own design.**

 **This is not a crossover. This is a story trying a few different elements to really bring out how chaotic a world full of 'magic' can and will get.**

* * *

I don't know why there was a giant mouse in a dress trying to attack Lucy. Damn it magic, I never not get surprised at how bizarre these situations become.

But it was super cool to have Ignis swoop down and pin down the giant rodent into the sand like Randy Orton, famous wrestler and internet meme, who was known for out of nowhere knock outs.

Lucy seemed like she was just in a heavy fight with that other girl since it looked like she was roughed up a bunch. As she saw me and Ignis, a wide smile appeared on her face as she ran up to us.

"Kain! Ignis! Man, am I glad to see both of you here!"

I laughed nervously since during the dive… someone jumped off. "Great to see you too, Lucy. But umm? I suggest you come back to the guild with us before I resort to Plan E, please?"

The celestial mage seemed surprised at that before realization hit her. She must have realized I was here to bring her back. However, I could tell that her brain started to crank; while I alone had the highest chance of convincing everyone to come back, I didn't have any way to force everyone to come with me and Ignis if they refused. I'm assuming in her mind, the only possible way for Makarov to send me here to get everyone back was if there was someone else with me who was stronger than Natsu.

Then the look on her face seemed to pale when she figured out that 'Plan E' was standing right behind her.

"Lucy," hot damn that's one scary glare. Erza is very different from that tender moment I saw a while ago. "I assume you know why Kain, Ignis, and I are here."

The blonde mage was doing her best impression of her shaky Plue as she turned back with all the speed of a broken stop light that could only go green and red.

"To take us back?" That's the general statement yes. "Promise you won't hurt me?" That last sentence echoed in the open a few times as Erza remained silent.

The only other sound in the beach was Ignis landing down without anything seemingly bothering him.

Well that, and the fact that after how pathetic that last echo sounded, I spoke up. "Yeah… that's going to depend on you." Out of all the times I wished I was a mage since I got here, I now don't want to be Lucy and-slash-or Natsu.

It was then I looked up to see Happy flying towards us in the distance. "Lucy, I was worried for you a second there. Oh Kain!? You're here now!" The cat was much like his namesake. It appeared he was overjoyed to see me just like Lucy was. However, just like Lucy, he then tilted his head just a little to the right to notice there was someone else here.

To give the little guy some credit, he lasted ten seconds before Erza caught him.

Even though half of our job was already done, Lucy seemed desperate as she spoke to Erza and practically begged for them to stay even though they disobeyed the rules. She even told us what had happened, but despite me feeling bad for these people, Erza was adamant in bringing them all home.

"K-Kain, say something!" It seemed like I was their last hope in convincing Erza to not bring them back yet.

While Erza was indeed scary and at this point near impossible to talk out of her determined state, I did feel for Lucy's plight with those people. Maybe we could just finish the quest while 'in the process' of getting Natsu and the others back.

"Please tell me you aren't actually considering what they said." The red haired woman strictly corrected. "We are to bring them back to the guild, no questions asked."

"True, but we can't leave yet without Natsu and Gray, so let's find them first." I was careful not to talk about anything else since there was a possibility to still convince her out of leaving everyone here to fend for themselves when Lucy and the others have already done so much.

It took us a while, but Lucy was able to guide us towards this town of demons or rather where they had set up since their town was currently destroyed. We had found out that Gray was being cared for and he would wake up probably in the morning.

However, this meant that Lucy and Happy had the unfortunate circumstance of being tied up by Erza and told to stay in that state through the night due to disobeying guild rules. I was told to watch over them to ensure they wouldn't escape while Erza searched around nearby for any sign of Natsu.

I had a feeling that facing the S-class mage was the only thing keeping them tied in a rope. I for sure couldn't get them to stay like that if I tried.

"Kain, help us!" Happy was bawling his eyes out as he begged for any way out of this. "I was forced to go: it was all Lucy's idea."

"No it wasn't! Stop trying to sell us out to save yourself!" Lucy hysterically yelled as Happy was still crying. However, she then looked over to me. "Hey, Kain? Why didn't you come with us? I noticed Natsu was down when I asked about you coming along."

I felt shame after hearing that. "He was that upset about it? I guess I do owe him an apology and a few free meals for that." I looked over to Lucy. "I didn't want to go because I was afraid, Lucy. I'm not even a real Fairy Tail mage, so something like an S-class mission that could kill even mages easily… would no doubt put me in far more harm than the Lullaby event. Unlike now, I at least have Ignis to help me, but other than him and a few party favors I have… I don't contribute much."

"That's not true!" Lucy and Happy perked up.

"Yeah, I know." I quickly responded before either could repeat what Erza said to me. "But while I contribute, it's never really in a direct fight. I can be killed so easily here that I'm just afraid that I might die or just drag you down when it comes to these dangerous adventures, and I don't want that. I believe you guys don't want me in harm's way as well."

We were all silent after that.

"Hey, that doesn't mean that if you guys are in trouble, I won't hesitate to help you in any way that I can just like you guys would for me. I'll find a way to actually help out more in these adventures. Erza helped me realize that on the way here." I tried to say to lift their spirits up. It was true that I was more of a liability, but this meant I had to do much in order to stop being one.

I had more than a feeling that even finding out how I got here would be nothing but dangerous, but I couldn't rely solely on these guys to get home. In a place full of magical warriors, there had to be some way to get me able to be more capable to survive here. The device on my arm is one, but it still doesn't seem to be working. Is there a key or some kind that needs it to work?

However, I brought up a bowl. "Now, can you guys explain to me how you guys ate here for the past day with nothing but bugs?!"

Some of my 'food' the villagers presented me was currently trying to escape my bowl. I've seen countries eating bugs before, but those were even dead sometimes, not have all live grub.

"Uhh no? I don't think they even offered us food." Lucy claimed.

Giving up on eating, I went towards a prepared cot. "Well I'm going to sleep. Good night guys."

"That's not fair! How come you get to sleep on a cot while Erza made us stay here and kneel for the whole night!?"

I glanced back to Happy with deadpan. "Because I followed the rules?"

"We offered the same thing to you, traitor!"

"Yeah, and I said no. I definitely don't regret it now." I said as I laid on the comfy pillow and warm blanket beneath me.

Huh, who knew I could sleep so soundly to the sound of other people's sorrow?

* * *

Meanwhile, high above Galuna island…

"… **Deliora…. This is very opportunistic.** "

* * *

After Gray's rather tense confrontation with Erza, we all got on to Ignis as he flew us towards the temple. As we did, Gray explained his tale of how he and Lyon, the Cold Emperor and Douche Bag of the Week, were trained under Ur and how she came to seal herself within the ice that now traps the demon, Deliora, who also destroyed his home.

However, after he finished, I noticed something off in the distance. "I see the temple, but it's a lot more slanted than I imagined it to be."

Gray looked over my shoulder. "It wasn't like that before you guys got here. Natsu must have done it, but whether he did it on purpose or not, the temple can't perform Moon Drip like that."

It was then I heard Ignis growl slightly at something below. He suddenly snapped his neck and blew a flame breath downward.

"Whoa! Ignis!" I yelped in surprise at the sudden movement before I saw Erza stand up from the large saddle.

She pointed her blade down, where I noticed melted arrows and other weapons had fallen, and in that direction there was an army of purple cloaked cultists.

"It seems our welcoming party is here to greet us. It would be rude of us not to meet them, but we are in a hurry. Kain, bring Gray closer to the temple, I'll handle the ones below."

"Wait, Erza!" We looked to see Lucy asking help from Happy. "We'll come too!"

"Are you guys sure?" Gray seemed shocked at the offer while Ignis flew as stationary as possible for a winged creature in flight.

The scarlet haired mage turned back to Gray with a smile. "You have to settle things with Lyon, don't you?"

I looked back down while she was talking and instantly noticed something. "Guys, they're firing another volley!" I mean, their first one did jack squat, but I felt like I had to contribute something to this somewhat heartwarming and epic moment. I just wish I had better lines.

"We'll handle them!" Erza yelled as she fell down around twenty feet in the air with relative ease. "You head for the temple!" She screamed as she descended down on to her opponents. The poor bastards.

Happy and Lucy descended too, opening the way for Ignis to fly freely back towards our destination.

As we got to the entrance, Ignis landed and Gray got off.

"Gray," I spoke up to the half naked mage. "Kick his ass, alright?"

The statement made the man seem surprised. "What are you doing?"

I pointed up, "I'm going to see more about this Moon Drip and see if there's any way we can dampen it from up there."

"I see…" There was something else about Gray now that there was some moment of peace between us. He seemed oddly determined. Almost as if…

"Gray, why do I have a feeling that you're planning to use Iced Shell on Lyon?" And with how he visibly winced, I struck fool's gold.

"How did you know I was going to do that!?" It was obvious by how he yelled at me that he wasn't expecting me of all people to figure him out so quickly.

I leered at him when he admitted something like that. "Because you sounded oddly desperate to stop Lyon from releasing Deliora. I had a feeling that your emotions might make you do something drastic, but not something that stupid."

I saw his eyes widening with anger as he threw his arm out. "It's the only way to stop him!"

"That's bull shit, and you know it!" I yelled back at him. "May I remind you that where in the one place in all of Fiore where Moon Drip can be performed!? Iced Shell is practically useless here; you'd be killing yourself for just a few damn years! I doubt Ur taught you to do something as useless as that!"

Gray snarled as he took a stepped forward and yelled, "What did you say!? You don't know her!"

"That's right, I don't! **You** do! Would she really think that would be how she wanted you to settle that!?" I was not going to let him go down that road. "I may not be a mage, Gray, but I know when a friend of mine is being stupid, and as a good friend just did to me, I'm making sure you don't think like an idiot!"

Gray opened his mouth, but words seemed to fail him as he realized that Iced Shell was indeed useless here.

I saw him look away and clench his fist to the point it was twitching hard. "But he beat me…"

"So?" he turned to me with confusion. "Then get back up until you kick his teeth in. He has to kill you to win, and all you have to do is beat him up hard and good once. I'm sure even Natsu will agree you can do that much."

I then gave him a thumbs-up and a smile. "Your teacher sacrificed her life for you, so show Lyon the same trust she had for you when you were being stubborn and stupid."

Gray inhaled and sighed. "Damn it, you're right. Doing Iced Shell here would be pointless…. I owe you one again."

"I can't take all the credit. Erza helped me out before we came here and I basically paraphrased her." However, after the talk we felt the ground rumbling. To our surprise, we saw the temple form straight back up after being slanted.

Instead of being surprised like Gray, I just sighed deeply. "Magic is such bull shit sometimes." I looked back to the ice mage. "Ignis and I will try to slow down Moon Drop. You face your friend and maybe find Natsu. He's probably still in there after all."

"Right, good luck."

"You too." With that, Gray sped in leaving me to look up at the giant moon beam in the sky.

Well, not completely alone.

I rubbed Ignis' head. "Alright buddy, let's be cautious. You're cool and all, but who knows what kind of mage is up there with some deadly power like Erigor or Fero."

While I was feeling cautious, Ignis landed on the top and roared with all the glory a creature like him could muster.

It scared everyone… every… one dog-man-person… thing. That's it, I'm asking for a fauna book list from Master Makarov when I get back.

"W-What the!? A wyvern!? Here!?" The dog-man-thing cried out in shock.

"Uhh yeah! So stop Moon Drip and surrender you… werewolf reject?" Sorry, I'm still too stunned at his presence to really think of some witty banter right now.

"Werewolf!? I'm a dog!" The half naked dude angrily growled.

"You do realize that's significantly more mundane and less threatening, yeah?" Ahh there we go; now the banter is kicking in. I'm so proud of myself.

"My name is Toby Horhota!" And suddenly he… made claws come out of his hand?

"The hell? I thought your thing was a dog, not a cat. At least have some semblance of thematic consistency." I mean despite how stupid it looked, I should be careful at what this guy could do.

He didn't bother with my insult this time, but I had a feeling that he had no idea what I just said with all the large words I used. "Ha! These are my Mega Jellyfish Paralyzing Claws," That is a needless long spell name. And I've heard Natsu's attacks! "You'll never guess what these guys do!"

Okay, he might be a complete idiot that even puts Natsu to shame… or he's deliberately trying to lull me into a false sense of security.

"I'm assuming paralyze your opponent?" I answered cautiously as I prepared for anything that might make him look competent.

"What the hell!? Is Fairy Tail full of Espers or something!?" Unfortunately, it seemed like I might have been right in assuming that he was the former idea than the latter.

Still, it never hurts to be too safe. I think we should test that hypothesis though with a simple question. "How do you pick your nose with those nails?"

He seemed genuinely curious as he looked at them. "You know, I never thought of that until now. I wonder—GRRRAAAAHHHHH!?"

The idiot actually tried to pick his nose with them and knocked himself out by doing that.

I stared hard at his unconscious body, waiting for any sign that he was completely faking and going to turn into a competent mage of my nightmares at any moment right now.

"…"

Ignis looked up to me in confusion since I wasn't making any move to stop Moon Drip that still seemed to be going on.

"Screw it. I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth for this." I jumped off and asked Ignis to tie up the guy somehow, which for wyvern language translated into him dropping a bunch of trees on him. I guess that was as good as any rope.

However, as I viewed the magical moon beam thing, a thought occurred to me.

"How the hell am I going to stop this?" I turned towards my wyvern friend who in response tilted his head slightly in confusion like a puppy would.

I waited a second before asking again.

"Do you know how to stop a magic beam from the moon?" Ignis titled his head further with a light and confused whine. It was cute, but it wasn't helping this situation at all.

Curious, I slowly moved my right hand out to touch the beam. At the slightest touch, I pulled my hand back as I felt a sting that felt worse than static shock. So much for the idea of using Ignis to go up and block the light with his body since there are no clouds for miles…

I did nothing but sit there and wait until I heard a powerful and inhuman roar coming from below.

"Of course." I sighed as I stood back up and continued to view some way I could stop the spell. Since despite that roar, the spell was still going which meant that there might still be some way to stop another demon like Lullaby from getting loose.

Yet by this time, Toby had woken up and demanded to be let go. But considering Ignis was lying on top of the trees placed on top of him, he wasn't getting out and it seemed like his nails weren't strong enough to pierce wyvern scales.

Soon after, I spotted Erza and Lucy run up to here. "Oh thank god, you two are here! I have no idea how to stop this thing!" I pointed over to Moon Drip.

Erza seemed surprised before looking to Tobi futilely trying to escape Ignis. "You already took him out? But Moon Drip should have halted when you stopped the channeling mages!"

"Wait what?" I looked around, seeing no one else beside the guy Ignis and I took down. "Is there someone else here then?" I turned to Ignis, who currently had the sharpest senses of our current group. "Can you sense anyone else nearby?"

The wyvern acknowledged my question as it sniffed the air around us since it previously didn't do so. However, it suddenly got off Toby and growled dangerously. His eyes sharpened to slits as he stood between me… and a large bush?

"Something isn't right. That's a different reaction from what we've seen so far." Erza took out a blade as she pointed a sword once more to point at the shadowy shrubbery. "Come out and surrender peacefully!"

The air suddenly turned sour as the patch of wild grass started transforming, all leaves instantly dying as wood twisted and expanded into…

No.

NO!

WHAT IS HE DOING HERE!?

" **I refuse.** " Lullaby, had appeared before us. The same demon that escaped almost three weeks ago was now here in an island where another Demon of Zeref was about to be resurrected.

Needless to say, the phrases, "over our heads" and "out of the frying pan and into the Earth's molten core" are nowhere near strong enough to describe the situation we are now in.

"Lullaby!" Erza didn't hesitate to re-equip into a powerful black Armor. "What are you doing here?!"

In response to the threat, Lullaby did not react. In all fairness, it took everyone to finally hurt the large wood demon, and seeing how we were down Natsu and Gray, I doubt we could do as much as we did last time. I also doubted I could come up with a new plan right off the bat in how to blind side this jerk.

He pointed over to me in response to Erza, which did not bode well. " **Use your mind to hypothesize my ambitions here. I found that not many people use such gifts.** " The way he said that second sentence made my stomach drop. I always feared what Lullaby was doing while he was out there, but as of that moment, he confirmed my suspicions. People were hurt or worse because of me.

However, he then quickly started to transform, his entire body untwisted itself and poured into a crack like water until he was fully gone from sight.

I then realized what he was planning to do when the purple beam turned into a different color, signaling its finish. There was really only one thing on the island he was after.

I hurriedly looked at the girls and Happy.

"He's after Deliora!"

* * *

Natsu was in no way going to let Gray cast Iced Shell on this thing. He stood between him and Deliora to ensure that. That pervert is going back home with them.

The dragon slayer readied himself as Deliora towered over them. However, all of them noticed how weird it was when the freed demon look upward rather than acknowledge they existed. There was an explosion from up on above and as the rocks fell down harmlessly into the water, Gray, Natsu, and Lyon looked up to see something slowly levitating towards Deliora.

"No. What's he doing here!?" The ice mage, in utter shock, stopped channeling Iced Shell as he saw what had just come in.

Natsu took a step forward and barked at the creature. "Lullaby!? What are you doing here!?"

The levitating demon had his back turned towards them and slowly floated towards Deliora.

" **Look at you Deliora, near death's door. I almost pity you at this state if I was capable of it.** "

Deliora suddenly fell to his knees, gasping for breath as cracks started to appear over his body with light shining out of it.

"What the…" Gray and the others looked on with astonishment at the freed demon.

"Of course," Lyon gasped. "That's what the book meant in that Iced Shell weakens its target by draining its magic: all this time, Deliora has been dying inside it and now it's close to death even when freed."

"Well yeah, but what's Lullaby here for?" Gray and Natsu tensed themselves. On one hand, there were two Demons of Zeref right in front of them. On the other, they were all able to beat one, and the other was near death. The situation couldn't possibly be worse.

" **This is your last breath, Deliora. Unless,** " Lullaby floated closer and offered a hand to him. " **Take my hand. I came here originally because I sensed a familiar presence, but this opportunity can benefit us both.** "

The dying demon gave a weird sound that seemed like a weak roar and a grunt of confusion combined.

It seemed like Lullaby still understood what his fellow demon was doing. " **It's simple really. Between the two of us, you are stronger in terms of raw power, but I lack power needed to accomplish our mission. So I suggest a simple solution to our problem…** "

Lullaby made his hand touch his chest.

" **Fuse with me.** "

They were wrong. They were wrong wrong wrong **wrong**.

Those three words were all it took for Gray and Natsu to realize how bad the situation really was.

"Like hell we'll let you!" Natsu roared as he and Gray fired instantly—only for a giant wall of wood to appear before them and block their sight from Lullaby and Deliora.

Gray and Natsu wasted no time at all trying to punch and blast through the wall, but despite their efforts, the wall was only being destroyed too slowly.

Lullaby turned back to Deliora where the cracks and light on his body grew more with each passing second.

" **Ultimatum time, Deliora: die here pathetically, or be reborn with new purpose.** " He reached out his hand back towards the dying demon.

Deliora seemed to grunt with annoyance as if he didn't like the idea… before reaching out to the other demon with the last of his strength.

* * *

"Natsu, Gray!" Erza yelled out as we flew on Ignis into where Deliora was being kept. Instead of the demon, we all saw a large wooden barrier that Gray and Natsu were desperately trying to break.

Gray turned back to us with something I had never seen before on the proud ice mage's face: desperation and fear.

What he said next pretty much made me feel those emotions tenfold. "Erza, help us! Lullaby is trying to fuse with Deliora!"

I was so spaced out and shocked at what he said that I hadn't realized a few seconds had already passed and Erza was already desperately trying to break through the wall just as Gray and Natsu were.

Lullaby was made out to be a powerful cursed artifact who had brought countless lives to death since Zeref's time. Deliora was a demon of unparalleled destruction who left devastation in his wake wherever he went.

For both demons to… fuse together… their combination could spell the end of countless more lives to their already horrifying body count.

I heard Lucy calling my name, before I looked back at her with worry across her face. "Kain! Kain, snap out of it!"

"Wh-What?" I then noticed a person who I was assuming to be Lyon was brought up with us by Ignis' tail and made to sit along us in the saddle. Was I that out of it to not notice even Ignis moving?

"Let me go!" Lyon said even though he barely could bother the red wyvern in his state. "T-This is perfect! What better way to surpass Ur than to fight a demon even stronger than Deliora! Hurry up and come, so that I—GAAAK!?" Ignis then wrapped his tail around the man's waist again and whipped him down into the ground head first to shut him up before putting back in the saddle.

There was then a sudden hum as light started forming from inside the cracks of the wall.

"No! It's starting!" Erza cried out before all three Fairy Tail Wizards hurried their progress. A few seconds later, they had made the wall of wood shatter into fragments due to their combined efforts.

No matter how fast they were, I heard it: the humming died the second before the wall shattered. I prayed to whatever being up there that I was just imagining it.

My prayers were unanswered.

As the walls crumbled, we realized both Deliora and Lullaby were gone. In their place where Deliora once stood was an eight foot tall, dark skinned man with purple runes all across his bulging muscles. He was wearing some kind of black pants that looked tied up as a monk with a white sash covering his waist, but as he turned towards us, he had hair black as a raven and his face was covered by what looked to be Deliora's crown now used to cover him like a face plate.

At least, I thought it was a face plate. I didn't expect to see three eyes open right on top of it.

The giant eight foot man with runic muscles raised his hands slowly. As he did, electricity cackled around him and the water around him was being pushed away by his presence alone.

I would be lying if I told you the air did not change at that instant. I found it suddenly hard to breathe as if something thick was in the air.

He then turned towards us, looking at us with those three, glowing, pale eyes of his and spoke.

"A form from the demon of songs, and the demon of destruction," His voiced sounded like silk going through our ears which only repulsed our very cores. "We—no—I am Symphony the prelude to the end."

No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't help but believe his words were nothing but the truth.

"I don't care who you are!" Natsu unleashed a powerful amount of flames around him. Yet, even I could tell he was still sweating nervously despite his brave talk. "You're going down!"

He made the fires boost him at great speeds right to the newborn demon and punch him right in the face. The punch followed through and made the demon crash into the other end of the cave.

"Not so tough, are you!?" Natsu smiled as he got a heavy punch in.

However, Symphony didn't seem to flinch at all as he simply pulled himself out of the wall and started walking back to Natsu. As he walked, he cracked his neck by moving it both sides, and there was no trace of damage on him.

"You're kidding me. He's not even scratched!" Gray gasped in horror.

Symphony stood in front of Natsu. We all waited nervously as the demon raised his arm… and motioned his fingers to come at him again.

From surprise, the pink haired mage's face turned to rage as he wailed on to Symphony kick after punch after punch after kick.

Yet… Symphony did nothing to defend himself. He let all those blows and fire connect easily… and much to our horror, he wasn't getting injured.

Natsu yelled as he punched right for Symphony's stomach… then recline his fist and yelp in pain as he held it out.

We all stared in horror that Natsu of all people got hurt from punching someone else.

"You bastard," the dragon slayer snarled with anger. "Stop looking down on me!" he quickly jumped and with a magical circle of fire behind his ankle, he performed a rocket round house kick right into Symphony's head.

The impact gave a shockwave that was seen even in the water. But Symphony still did not seem bothered by the powerful blow.

In fact…

"Aaahhhggh!" Natsu yelled again as he retracted his foot and started hopping around.

"N-No way! Natsu got hurt from _attacking_!?" I was just as afraid as Lucy as she said such a thing. We were soon starting to realize how far the power gap between us and the fusion demon now was.

"Natsu!" Gray yelled as he held a large ice bazooka towards Symphony. "Get out of the way!"

The Dragon Slayer did so as several magic circles appeared in the front of Gray's bazooka. " **Ice Make: Laser!** "

A giant beam of energy hit Symphony… and whatever was unfortunate enough to stand behind him, including the walls of the temple.

As the light died down, a large missing chunk of earth was missing as Gray fell to his knees exhausted.

However, as seconds passed, utter disbelief was the only thing that remained on his face.

"No… I gave my all in that spell!" The raven haired stripper cried out as Symphony stood untouched even with everything else behind him obliterated by a large amount of magical energy.

"I would challenge the scarlet haired mage," Symphony began as he walked towards us again. "But by now, we'd all understand how that would work out."

"Don't be so sure!" Erza charged at Symphony with a show of weapons, skills, and abilities.

There was a stabbing sound as after a while, one of the blades Erza used had pierced through Symphony's skin.

Symphony eyed the blade lodged into him as Erza jumped back and pointed another blade right at him. "You've been far too careless! I've noticed those runes glowing each time Gray and Natsu attacking you. All I need to do is attack you until you drop the magic of your runes and take you down."

"She noticed that, after a few attacks?" Lucy cried out with some shred of hope. "M-Maybe we can win this!"

"Lucy," I spoke out at last as I looked closer to the fight. "Symphony isn't even bothered that Erza saw through his defense."

She looked again towards the scene and indeed, despite finally hurting the demon, Symphony showed no signs of losing his cool.

He grabbed the blade, and instantly it turned into a black katana with a low purple glow around it. He swung the sword several times around like a curious child until his swings started to gain form, precision, and now he was swinging it around like a sword master in under a few seconds.

"I too have learned much from watching you. You have excellent form, and by practicing what I have seen, I now know how to use a blade." He held the onyx blade near his face as he stared at its reflection.

And just like that, what little hope we did have was suddenly dwarfed at the realization that Erza wasn't the only one observing and learning her opponent, Symphony was as well.

"So what!?" Natsu yelled again. Leave it to him to keep fighting even in front of a powerful enemy. "We only attacked you one by one, but this time, we're all going to kick your ass!"

That seemed to cheer up Gray and Erza as they soon joined Natsu in a combined attack on the demon.

Yet… all Symphony did was bow his head down slightly. "I believe it's my turn to attack."

That was all it took before in one instant, a large purple magic circle encompassed the entire area. I noticed all the magic the top three were gathering had suddenly vanished while they were all mid air. The trio looked on surprise, but had instantly forgotten who they were flying towards.

Symphony didn't hesitate to kick the three of them back towards us.

Ignis got out of the way as the three of them crashed into the wall.

Lucy, seeing our strongest members taken out, took out one of her keys to help support them. " **Open, Gate of Taurus!** "

…

"Huh!? Taurus, come out! You don't usually ignore me!" Lucy stared at her key with growing panic. However, I paled as I recognized the magic circle we were still under. It was the same one I spent minutes trying to figure out how to undo.

I turned to the blonde mage, remembering something she told me and Erza earlier that day. "Lucy, didn't you warn me that moon energy could nullify magic, which was why Moon Drip existed?"

The celestial mage started to shiver as she seemed to be figuring out what I was saying. "W-What are you saying?"

I looked back down at everyone getting back up. Despite being able to stand, I noticed that they all seemed to be looking at their hands in confusion.

"Symphony has cancelled our magic!" I yelled out, my mind was working into overdrive as I pointed to the leftover water still in here even after Gray's attack. "Ignis, burn the water!"

The wyvern wasted no time at all as he shot a flame breath right into the water, instantly covering steam around the area. I yelled to the wyvern to grab Erza, Natsu, and Gray before we all flew out of there as quickly as possible.

* * *

"What the hell, Kain!? Get us back in there!" Natsu yelled as Ignis brought his tail up to drop all three mages onto his saddle.

"Hell, no!" Kain yelled back as Ignis flew back into the open and was led back towards the village. "You couldn't even harm Symphony with magic! That nullifying area he has makes it practically impossible to hurt him even with that weakness Erza found! We have to regroup and plan a different idea," the brown haired teen looked back at Gray. "And no, Gray! You are not using Iced Shell!"

"Are you kidding me?! That thing took my strongest attack like it was nothing! Even I can tell this guy is even stronger than both Lullaby and Deliora!"

"Then we make a better plan! Attacks do hurt him, but not while his defenses are up!" The muggle cried back to the ice mage as Ignis flew faster towards the town.

Even though they were all flying, they all suddenly noticed the area around them turn purple like back in the cave.

"He caught up to us already!?" Erza looked around for any sign of their enemy while still continuing. "Kain, move in a different direction, we can't let Symphony get near the vill—"

There was a deafening boom that hit Ignis on his side, causing everyone aboard to scream as the wyvern crash landed and flung everyone he was carrying into the ground like someone spilled chips.

The first to get up was Erza as she stood up on her feet and looked around for her team members. "I-Is everyone alright!?"

Kain's voice reached her first "I-I am somehow… oh. Uhh, Gray? I think Lyon cushioned my fall… and his arm is bending in a way that doesn't look possible." Double jointed doesn't begin to explain how his left arm is bending like that.

"To be honest this is all his fault anyway. A broken arm doesn't really make me feel bad." The resident Fairy Tail stripper got up and creaked his neck. "Besides, he'll just get a healer to look at it and in a week, it'll…." He trailed off as he saw the arm in question. "…and in a month or two he'll be fine." he corrected.

Natsu got up as if falling from a wyvern didn't bother him at all despite the dirt all over him. "Where is Symphony? I'm going to kick his ass for attacking us in the air!"

At that, Kain instantly looked over and screamed, "Ignis!" before running up to the weakened wyvern laying on the ground with smoke coming out of him.

"Please be alright!" The young man yelled as he checked for the creature's heart beat. To his relief, he could still hear it, but the red beast was out cold.

"We have to be on our guard, Symphony can be here any minute!" Erza said as she looked around for any sign of where Symphony might be among the now purple forest.

"A town of demons. How curious." The entire group looked over to Symphony facing the direction of the village with his back turned away from Fairy Tail. "They are… docile. Domesticated. I'm supposed to be the same class as them, but we could not be any more different."

"Don't you dare touch them!" Natsu roared at Symphony before running towards the newly fused demon.

Symphony looked back without any form of emotion. "I don't have to."

As soon as he said that, the bushes and trees around them started to move and shake. No one was expecting the people to come out was the entire village of Galuna Island running towards Fairy Tail like mad dogs. The closest ones didn't hesitate to pin Natsu to the floor.

"W-What the hell!? Guys!? Get off me!" He yelled as the Village Chief was snarling at him and forcing him to the ground. More of the villagers ran for the Fairy Tail mages, surprising them and pinning them to the point of immobility.

Kain was one of the first to notice something about a demon pinning him down to the ground. "T-They don't have pupils! Symphony is controlling them!"

Symphony started walking towards Fairy Tail after that statement was heard by everyone. "It is only natural that demons have some animalistic trait. They obey the alpha, which in this case is me." he threw his hand out and pointed to a ground in front of him. "Get them aligned."

Soon, despite everyone's best attempts, while also being hesitant to hurt the people they were sworn to protect, they were all put to kneel in front of Symphony with the demon towering over Kain first.

The young muggle in particular seemed to start hyperventilating as the demon towered over him. He looked like a scared little boy in front of an executor.

"Kain Reynolds, I believe this might be what is called utter gratitude. Had I not met you as Lullaby, I would have never been so close to reaching my goal. As such," he took out the blade he had stolen from Erza and transformed into a black katana and held it high over Kain's scared face. "your death shall be painless."

The man from another dimension himself had his eyes widen in fear as he just stared like a deer staring at a fast moving car about to hit him.

Everyone else was horrified to hear such a thing and struggled harder to get free from the grasp. Natsu especially was motivated to move like nothing before.

"KAIN!" To the surprise of everyone, Natsu powered through and tossed the demon civilians off him and punched the guys pinning Kain to the ground.

"Run, Kain! Run!" he yelled before turning back to Symphony with a battle cry that sounded almost desperate.

Kain got up in shock as he saw Natsu punching down the demon civilians as he made his way towards Symphony. However, Symphony easily swatted Natsu aside with his back hand and turned to look back at the non-magic user.

His look alone made Kain shiver in fear. Kain wasn't a powerful mage; he wasn't a warrior; he was just an ordinary person who was so scared… that he started to hyper ventilate and gasp for air frantically.

"Kain, run!" "Run, you idiot!" "Kain, get out of here!" "You must flee!"

Kain looked around as Lucy, Gray, Happy, and Erza shouted him to run before Erza and Gray got up and freed Happy and Lucy.

Happy activated his wings and grabbed Kain in an attempt to get him out of here while the others relied on their close combat to ward off their mindless clients. However, even with their skill, Gray and Erza held back tremendously in order not to hurt their employers too much. The fact they held back only made it worse for them due to the fact as demons, they were far more resistant to normal attacks.

"I'm curious, why are you fighting so hard to protect someone so weak?" Symphony asked before he snapped his fingers, making trees shoot their branches out and snag Happy mid air, causing them both to crash near Ignis.

"He's our friend! And we won't let you hurt him!" Nastsu cried as he punched Symphony in the face, but as he made contact, Natsu was the one wincing as the runes activated and made it so that Symphony would feel nothing.

Symphony pinned the dragon slayer down before snapping his fingers, making large sprouts of wood come out and ensnare everyone else except Kain and the hypnotized civilians. He then snapped his fingers again, causing his wooden restraints to gag all those ensnared and unable to speak.

"Very well, you will be the first to die then." Without missing a beat, Symphony raised his sword.

Kain on the other hand was already crying as he stood back up and could only watch in horror. He was going to die—worse, he was going to cause everyone to die because of what happened with Lullaby. This was all his fault and he could do absolutely nothing to stop it.

Stop it.

Stop it.

"STOP IT!" Kain desperately yelled as he saw the blade rise higher and higher.

Symphony sighed in boredom before putting his blade down. "Fine, I shall indulge you since I still want to test more of my new powers. But I rescind making your death painless."

"I-I…" Kain clenched his fist so hard that it started bleeding. Words couldn't come out but tears and frustration did.

"If you are wondering why I didn't trap you it was because I knew you couldn't do anything. But I will allow you one last sentence, make it count." Symphony was arrogant, callous… but how could he not be? He had taken every single precaution away from his enemies, their magic, their clients, for one of them, even their will to live was near shattered. Nothing but a miracle could save them now.

Kain absolutely hated himself, he hated how it came to all this. He wanted anything—anyone to help him out of this…

But it looked like no one was coming.

It was just him. All alone as he watched his stronger friend suffer and about to be put closer to death.

No one would save him this time.

And strangely… after all of that… he was starting to get really, really pissed.

It wasn't fair! He tried so far to help, and this is what he got for it!? No! His father… his father was always hard on him, saying that life wasn't fair in the slightest, but he had to be stronger, he had to move on and make choices to be better—circumstances be damned!

There was one thing left after all! One thing that had the potential to change this horrible situation!

Kain gritted his teeth and shouted so loud that even the heavens could hear the cry of a desperate yet determined young man.

"Please! Work!"

He swung his right arm, the one with a wyvern armlet, right in front of him as he slammed his left hand down right into the button of the device, which was the wyvern head itself.

As soon as he made contact, the device glowed with scarlet light before a giant flash of crimson light blinded everyone looking at the boy. The entire light that previously turned the forest and moon purple was now filtered into _red_.

Symphony, despite shielding his eyes from Kain, saw the change of color around them and the sky. "What!? What is this!? It can't be magic, I'm nullifying it!" He said as he felt his senses blare with something foreboding coming his way.

The crimson light snapped the demons out from Symphony's control and the wood restraints on the Fairy Tail mages had dropped and shattered into dust.

Everyone present, and the very few spying from the distance, looked to the light, and as it died down they all could not believe what they were seeing.

Kain was now clad in full crimson armor much like a knight, but his helmet had the designs of a wyvern head, with small horns perturbing outward like it did with Ignis. He had a long red cape that flowed in the wind but was revealed to be parted in two, and his helmet also had a face plate that looked sharp and had a black visor made of glass like substance that spanned over his eyes.

Later on, Kain would quote to himself that he looked almost exactly like a Power Ranger in armor instead of spandex. (Much later on he found out that he was only power ranger like in appearance, everything else was different but that will be elaborated on another day.)

But to everyone else…

He looked like a Wyvern Knight.

Inside the armor, Kain had momentarily lost all form of thought. However, it was instantly replaced with his instincts that somehow knew what to do with the armor….

Along with blinding rage.

"HAAAA!" Everyone heard the filtered and angry scream of the knight before he started to run—run faster than Symphony and anyone, himself included, expected to—and punched him right in the gut with so much force that there was a visible shock wave from the impact along with a loud bone-crunching crack sound followed by a loud gasp of both shock and pain.

To Sypmhony's surprise _it hurt a lot_. He was not expecting his defeated enemies to fight back with this much ferocity and success. He had obviously played with his enemies because he assumed that there truly was no way for them to get out of this situation. However, he had obviously let his guard down and had now made a huge mistake.

After the attack, the fused demon backed off a safe distance from his new opponent and glared at the red knight now standing before him.

The red knight threw his cape away from the front of his body as he showed a clenched fist to Symphony. "That was for Happy!"

He stomped on the ground and with another burst of speed, maybe even faster than the first time, and rushed for Symphony a second time.

Again, Symphony was not expecting him to be so fast, but this time he powered up his runes across his body. Surely they would—

"GAH!?" Symphony flew as he was punched with something that felt like the force of ten wyverns! But something was wrong besides the amount of pain he was feeling. He knew he activated his runes, but why didn't they work!?

"That was for Lucy!" What!? Symphony turned his head mid flight. How was he already behind him!?

Kain kicked Symphony back with an impressive round house that threw Symphony's new body through several trees. However, the fused demon landed on his feet and slid to a stop.

"That one was for Gray," The red wyvern knight started walking towards him with a dangerous glint shinning off his visor. "This one will be for Erza."

"This can't be happening!?" Symphony whispered to himself as he gathered energy into his arms and several magical circles appeared in front of him then suddenly a large beam of magical energy shot out of it like a cannon.

The knight ran right for the beam much to the shock of everyone involved, including Kain himself as he trusted his instincts. As the beam came close to the armor, something strange happened again: the magical energy dispersed upon contact, not even harming the armored boy in the slightest. Symphony and everyone stared in bewilderment even when Kain ran right in and upper cut the demon high into the sky.

With a powerful leap, Kain caught up to the demon in the sky and brought his hands together.

"And this one is for hurting Natsu!" With every ounce of force he could muster, he brought his hands down and slammed the demon into the ground like a meteor.

Kain landed down in front of Fairy Tail and the island locals. Everyone was in shock at the sight before them and a large number of them were confused beyond their minds.

"K-Kain?" Lucy managed to speak out to the knight in red. "A-Are you in there?"

The figure in crimson turned towards her before slowly looking at himself. "Yeah… I… I… did I really all do that?" The voice that came out was in utter disbelief, but it sounded exactly like the Kain they knew.

"Whaa! How on earth are you wearing armor like that!?" Natsu ran up to look at every corner of Kain in the suit. "I've never seen something like that before in my life!"

"I just… I just…" it seemed like Kain himself didn't know what to say.

"I have made mistakes."

That voice suddenly turned the mood back into something grim as out of the dust, Symphony walked out of the crater. There was a sound of hissing that made everyone look towards his wounds that all seemed to be reforming back to prefect shape despite all of Kain's unbelievable attacks.

"No way, even after that, he can just heal himself!?" Lucy gasped at the same time shivered in fear.

"Alright, you punk, round two!" Natsu screamed as he tried to power up… but he realized that Symphony never lifted the purple—now red hue covering the area, meaning they still couldn't use magic.

"Kain," Erza yelled, making the knight look at the S-class mage. "You're the only one who can fight him! Hold him off while we evacuate everyone!"

"R-Right!" While he was unsure how he did all that, Kain was now going to make sure that he would help out and fight… somehow.

While Erza and the others tried to herd the villagers away from the fight, Kain ran up again in order to punch Sypmhony, but the demon was more than prepared this time. The humanoid demon side stepped the attack before tripping the knight into the ground and kicking him into a tree.

"Magical based attacks don't work on you, but physical ones do." Lullaby darkly noted as he suddenly shifted into a fighting stance. "This is pay back for a while ago."

As soon as Kain got up, Lullaby wasted no time in rushing for the boy, unleashing a devastating combo of punches and kicks on to the knight. Kain, while he was bracing the blows much better thanks to the armor, realization came to him that he couldn't fight at all. It was obvious as night and day that those hits Kain scored earlier were nothing but sucker punches when Symphony's guard was down. The fused demon unleashed a strong right hook that knocked Kain into the ground and forced him to slid back a good distance.

Soon after, the other Fairy Tail mages all ran up to their friend when they made sure the other villagers were safe from the battle.

"Kain! Are you alright!?" Gray cried out to him as they all gathered around him. Erza in particular knelt to see if there was any way he was still conscious.

They all breathed a sigh of relief when they heard Kain groan in pain. He was hurt, but not out.

"So much for your last hope," Symphony stalked over to them and raised his arm. The sword he dropped during Kain's attack flew right back into his hand. "I will not be making that same mistake again."

Things weren't looking good. Kain was their last hope, but as of right now, he stood no chance against the raw power of the fused demon.

"Damn! If only we could use magic!" Natsu cried out as he clenched his fists.

"With or without them, we will fight you!" Erza cried out as she stood up to protect Kain. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy were quick to join her in facing down Symphony.

Symphony slowly put himself into a stance after he heard this. His sword rose skillfully and pointed to his targets. "Then die."

Kain got back up as the demon said this. With speed, he shouted out loud, "Actually," which caused the fused demon and his friends to look at him with confusion.

"Let's beat this guy _with_ magic." With that, Kain jumped back from everyone and lifted his fist high… then punched the ground as hard as he could. The red color around them started to crack all around them until the entire color shattered like glass, returning all the other colors back to normal.

Natsu instantly checked his fist, and as he did fire came back to his arm. "Oooh yeah! Now we're talking!"

"You broke the moon essence!?" Kain would always remember the look on the demon's face as he said this from then on. He had no idea he could make powerful demons look with shock and surprise.

Kain smiled inside his visor as he walked back to his friends who were now powering up. "You said it yourself Symphony: I seem immune to energy based magic. Wasn't your field of Anti-Magic something like that?"

The knight now pointed to the fused demon. "Now you're going to feel the true wrath of Fairy Tail's greatest team! Team…!" Kain froze mid sentence as everyone looked to him with some amount of worry. The knight put down his hand and looked to everyone else. "What do we call ourselves, anyway?"

"Team Natsu!"

Gray was quick to turn to his best enemy friend. "Over your dead body, flame farts!"

"Both of you stop it!" Erza barked, causing both Gray and Natsu to drop glaring at each other instantly. "It's obvious we are Team Fairy Tail!"

Lucy scratched her face at her teammate's rather simple name. "Actually, that's kind of redundant." She shook her head and pointed at Symphony. "Can we please focus back on topic of the super demon in front of us!?"

The fused demon was tired of being looked down upon and quickly went for Team (Name Here). All mages and Happy scattered as they avoided the blow. Natsu was the first to jump back in with fire blazing his fists.

"That will not work!" Symphony declared as he powered up his runes.

However, when Natsu punched him, he felt the stinging burn… and the touch of someone behind him!

Symphony quickly pushed Natsu back before turning his head to see Kain was already touching his back.

"It looks like you can't activate those annoying runes when I'm touching you!" The red knight screamed out.

Symphony roared as he raised his sword hand to cut the knight down. However, his hand was then caught by a whip that prevented him from following through. He hurriedly glanced down the whip to see Lucy pulling as hard as she could along with Happy to prevent the blade from touching their friend.

Then Kain grabbed on to Symphony's waist and calmed on tight. "Now!" The red knight cried out as he seemed to tense and brace himself.

When the demon turned around, he was faced to face with Gray wielding an ice enhanced blade and Erza wearing her Black Wing Armor. The two unleashed a powerful slash a second after Kain got out of the way. The energy of the two sword attacks blasted the demon away.

Symphony flipped mid air and slid to a stop. He stood back up and he slammed his fists together and suddenly, a dozen magical circles appeared. They all fired energy blasts at the team, making everyone move to avoid them and leaving a few for Kain to get in front of Lucy and Happy to dissipate some of those blasts.

The demon angrily roared as he then stomped into the ground, instantly shooting out a large amount of vines towards Erza and Gray.

Natsu sped past the two of them, fire burning brightly as he yelled and unleashed a powerful flame that blasted through the wooden spikes.

Symphony kicked his leg, sweeping the fire away from him, but then Erza, Gray, and Natsu had closed the gap.

He activated his runes to up his defense. However, to the demon's surprise, all three of them froze.

Natsu, Gray, and Erza smirked before they all jumped out of the way for Kain to come in at the speed of a bullet and smash his fist into Symphony's gut a second time. The armor broke through the protective magic of the runes and made the demon stagger, gasp in pain, and let go of the protective magic. As the red knight backed off, that was the cue for the other three to unleash hell on the downed demon.

Even with his runes down, Symphony still seemed to take in all attacks. He braced himself and stood strong despite the attacks while quickly gaining energy.

"Enough!" Sypmhony, in a burst of energy, blasted Erza, Natsu, and Gray into three separate directions. However, Kain was immune to this blast of energy and now stood alone in front of a towering Symphony.

Using his blade, Symphony ran for Kain and tried to slash him into pieces. Kain; however, was fast enough to avoid cuts so sharp that the air was cut whenever and wherever the demon swung his blade.

It was then that a loud cry came from behind Symphony which made the large demon look behind him. He swung his blade backward to block a giant axe that was used by a humanoid cow.

"How dare you hurt Ms. Lucy, three eyes!" The cow cried out as he backed off the clash and swung his axe horizontally at the fused monster. However, the demon ducked under it and then unleashed a heavy punch right into the jaw of Taurus and sent him flying through several trees from the impact.

Symphony realized Kain was still behind him and quickly turned around. However, his three eyes only caught something red quickly ducking just beneath his view.

Symphony' sight followed his opponent—but only saw a fist rising up to black out his sight.

Kain had jumped and punched Symphony upward with every ounce of strength he had left. The resulting impact created a loud, resounding cracking noise coming from Symphony's jaw before he was sent like a rocket up high into the sky and causing the demon to drop his blade a second time.

During the fight, Ignis was slowly getting back up and as he saw his friends winning, he roared back to life as he fought through the pain and fired a large orb of flames towards Symphony. Erza and those that could also use launch long ranger attacks fired them at the airborne Symphony, causing a massive explosion for the entire island to see.

Symphony's burning person fell into the ground like a boulder. He rose back up to his feet, his wounds still healing from all the damage he took.

"I will grind you all beneath my fee—" The fused demon stopped mid threat. There was a red knight missing among their group and all of his enemies were looking up with varying levels of shock and elation.

Before he could even process what that image meant to him, a shadow descended on him, forcing Symphony to look up… and see Kain holding his blade!

"HAAA!" Kain followed through with the slash, shredding through Symphony's torso and leaving a huge gash on it.

Symphony roared with deafening pain. He staggered backward and clutched the wound with his hand.

However, unlike all the other wounds, this large scar was not healing! Symphony looked up, spotting Kain wielding the blade.

In his hands though, the sword began to transform again. In a bath of red light, the katana transformed into a sleek red broadsword that matched Kain's armor.

The pain from the sword was not healing. In fact he could feel it dampening his healing factor and making his new blood boil over mysterious energy that felt different from regular magic. It was enough to make him fall into his knee and gasp for breath as he tried in some way to lessen the burning sensation across his chest.

He lifted his head up, anger featured over his demonic visage, "You will pay for this!" With his vengeful yell, team (name here) got prepared for anything, but they weren't expecting Symphony to grow wings and start flying!

Flying…

… He was flying away…

A few seconds passed. It was then that Lucy seemed to shout out in cheer after seeing no sign of Symphony returning. "We won!"

Everyone gasped as the threat finally left them. Kain in particular dropped the blade—which vanished instantly—and then dropped to his knees. In a flash of red light, he was back to normal with the device on his right arm glowing faintly before stopping.

"Kain! Are you alright?!" Natsu was the first to see if the young man was alright.

The brown haired boy looked to the dragon slayer and started laughing weakly. "Natsu, I am sorry for how I acted these past few weeks. But please, don't choose another S-class quest for at least half a year."

A huge grin appeared on Natsu face before he also started laughing though far more genuinely.

His giant laughter was contagious as everyone else soon started to laugh as well, including Ignis.

They all earned it though. After this night, they wanted to do nothing but go home.

…

…

Erza was the first to stop laughing as she also sighed. "As much as we should celebrate. We still have to finish the mission." Everyone looked at her with disbelief as the composed armor mage continued. "We came here to cure the villagers, not fight off Lullaby and Deliora. Do you not all remember this?"

At the mention of that, Kain wisely added to the situation and said, "Well shit."

Then he promptly fainted on the spot from sheer exhaustion.

* * *

…

Elsewhere, watching Fairy Tail in the distance…

"Did you see that, sir?" A masked figure whispered to a floating crystal orb.

"Unfortunately, I only saw the last part when the young lawyer broke the magical essence preventing magic from working properly." The voice from the crystal responded with curious interest. "These turn of events are unpredictable to say the least."

"I can only imagine. I never expected Lullaby to appear and fuse with Deliora even in my wildest dreams. Should we now move into trying to control Symphony?"

"That will take too many resources to do. Symphony seems to be in a level beyond both demons, and the only reason why he lost was due to the fact he was still learning how to use his new body." The voice impassively explained. "But I don't believe we have to worry about Lullaby. However, do keep an eye on Fairy Tail's new lawyer. Even when the moon essence stopped, his image was static-like the entire time the orb observed him."

"It was?" The masked stranger asked curiously.

"Makarov did report that they potentially stumbled onto something in the oldest and widest spread 100 year old quest. If the rumors and legends are even half true, the lawyer has stumbled on to something that will without a doubt play an important role in the future."

At this, the masked strange gave a wide smile. "Would you like me to add a new note along with the Salamander file?"

"Oh yes, please. I want everything on this new player."

What the two silent conspirators didn't know at the time: Symphony could still hear them while he was leaving the island.

The injured fused demon was currently stationary a few hundred feet above the sea as he turned back towards the island, hearing the entire conversation even miles away.

"Hmm, it appears I can still hear voices through remains of my wood magic that was scattered throughout the fight. A new power that I must note," He clenched his fist. "That outside voice was correct. I underestimated my enemy and myself, causing this _scar_ in the first place." He traced a hand on the scar the young armored knight now made across his chest. "I must be more efficient to prevent such a lackadaisical mistake in the future."

All three of his eyes glowed brightly as he looked out into the sea more determined than ever.

"I must train to become stronger in body, mind, and spirit. Only then can I even begin to start my main objective: to kill my master, Zeref."

* * *

 **Edit: Okay, thankfully, my notes needed some new context because I was power scaling things wrong the first time. Instead of just comparing, I'll leave you all to guess how powerful Symphony is since I made the mistake of thinking Second Origin was not as powerful to me as it is to most people. He's strong, but not "Enemies past the Seven Year skip" strong. That should scale things down better since the first notes here, I imagined him around the same level as those guys from that demon guild when they were more powerful than I remembered, leading to some misconceptions on power scaling.**

 **(You guys can call the morpher a Deus Ex Machina. As much as I would have liked it to not be like that, certain things about the morpher won't really be explored yet until the Nirvana Saga and any time to explain it now would make very little sense and seem out of place and not organic for my story when the characters don't know how it works.)**

 **And now, boom! Kain has a way to fight back by becoming a POWER RANGER!**

 **Go-go power rangers!~ Doo Doo doo do doo~**

 **In all seriousness, the design closely resembles a power ranger, but I've tweaked it a bit so it's something else completely here in the world of Fairy Tail. (It's even got its own tie into the overall plot of this story, according to my notes I wrote when I was dying of the flu.)**

 **I'm so glad this chapter is done. Now Kain does have a way to not die as easily as before and at the same time, he still isn't a mage! (Ha! This title is not lying to you!)**

 **I always find loop holes in stories fun as heck. If any of you decide to write, try to challenge yourself and write odd stuff, it is fun I swear!**

 **But before I end, I'm so excited! I can finally start an ORIGINAL ARC!**

 **That's right folks, the first original arc is coming soon! I'm so excited to write it, I hope you guys will be too!**

 **Oh and one more thing I need to ask you guys.**

 **How is the story? I would very much like reviews that aren't telling me to pair characters together almost every single chapter. (Why are those the only reviews I'm getting? I'm getting a few about the story and characters and those aren't much.) I'll work on pairings later. It isn't the purpose of this story.**

 **Anyway, that's enough for now, see you guys later, and thanks for reading!**

* * *

All across the planet of Earthland, several devices sparked to life…

The first one only sparked a maddening conclave of a million roars among a sea of clad pink creatures.

And then, there was a scream to silence all monstrous shouts in a second, one so powerful it could make the bravest of men weep in fear by just hearing it.

With a low growl, the creature stared into the horizon, sensing something was coming, something big, even if his animalistic mind could not comprehend it. Something was drawing him, him and his 'clan' but he could not pin point where it was coming from.

These 'thoughts' would have to wait. A stronger instinct was overriding every other one at that moment.

Hunger.

The creature clad in pink then jumped into the air, followed by a swarm.

It was time to feast.

* * *

The second and third one were together, spotting their hands as a blue and yellow glow enveloped them.

"I sense red even though the colors are the same as they have always been. The Crimson Bohemian has been activated."

"My lord," The other said. "Do you know what this means?"

"Of course. Prepare our forces, the war for a **new god** shall soon be upon us!"

* * *

And the last one, a black glow came on the wrist of a man in a dark room.

"Hahahaha," He laughed in a calm and eerie manner. "Mr. Kain Obadiah Reynolds, you magnificent son of a gun. You're accelerating my plans better than even I could have hoped for."

* * *

…

"Huh?" Happy looked up to Kain while the residents of Galuna were flying around happily at the return of their memories. "Jeeze Kain, I didn't know you were such a softy to start crying over this."

"Wha?" To Happy and Kain's surprise, the young man turned to the blue cat with confusion. "Crying? I'm not…" Instantly, he felt something in his cheeks and put his hands on them to find they were indeed wet.

However, he wasn't expecting the tear to be filled with four different colors.

Kain wiped his tears dry and looked at it again, seeing that the tears were back to their normal color. It confused him, but he didn't exactly know what to make of it. Perhaps he was still exhausted from the battle with Symphony?

Neither the young man nor the blue cat noticed Kain's armlet glowing four different colors before fading back to normal.

…

Ignis knew this and turned away as soon as he saw the light fade. While resting from his injuries, the red wyvern simply looked beyond the happy demons and glanced towards the moon. If anyone had decided to look at the crimson dragonic beast at this moment, they would have noticed how old and sorrowful his eyes truly were.

The red wyvern then gave a simple yawn and fell asleep, taking in all the peaceful slumbers it possibly could.

 _On this day, two powerful forces were born on Galuna Island._

 _One would destroy the world,_

 _And the other would save it._

 _However…_

 _The one you most expect, is the least likely to gain their title._


	8. Chapter 8

**{Author Notes}**

 **Wow guys, thanks so much for the 100+ follows for just seven chapters!**

 **But eeehhh, I'm sure** _ **nothing significant**_ **happens in this chapter. You can skip it if you want to. It's filler.**

* * *

"Aaah! Magnolia, home sweet home in another dimension!" I sighed in relief as the town came in sight up in the air. I motioned Ignis to land near the edge of town much to the surprise of everyone else.

Gray was one of the first to speak up about this as we landed. "Why are we stopping here and not the guild directly?"

I turned to him after he said that. I felt blood rising to my cheeks in embarrassment as I said this next, "Umm right. It only occurred to me as we left this morning: I forgot to tell you guys that I had an appointment later today and I'm almost late for it right now." I have to help Kageyama Maru with building his case today.

"You have another job? That's good for you!" Lucy congratulated me. It seemed like that reason was good enough for everyone as they all hopped off Ignis.

"You guys can take it from here yeah? I've got to head there as soon as possible!" I yelled out to them as Ignis started flying up. "I'll catch up with you guys after lunch!"

With a wave goodbye, I left everyone to go to my other job. Yeesh, even after almost being killed by a demon, I have to go to a desk job.

It seems like work practices even in another world are as vicious and draining as in any other world.

How disappointing.

* * *

Thankfully, I left a copy of the files with Kage's office. So that meeting went well, even if I wasn't fully and properly dressed.

As Ignis landed on the backyard, I thanked it a lot before telling it to get a nice huge rest.

But now, it's nice to finally return to Fairy Tail!

…

Even if it's currently lively as all heck with how everyone was arguing. At least no spells were being thrown around this time.

"Hey guys, I'm back!" I yelled out, which seemed to silence everyone as they all suddenly turned to me.

"KAIN! HELP US!" What in the name of Abraham Lincoln's top hat are they all yelling about!?

I pushed Loke aside since he was one of the first to run up to me and start shaking me desperately. "Dude, what the heck!? You're acting like Natsu!"

"I _am_ Natsu!" Loke cried… wait what?

"What do you mean, you _are_ Natsu?" Needless to say, at this point I was giving him a disbelieving look.

"I said I _am_! And will someone please put on the lights!? It's getting hard to see here!" Okay wait, Loke knows he's wearing sunglasses. Only someone like Natsu would think… oh.

OH.

I turned to everyone. After a very careful observation, I noticed near everyone did look stranger than usual.

"Ahh Kain! Maybe you could help… somehow!" Lucy said as she, Gray, and Levy ran up to me before explaining what had happened.

I stared in utter awe after being told what happened. "The hell? It's like emailed viruses only with magic!"

"E-what?"

"Never mind that Natsu… I mean… Loke?" I questioningly asked as I viewed Na—Loke in Natsu's body drooling out flames that were obviously not in control. "Can you guys show me where the spell is? I want to read it myself."

They warned me reading at aloud might do something bad, but I argued I didn't have any magic whatsoever, so it should have been fine. After reading it for a few seconds, I looked to everyone in the room.

"I can probably tell by just looking, but who here has switched bodies? Raise your hand and stand next to the one you switched with." Okay, Master Makarov and Mirajane—going to need to fix that pronto. Elfman and Cana (well that is a bizarre switch). Happy and Erza: ooohhhh that's gotta hurt Erza. Loke and Natsu, yeah I know those guys. And lastly, Jet and Droy: I don't see that much difference in them.

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe—you two. Jet and Droy. You're both up." My finger landed on the two that seemed the least bothered by their change.

"Huh?" "What?" They said in confusion and union.

I clapped my hands together to get everyone's attention then pointed out the door. "Alright, everyone else: get out!"

"Huh!?" They all screamed at me.

In hindsight, I probably should explain how this is going to work. "Look, reading the spell out loud switched bodies right?" I waited for all of them to at least take time to say yes in their mind before continuing. "So why stop there? Let's keep using the spell until our bodies are switched to the proper owners."

I stopped for a second and looked to my manager who was my boss but still manager… okay that didn't make sense, "Mira—I mean Master, Mira should have a light pen in her pocket, could you let me borrow it for a second?"

Mira's body seemed to give a suspicious smile at the thought of checking out her own clothes. "Don't mind if I—"

"And if you take too long, I will allow some complaints and debts to file through to the guild if you don't take this seriously." In an instant, the light pen was tossed to me with Mira looking somewhat depressed.

"T-Thank you, Kain." Mirajane in master's body spoke up.

I nodded before drawing six stick figures in the air along with a square.

"Alright, pretend the square is the spell. Now, when Natsu first read it, it switched the souls of six people and each were all next to each other." I explained as I started to erase four of the stick figures. "What I'm planning is that so only Jet and Droy are going to be in the guild," I drew a circle around the two figures and the square then drew a several stick figures outside the circle I labeled guild. "Then when everyone is a safe distance, the two will read out the spell, causing a switch. Since the spell does it automatically, it will switch to whoever is closest. Since there are only two targets, it should bring them back to their original body… you get it?"

"Of course! That's so simple!" Levy stated out loud before flushing. "I guess this needed a different kind of thinking than what I had out planed."

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's just an idea. I don't know if this might backfire in some way," That seemed to scare Jet and Droy.

However, I just smiled. "So! … We'll get out of your way, and when we close the door behind us, you two read the spell, and come out if nothing or something happens. … Unless it's dangerous then handle it yourselves."

I am so good at this inspiring stuff. I should write a book.

* * *

We all waited outside, after a flash coming from inside the building, everyone looked with anticipation before Jet opened the door with a smile.

"Guys! I'm back to normal!" He yelled as Droy soon followed.

"Whoo! Good thinking, Kain!" Lucy cheered as she and Levy praised me for the idea.

"Thanks," I responded before clapping my hands. "Now, Erza and Happy, you two go in and do what Droy and Jet did."

"Aaww what!? But I don't wanna!" Happy in Erza's body said. "I like being tall and pretty!"

"Happy, we are going to get our bodies back now move!" Erza in Happy's body yelled with all the vigor she could muster… it's too bad no matter how hard she was pushing, Happy wasn't budging.

However, I came with an idea that wasn't very orthodox. "Alright, I didn't want to do this. Happy, you're going to switch with Erza, and I'm going to explain why."

"Nothing you can say will make me want to go!" Happy huffed as he looked away from me.

I sighed before tapping on Erza's shoulder and telling Happy to close in before I whispered something in the ear he was borrowing.

As I finished, Happy stared in horror at me as I nodded. "It's true. All of it."

"We gotta switch, now!" Happy said as he grabbed his body and ran in with Erza.

Everyone was looking at me weirdly after seeing such a sudden change in Happy. I don't blame them for that really.

It seemed like Gray was the one brave enough to ask me what everyone was thinking. "Kain, what did you say to Happy that made him change his mind so quickly?"

I sighed as I looked around. Seeing as how most of us were adults here and one wyvern, I revealed what I had said. "If he wanted to stay as Erza, he was going to find out how Mother Nature works in the form of menstrual cramps."

Everyone at the mention blushed profusely. The females in male bodies blushed even more if possible.

"I-I want next!" Cana—wait no, Elfman cried out.

"No way, wait your turn, I'm next!" Master Makarov shouted desperately. Looks like he realized that having such a 'nice body' had disadvantages.

"Heck no! We're next! I can't stand drooling lava!" Loke in Natsu's body declared.

It didn't take much before everyone started fighting again.

There weren't that many left, so this shouldn't be a long time.

But it was going to be a _long_ time.

* * *

After the fiasco known as the "Changeling" was over, we had to report what had happened on Galuna Island to Master Makarov.

"Lullaby and Deliora fused together? That is a disturbing omen." He seemed deep in thought after hearing such a story.

Erza nodded before putting a hand towards me. "We wouldn't have survived if not for Kain activating the mysterious weapon. I think it is safe to say that it is indeed one of the five super weapons if it could give even someone like Kain power to fight against a fused demon."

"That is also something we must address." Makarov stated more like a fact he was confirming rather than adding to a conversation.

However, this raised a lot of questions. I raised my right arm and the strange device in question to prove my point. "Uhh, what do I do now? The quest described these things making people go crazy and let's all be honest: no one here wants that."

"That is also true." Makarov then started to play with his mustache. "First of all, can you transform into this armor for me?"

I looked back at the device and nodded. With some hesitance, I pressed the button. However, my body did something strange before I could press it. I stood in a firm stance, threw both my hands out then brought them together quickly to have my left hand slam on to the Morpher on my right wrist. Despite me wondering why I did something so needlessly dramatic, in a flash of red light, I had easily transformed into the same armor I had on back on Galuna Island.

Everything felt different now that I was paying more attention to the armor. I could easily see the table, every single wooden line, every crevice, every bump, nook, and cranny. I could hear everyone around me, how their hearts were beating normally while beyond the walls, I could hear even others conversations as if I was right in front of them.

Besides smell, my hearing and sight had been amplified, maybe to Natsu's level or less but I had no idea how to measure that right now.

"Why did you do that posing?" Gray asked as I eased into the armor. Even though he said that in normal volume, my enhanced senses seemed to take that like he was screaming.

"Uhh, I don't know?" My own voice sounded somewhat filtered as it escaped the helmet. In all honesty, I sounded more heroic, which was cool. But why did I pose? Was it some kind of magical influence on my subconscious? Or was it my inner seven year old self doing a hostile takeover in my brain and forcing me to perform a cool pose before being a different universe Power Ranger? Maybe both? Questions for later though. "The weird thing though is that no matter how much I pressed this before, it wouldn't work. But after Symphony almost killed you guys, it then started to activate very easily."

"Why would it do that?" I don't know if it was me, or maybe the armor, but now it seemed like when Makarov started speaking again, his voice was back to normal, but I could still hear and focus on other conversations in the back if I wanted to. It was like the armor itself was trying to adapt to my senses.

I shrugged my shoulders, realizing that I didn't even feel the weight of the armor as I did so. "I don't know? There must have been some trigger besides a near death experience, but so much was going on that I don't think I would be able to pin point it."

The guild master seemed to muse deeply once more. "I think it would be a good idea to really test the limits of what your armor can and can't do. Then from there, we should start your training."

Hmm, he does have a point. Finding out what else I can do know would give me a better—wait a second. "Excuse me? What was that about training?"

I started to feel a bad pressure around me when I noticed not only Makarov, but Natsu, Erza, and Gray smirking at me. Master started speaking, "Power corrupts but a strong mind along with a strong body can help ease the soul and prevent something like that from happening. If these devices did corrupt their wielders, it is more than likely because no one was there to temper their growing power."

I've heard enough political and legal bull crap to know he's using pretty words to hide the ugly truth.

Makarov was going to train me like a Fairy Tail wizard even though I wasn't a wizard. After all the way of the warrior is the way of balance if all those kung-fu movies I watched meant anything.

It basically meant they were going to train me like a dog for a hound competition.

But now here comes my power play: do I call him out on it? Or do I play along?

… If there was anyone out there, what would you think I should do?

Let's just go for broke. "So, you're just going to train me how to fight like Erza?"

"What? No," Huh? Then why is he pointing to Erza right now? "You're going to be trained by Erza to fight like Erza."

Oh.

I looked over to the red head in question as a smile(?) spread across her lips. "Don't worry. I'll be easy on you for your first week."

Why is my 'bull-shit' sense tingling when she said that?

* * *

[Later that day.]

Hello Ms. Floor, we have got to stop meeting like this.

… Have I said that before? It's kind of hard to really focus with my head spinning around… right round… like a record baby… right round round round.

* * *

Due to Kain's currently questionable mind state, we will be switching to 3rd person point of view.

"Get up, Kain. While your swordplay has been improving, it is definitely going to need more work." Erza kindly said as held the wooden sword downward in a resting position while the two were on top of a padded floor in the middle of the guild.

The young and quite bruised man stood up much like a newborn baby deer, wobbling like crazy to stand up straight.

As he did, he tried to point his practice blade at Erza.

As he did, he pointed his practice blade to Droy who was Erza's opposite direction.

"Umm, Erza? I think all those blows to the head has finally caught up with him."

The red haired swordslady seemed to consider this voice of reason. "I suppose you're right. Kain, we are done for today. Do not forget to practice your swings." Erza said as she started walking over to the master.

The wobbly teen looked towards the one who said that and gave them a thumbs up. "Thanks a lot for saying that, Wakaba!"

"Kain, I'm Laki. Laki Olietta." The purple haired, wood make mage stated flatly.

"Yeesh, poor guy. I haven't seen Erza train someone this hard since Natsu's re learning of language." The real Wakaba commented as he viewed Kain with pity.

As if to prove Wakaba's point—even though it was painfully obvious to everyone in the guild—it looked like Kain was very close of collapsing right where he stood.

However, he did have one thing left to say to Laki. "Thanks, Wakaba, you have a nice penis."

Everyone gapped at the string of horrible words that Kain had just slurred out.

Laki in particular was flushed and was quite peeved at the comment. It didn't help that she in particular hated perverts most of all. "You pervert! **Wood Make: Fist**!"

However, while rage blinded her from realizing she was technically attacking someone with (hopefully) temporary brain damage, Kain had actually given up on being conscious and fainted right where he stood no sooner than he made that mistaken comment.

So Laki's attack flew over her intended target and hit Nab instead while he was still looking at the Job request board.

Nab looked back, more than a little annoyed at something hitting the back of his head. "You bastard! Whoever did that was toast!" In his fit of rage, he blindly attacked where his instincts felt the wooden fist came from. Laki avoided the magical blast, but Gray was unfortunately right behind her and it hit him instead.

No sooner than Gray got up from the blast, he instantly snarled and prepared an ice attack of his own. "Natsu!"

The attack was nowhere near his direction, but Gray didn't hesitate to fire an ice blast at his 'best' friend.

Soon, another all out brawl broke out on the guild, causing Makarov to sigh as chaos ensued.

"Master," Erza walked over to him despite the madness going around them. "Kain has been learning how to fight well… almost too well."

"So you've noticed it too huh? The legal and book information… that made sense because Kain was obviously studious, but as you were training him, his body and formed seemed to be growing as each second passed by."

Erza looked at the ironically peaceful Kain sleeping on the padded mat while everyone else continued fighting around him. "Every time I attacked him, I noticed his stance and poise get increasingly better over time. Kain has said he wasn't very physical to begin with, so how is that possible? Is it a hidden talent?"

Makarov instantly shook his head at the mention. "No, with all respect to Kain, he is the type of person who uses his brain than his muscles. It doesn't make sense for him to have such a hidden talent so it must be the device or Morpher as he coined it." Makarov stared deeply at the thing attached to the boy's wrist before taking a sip of his drink. After wiping his mouth, he continued, "The artifact is tuning his body to become more warrior-like from just fighting."

From the side, Mirajane asked with worry, "What should we do now, Master?" it seemed like she too heard about what was said about Kain gaining fighting ability quickly.

"Tomorrow and for the rest of the week, we'll be testing his other attributes such as…"

* * *

Strength!

Kain in armor was carrying a large metal platform. Then, Makarov and several other mages kept pilling more and more weight onto the platform for Kain to carry.

He was doing well… so well in fact that Natsu and Elfman felt threatened by Kain of all people and offered to do the same thing as well.

Unfortunately, Mira was able to convince the master to let them do that. It seemed like Kain's armor could handle a large amount of weight more than both Natsu and Eflman.

That was a bad thing.

Natsu, being the most competitive thing in existence, refused to lose to Kain of all people. In response, the young knight simply said, "I'm glad you think _so highly_ of me, buddy."

Snark aside, the young man from a different dimension started to panic when Natsu started pouring out fire to boost his strength.

The problem with this was that he was still in the _wooden_ guild.

I'll leave how bad it went to your imagination.

…

Then tell you to multiply it by three because that's how bad it went. (Gray picked a bad (or was it good?) time to go out to eat lunch.)

Despite how badly things escalated form there, they did find out that Kain was indeed as strong as a wyvern while using the armor.

* * *

Speed!

This one was going to be a simply race to measure how fast he was going to be able to move. Jet was proud to be the one to help measure Kain's newfound speed since he prided himself as Fairy Tail's fastest speed mage—technically the only speed mage, but it was best to let him have his moment instead of standing the in the background all the time like he usually does with Droy.

"Don't worry, Kain, I'm naturally faster than even Erza using her speed armor. You shouldn't feel so bad if I leave you in the dust."

Unfortunately, the boy from another dimension was finding out that when Jet had the spotlight, the attention went straight up his ego. In retrospect, he does deserve these shining moments of attention in a guild full of monsters and big characters…

But Kain was a bitter son of a gun and decided to get even with the guy for making him feel belittled.

"Whaaa whoa!" Kain wobbled as he tripped nearby Jet before entering running position. Then he quickly got up. "Sorry, this thing is weird sometimes since it feels like a second skin."

"Don't worry about it!"

After Jet's comment, Mirajane shouted from the crowd a safe distance away from the two of them, "Race, begin!"

And with a sonic boom, Jet was off—hold on, why where his shoelaces tied together!?

"AAAHHH!?" Jet yelled as the magic made him trip up at sonic speed and crash into a toy store in the distance.

Everyone looked back at the starting line to see Kain just standing there. Despite wearing a visor, they could all tell by his body language he was as shocked as them, if not more.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhh I thought he would just fall on his face when I tied his shoes together?" The boy offered weakly before noticing the large crashing noise coming in the distance. "W-We do have a healer in the guild, right?"

They didn't.

However, in terms of running speed, Kain was found to be half as fast as Jet. It was nothing to scoff at, and it appeared his speed could be even in his arms with how quickly he tied his shoelaces without anyone noticing.

Oh, and Jet was going to have a speedy recovery. Get it? Huh? Huh? He's a speed mage and he's going to have a _speedy_ recovery?

No?

…

* * *

Vitality!

"Look, I know I made all those debt raising threats so I could sometimes have you do petty chores for me, but those were all jokes! I really don't have the power to do that! So with that in mind, do we really have to do this?"

Kain was in the middle of a giant painted target in the middle of the park, surrounded by every guild member available.

All of them came. (Except Laxus, the Thunder Legion, Mystogan, and Gildarts)

All of them joined. (Except Laxus, the Thunder Legion, Mystogan, and Gildarts)

All of them were about to unleash hell on the poor knight. (You know in hindsight, it's a really a good thing the previously mentioned aren't here.)

Makarov sighed as he got a lacrima designed to measure pain tolerance ready. "Don't worry, Kain. The chance of you dying from this is 50-50."

"Wait wha—"

"Fire!"

As it turned out, the armor had actually nullified around 50 percent of the attacks flying right for him. However, it seemed to only weaken elemental based attacks, but not fully stop them. With this in mind, it essentially made magic near useless against Kain which would no doubt help him in future events.

Perhaps in the hands of someone like Erza, The Morpher would be such a devastating tool.

In Kain's hands, well…

The smoking knight slowly crawled out of a crater and shouted out in anger. "That's it! I'm quadrupling all your debts!"

Makarov face palmed as everyone fired another volley at the lawyer/accountant of Fairy Tail in response to that.

* * *

Dexterity!

"No. I'm not doing this."

"But Kain—"

"Mira, this isn't an obstacle course, it's a death trap!" The alternate universe Power Ranger pointed towards the large area that was basically final obstacle course seen in the famous television show, Wipe Out. Only with less water and cushioned traps and a whole truck-ton of magical stuff everywhere.

"But how else, can we figure out your dexterity?" Mira was a little sad. She was the one to come up with this plan after a while and seeing her younger employee deny her ideas was hitting close to home.

"By measuring how fast I can run away from you all to avoid this." And with that… he did.

Unfortunately for the boy, the way the entire guild tried to hunt him down Magnolia was ironically more dangerous and destructive than the actual obstacle course.

Still, the armor also seemed to increase it by a large margin, but they couldn't quite specify it.

* * *

Charisma!

Kain, wearing a nice tuxedo, sat on a romantic candle lit dinner for two… all alone by himself.

He slammed his fist on the table. "WHY ARE WE EVEN MEASURING THIS!?"

* * *

And lastly… luck!

Kain looked around suspiciously. "Okay, so let me get this straight: all I have to do is power up the armor and walk down a block."

Makarov nodded as he prepared a floating lacrima meant to measure the time. "This one is a bit whimsical, but we do need to check it out. Alone, your luck is fairly abysmal, but we have to find out if the armor also amplifies this as it does with your ability to learn and your increase physical capabilities."

"You mean my luck might finally turn around? Sweet! Here I come!"

Kain was half way to his destination when a magic powered vehicle came speeding through the corner he was supposed to end and rammed into him. While the armor seemed to lessen the blow, Kain found himself stuck on the front of the vehicle as it kept moving in breakneck speed.

To his shock, Kain had found out the mad driver wasn't slowing down in the slightest and the knight started screaming when the vehicle went past the guild and jumped off the cliff looking out to the ocean. However, to his utter confusion, the vehicle started magically transforming mid air and turned into a boat before it landed on the water and speed away from Magnolia with a very befuddled knight in red.

It turned out that the one who captured him was none other than Agent 100 of Fiore's Secret Mage Service and they've been watching him for the past week and are deputizing him for a secret mission to save all of the continent of Ishgar from a power hungry mage looking to overthrow the King of Fiore.

The needed him and his Anti-magic armor to bypass a heavily fortified hidden base located in an active volcano named Mt. HooHaahaa. There, Kain had to fight through lasers, dino beasts, ninja mages, and Laser ninja mages who mutated into dino beasts.

All of this was done in order to stop a magical Nuke from killing everyone in the Capital City of Fiore, Crocus. When they got to the center of the secret base, the evil master mind, Mega Fluff, revealed to Agent 100 that he indeed was his father, which shattered the man and made him question the world he knew.

With incredible precision, and a inspiring speech he completely winged to Agent 100 with somehow not saying a single word, Kain fought off a super mutated laser ninja mage by kicking him hard on the crotch and was able to get stop the countdown launch codes down to the last two seconds.

However, it appeared Mega Fluff had a different plan all along in that he had a giant teleportation pad ready to send him and entire army of mutant ninja mages right inside the Secret Mage Service HQ and destroy it from the inside out.

Despite their best efforts, Agent 100 and Kain were unable to stop Mega Fluff from getting in the SMS HQ, which was located inside a different volcano, Mt. Supah Hut. In a attempt to save all of Earth Land, Agent 100 heroically sacrificed himself to stop Mega Fluff from releasing a truck ton of more magical nukes all over Ishgar, and made sure Kain got out safely through an escape pod that ejected him somewhere in the middle of the ocean as Mt. Supah Hut exploded.

That day, Ishgar was saved by the SMS, but that day, they also died without anyone ever knowing they existed… except Kain, which meant that if Kain ever tried to tell anyone about them, no one believe him since there was now no trace of them existing.

However, it wasn't the end as Kain's escape pod was fished up by pirates on their way to _another_ volcano island that held Mt. Moltres. The Pirates where after the treasure of the Island God, Obama and after forcing Kain to activate and disarm the traps for them, they all came in front of a massive temple built for the Tiki God.

The renowned god of the island presented himself in front of the mortals and challenged to all of them by trail of combat…

Through a dance off.

Somehow, the Captain and Kain were able to pull off some of the most synchronized dancing in existence despite meeting not too long ago and defeating the god of interpretative dance.

In his defeat, Obama gave everyone his treasure: the gift of being able to dance and sing very well.

The pirates cheered in tears of pure joy as for finally realizing that treasure was only the second greatest treasure in the world. Right below the treasure of spending time with their friends.

For a job well done, Kain was given a boat to get back to Magnolia. However, on his way back he was swallowed whole by a whale and accidentally coughed out to the ancient underwater city of a name he couldn't pronounce so he decided to name it Not-Atlantis.

There, he was recruited by the mermaid rebel alliance to take down the evil tyrant, Shark King.

…

But by now you guys see where this is going so instead we will just list the amount of things that happened to Kain on his misadventures back to Magnolia.

After saving Not Atlantis, Kain was put in a beach where a clan of giant man-eating crabs were about to start their revolution.

After stopping the revolution by turning the man-eating crabs into vegans somehow, he had to join an archeologist traveling through a temple of doom where it turned out the greatest treasure all along was knowledge with friendship just underneath it.

After that treasure hunt, they actually did stumble on to some treasure hoard, which Kain did not hesitate to spend to get him straight back to Magnolia before something else went down.

Then he was abducted by aliens.

Longer story short, and with an alien volcano or two somewhere in there, the aliens were kind enough to drop him off back in Magnolia and reward Kain with artifacts that instantly disintegrated when touching Earthland's atmosphere, making him unable to sell what could have been millions worth in Jewels.

Finally, he walked back to his guild after a hectic week…

He happened to stop at the very block he was supposed to end before the stupidest adventure known to man had stolen him.

"Oh Kain, you've returned." Master Makarov, who was just there by coincidence, pressed something in a device that stopped the timer on the floating lacrima. "It took you ten days, four hours, three minutes, and twenty seven seconds to walk from one block end to the other."

After reading the numbers on the lacrima, the guild master slowly looked to the strangely silent and dirty knight. "I'll risk sounding like captain obvious when I say that the armor seems to amplify bad luck as well."

Every language in existence, be it future or past, have and will forever fail in describing how much of an understatement that was.

Erza spotted him as she was walking by. "There you are, Kain. We have a lot of training to catch up with in the week you missed. Oh and Mira wants to start charging rent for your room now."

The boy from another dimension seemed frozen like a statue before finally yelling out, "SON OF A BIIIIIIIIIIIIII—"

A young and innocent Romeo Conbolt tugged on his father's coat as he pointed over to a still screaming Kain. "Papa, what does that B-word mean?"

Macao sighed deeply, silently cursing Kain for this.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Yep, nothing happened. … (Unless you count Kain saving the world and another planet in the span of a week something, but I'm totally not going to.)**

 **Basically, this was all just Kain testing out his new armor, and also training to become stronger in one of the most unconventional ways in fictional history.**

 **Now when I was making this chapter, I wanted to see how other writers handle their OCs in testing their new powers. However, and with total respect towards them, I found them to be kind of boring.**

 **I've only seen a few where they just practice the power, master it, then use it sometimes in a fight. It doesn't really feel like it lives up to its build up, especially when others seem to just react in surprise at OCs knowing such a 'high' leveled move.**

 **If I sound cynical, I apologize. I know they can do better than that.**

 **This entire chapter was me basically trying to put a more memorable spin in a character testing out their new powers. I tried to show Kain's new limits, while trying to be memorable in how those limits are shown.**

 **In the form of a montage…**

 **I bet Rocky Balboa would be proud.**

 **It's not perfect, but maybe down the lane, I can inspire another writer to take a far more fun way of showing how a character learns of their strength and power.**

 **Anywho, this filler was here to calm down from all the action these past few chapters. (Well for you guys, Kain on the other hand…) Next one, I'm going to do an original arc. I hope you enjoy it.**

 _ **Now then.**_

 **Here comes somewhat bad news.**

 **I made a (P)atreon account.**

 **I can hear you all booing about it but I'm not asking you to give me money.**

 **Seriously. I would like you too, but I know we're all tight on it.**

 **For me, especially so since I'm from a poor family and I'm busy a lot of the time.**

 **I would like to do the things that I love, but I can't really do it without sacrificing something. (P)atreon gives me the opportunity to turn my writing hobby into an investment and something worthwhile in my busy life.**

 **That is all I needed to say.**

 **I promise, money or no, I will still keep posting these stories. They're so much fun no to.**

 **I just would appreciate it if there was a way to turn my dreams into a proper investment.**

 **So how about some incentive? If I can reach maybe at least ten 1 dollar pledges before next week when the next chapter comes out, I'll post the chapter after that in the same weekend.**

 **This is just a test to see how these things will go. Either way, you will get the chapter next week.**

 **But be careful guys. When you pledge, you're going to be pledging for every chapter that comes in the future besides this one. Don't do it if you're not willing to spend that much money later on.**

* * *

A young woman walked calmly as she looked at a sign that said, "Telo Mining City. Two Miles Down The Road."

"Oooh, Éclair!" A cartoonish looking bird flew closer to his companion as he pointed to the sign. "Can we go there?"

"Alright. It would be nice to see what this city has in store."

As the woman and the bird started making their way, they didn't notice a cloaked figure hiding behind several trees and stalking them without notice.

" _Found… them…_ "


	9. Chapter 9

Today is the day! I admit that I am very excited.

Still, the cynical and suspicious part of me wisely made me go to Weasely's Wizard Wheezers, or as I lovingly call, WWW, early this morning and stock up on gear that could help me survive against the forces of douche bags with magical powers.

I mean, it's cool and all that I now have a mystical armor that is making me stronger, but it's got a really annoying downside in that it not only increases everything good in helping me fight, but it amplifies my already abysmal luck into stupid cartoon levels of unfairness. (Now that I think back on it that does explain a lot on why not just that last week but my over all testing of the armor almost made me lose what was left of my sanity.)

Words could not even describe how horrible my Luck test went when we were measuring the armor's abilities.

But besides that, I was currently doing my chores around the guild that cloudy morning like sweeping the floors, washing mugs, cleaning Cana's leftovers, wiping tables, cleaning Cana's leftovers, helping out with food, and cleaning Cana's leftovers with more vigor than usual.

"Kain is in a good mood, what is the occasion?" I spotted Erza nearby Mirajane as she said this.

I was close enough to take a few steps forward towards them and answer for her. "I won my first case as a defense lawyer and my client is coming here to Fairy Tail for his parole. Master Markarov and I talked about this and he helped sign the papers."

Erza seemed to realize something as I said that. "A client coming here for his parole? Do you mean Kageyama is coming here?"

I nodded. "Yep, Kageyama Maru, previously of the now disbanded Eisenwald guild, is now coming over to serve his parole as a Fairy Tail mage! I told Natsu about this a while ago and he dragged of Lucy to buy a cake for him as a welcoming gift."

"I was wondering why it felt more peaceful than usual." Erza looked around for the lively dragon slayer, but saw no sign of him. It was like she was just trying to validate my comment and got what she was looking for.

She then turned towards me with a casual smile. "You seem excited about him coming over."

"It's super cute how he is though." Mirajane gushed along with her friend's observation.

"Of course I am! … The excited part I mean—not the cute—you get the idea." I waved off my hand as my manager started to laugh at the correction. I cleared my throat before continuing. "I think Kage is a pretty good guy, so maybe he'll fit right in here!"

"So there is one person who thinks that."

That didn't come from Mira or Erza. I turned around to the voice coming behind me and I saw Kageyama holding a sack over his shoulder and lifting a hand towards me.

"Kage, you're here early!" I walked up to the shadow mage who seemed a little nervous. Weird how he appeared out of nowhere, but then again he does have the ability to move in shadows. "Welcome to Fairy Tail! What do you think?"

Kageyama put a hand over his eyes as he side stepped a lamp and into a shaded area. "It's a lot brighter inside than outside when it's cloudy."

I looked towards the lamp he stepped out from and asked, "Is that like a shadow mage thing if you're sensitive to light like that?"

Kage put his hand down as he seemed to think. "I… never really thought about that until now. I mean, Eisenwald was pretty dark, but that was because Erigor thought it was best like that. And now that it came up, Erigor has made a lot of downright weird orders as our leader. One time, he attacked a caravan that was filled with mascara and face-paint and we never sold any of it to the black market. In fact, it almost seemed like there was no trace of it soon after Erigor had his hands on it."

Oh, so I wasn't truly crazy in imagining he was trying way too hard to be dark and brooding? "Anyway, let's get you to see Master Makarov and then we can start on your first quest in an official guild again."

"A legal job huh? Haven't done one of those in a while."

Soon, even Erza and Mirajane followed us to the office where Makarov welcomed Kageyama into the guild. After a small warning not to mess up his second chance, Kage asked for a black stamp at the back of his right shoulder blade.

With that done, he was already ready to start questing again.

"Now I don't know if you were told this by your parole officer, but just in case, you are contractually obligated at least one job a week while under Fairy Tail." I repeated as we walked to the mission board.

"Yeah yeah. Are you going to follow me around?" The shadow mage turned to me as we stopped right in front of the board.

His tone was kind of hurtful, but as I thought about it I guess it stood to reason he didn't fully trust me yet. "For your first job? Yeah. I have to see how you're settling in, but other than that I can pretty much leave you alone with the others after that."

He seemed to understand that since I was his legal agent—he suddenly looked at me as if I had grown a second head that was speaking backwards while bees flew out of its nose. "Wait, what others?"

Now it was my turn to give him an incredulous look. "Kage, how much did your parole officer tell you about the stipulations of said parole?"

"Some stuff that he said I could ask you about. But what was that about 'others'?"

My face fell into a deadpan after realizing there was a 'miscommunication' somewhere in there. "Your contract dictates that you need to have two official mages chaperone you in all of your missions for the next three months."

"What!?"

His reaction gave me the exact same feeling. "Kage, it's one of the rehabilitation rules for mages going back into official guilds. It's one of the things I covered when we were going over your case."

Kageyama looked like he wanted to focus on something else. "Are you telling me that besides you, someone else has to babysit me on my first mission?"

I fought very hard to face palm after hearing that question. "Kage, we went over this, I'm not an official mage here in Fairy Tail. The contract states that you have to be chaperoned by at least two Fairy Tail mages during your three month parole period. That means, including me since I do have to report to your parole officer, two other mages will be officially joining us."

"What!? That sucks!"

"Kage, worst case was you going to jail for two years in a maximum magical penitentiary prison. You did break the rules for years before the Lullaby event. Even with Master Makarov vouching for you, your past crimes stacked up enough to put you into the low A-class punishment." I told him calmly.

The Ex-dark mage wanted to argue more, but as his mouth opened, he found he could say nothing. Instead he sighed and his posture slumped in defeat somewhat. "What does this do to my money then?"

"Well since no one informed you properly, I will remind you that you keep only 70% of the money you earn in quests and the rest goes to the guild for these three months." I placed a hand out to stop him from even opening his mouth. "And before you complain about _that_ , it took me hours to finally convince the court to bump it up to that number when the original limit was for you to keep only 50% of your jewels."

I could hear Kage's muffled groaning after hearing that. "… Thanks." I suppose this was progress from him being annoyed with me earlier.

I looked back at the bulletin board, and noticed Nab look away from us, no doubt hearing our conversation. Then I said to Kage, "You can pick a job now. When you're done, come back to me and I'll explain more on what to do next."

I ended up walking back to the bar counter with Mirajane and Erza watching me.

"He doesn't seem as happy as you about being here." The S-Class armor mage noted with the delicacy of a politician.

I rubbed my head as I thought about it more. "In hindsight, I didn't take into account that he'd be defensive when welcomed into a guild he was previously enemies with. On one hand, I think he does want to try, but on the other, I think he is still keeping his guard up."

I felt a hand on my shoulder that made me look back at Mirajane. "You're still doing a lot for him. Don't give up. I'm sure he'll appreciate you for doing this for him."

Mira always seemed to know what to say. "Thanks boss. You're right. I didn't study to become a lawyer just so I could be thanked."

Erza seemed to catch what I had said. "You didn't do it for that? Was it because it pays a lot then?"

"What? I mean, yeah it pays a lot, but that isn't the main reason why I chose to be a lawyer." They both looked at me curiously, which signaled that I had to explain to them why I chose that job specifically. "The reason I chose that job was because—"

"Hey, I picked a quest."

My attention was caught again as I looked over to Kage coming over to me and handing me a flier he picked up. I ended up reading it out loud. "Hello, mages. I am Mayor of Telo City, Harot Boutki. Our city is a mining town located in the great Valley of Galoen. The purpose of this quest is that recently, our miners have discovered a magically sealed room that predates the time of our founding fathers. We wish to hire any mage to dispel the barrier and see if there are any traps or treasure beyond this seal. If there is a plentiful bounty, we will reward mages with an extra bonus: one treasure of their choosing depending on the quantity there. Reward: 400,000 jewels." I finished as I looked back to Kage. "This looks promising. You are allowed to keep bonuses from quest jobs."

Kage gave his first sigh that was of relief. "That's good to hear, but how do the babysitters—"

"Chaperones." I corrected quickly.

"The 'whatever you call them' work?"

At that, I turned to the red headed mage standing nearby. "Erza, are you free to chaperone Kage and me?"

The S-class mage shook her head. "Sorry, I'm only in the guild waiting for my train later this afternoon. It'll take me to another mission that will take a day or two."

"I can go." Before I had time to even wonder who to ask next, we all turned around to the voice to see Macao Conbolt walking up to us. "I've finished a few quests that'll last me a week or two, so I can come along."

"Oh thanks." Macao was more levelheaded than Natsu—who would have been my fall back option… …

I don't think it was a good idea to have him as a fall back option. "There is an incentive for mages to join the chaperone contract since their next quest without Kage will have a multiplier bonus."

The older fire mage blinked in surprise. "You serious? You mean by watching you two, I get bonus jewels on my next quest?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's to reward mages for taking their time to assist people like Kage since all the money is being divided by him and the guild. The magic council adds a fifty percent bonus reward after your next completed quest, though you have to sign a few papers and waivers before receiving it."

"A 50 percent bonus huh?" Macao mused out loud as he rubbed his chin. It seemed like he was already imagining what he would do with that.

I noticed Mirajane behind me perk up by making a small sound and then turning towards a certain someone in the counter nearby.

"Cana, why don't you join them?"

We all turned towards the heavy drinker of the guild who looked with surprise as she pointed to herself. "Huh? Me?"

Even though there wasn't any physical change, I swore there was something different about Mira's smile at that time as she took out some kind of scroll… then let it roll on the ground as it kept unrolling itself even as it left the guild doors. "You haven't paid your tab for the past three months yet."

We all turned back to the heavy drink whose eyes were just staring at all the numbers seen on the massive bill. It seemed like she suddenly turned sober since her cheeks were no longer flushed and looked at me with a hint of desperation. "So uhhh how much was that multiplier again?"

It was kind of funny, as I and a few others laughed at her response before I repeated myself. "You get a bonus 50 percent of your next quest reward from the council on after helping out Kage's quest."

"I'm in." She said no sooner than the last word left my mouth.

I found myself smiling before I head another voice come in the same direction where Macao came from.

"I want that multiplier too!" Wakaba raised his hand as he walked right next to Macao after overhearing the conversation.

"Sorry Wakaba, while more than two chaperones can come with Kage, only two are awarded the multiplier which Macao and Cana already filled. Unless you wanna come for moral support?"

"Tch! Never mind then. I'll take the next one." The smoke mage put his hand out to show he didn't want to come along without the incentive.

"I feel so loved," I could tell Kage was being sarcastic, but I think it was best to look past that.

I ended up standing up and walking back up to him before patting him in the back. "Well get used to it, buddy. This is how it's going to go for the next three months."

However, at this point I recalled something that felt like was missing the entire time until now. "By the way, shouldn't Natsu and Lucy have comeback with the cake by now?"

*BOOM!*

There was a muffled explosion in the distance as well looked towards a wall where the sound came from. In the surrounding windows, we could see smoke rising high into the clouds.

By this point, our imaginations pointed that without Natsu in the guild, the chances of him being the cause of that event was at least 85 percent—and that was the lowest anyone could possibly go.

I sighed and turned to the shadow mage. "So when do you want to leave for the quest?"

* * *

Natsu was rather disappointed he couldn't come with us on the mission. This was mostly because he was 'grounded' for destroying a building or two because a worker treated him poorly. However, Makarov did give us a warning before we flew over with Ignis.

"The weather looks horrible." He pointed up to the sky where it was still cloudy. Actually, they looked like they were so soaked to the brim that it was a wonder why it hadn't started raining yet. "It probably isn't safe for Ignis to fly if a storm comes."

"Alright, sir, we'll just fly quickly and stay over the town if we can." I waved goodbye to him as the unlikely team consisting of me, Kageyama Maru, Cana Alberona, and Macao Conbolt flew on Ignis' back towards Telo City.

The ride itself was as uneventful as someone accidentally dressing up as a clown and going to a funeral instead of a birthday party. The reason for such a conflicting term is that during the ride, an awkward silence filled the air as Macao and Cana stayed a certain distance away from Kageyama. The shadow mage himself also kept to himself rather than try to converse with others.

After what was undoubtedly my second worst road trip, we soon arrived at the Valley of Galoen which was a lot like the Grand Canyon back in my home world with a large valley that stretched on for miles. But my surprise didn't stop there. When the map said that Telo City was in the valley, they weren't kidding. The mining city is inside a cliff where you could see hundreds of mining tracks scattered across the city. I even spotted people using mining carts like trams to move around from place to place.

"Never been here before," Kageyama said as we started to look for a place to land. No doubt some people were looking up at awe seeing a wyvern flying by their place. "I have heard of it though."

"First time seeing and hearing a place like this, but I guess we'll just have to land somewhere near the outskirts of the cliff." No sooner than I said this, I felt water droplets on my skin followed by a distant sound of thunder. "Good timing too, a storm's about to come in."

* * *

It didn't take us long to get to the mayor and have him lead us down into the mines we were asked to inspect. After a fun ride through a mine cart that stroked my inner six-year-old's love for roller coasters, we were lead down a path illuminated by small magical light until we eventually came across to the end of a cave where a door with special runes surrounding it was seen.

Mr. Harot Boutki, a mayor and head miner of the expedition motioned to the door in question. "Here is where we found the door. There's a magic barrier preventing us from even getting close to it." He picked up a rock and tossed it towards the direction of the door.

The stone was instantly repelled by a yellow barrier and sent the stone flying in the opposite direction.

Kage glanced back at the door with a look of confusion on his face. "Huh. Give me a second." At the mention of that, his shadow started moving towards the barrier and it split into a dozen shadowy limbs.

After placing a few runic symbols I didn't recognize, the barrier disappeared and Kage started walking towards the door.

I blinked in surprise when I saw him pass through the area where the force field should have acted up. "That was a lot faster than I thought it would be." My only reference for how de-spelling even worked was when Erza told me that it took Kage three days to undo Lullaby's seal.

"It was a lot faster because it wasn't a seal, it was a lock." The shadow mage pointed to some of the runes above the door. "The runes you see here are old, but they look similar to protective spells you put on storage rather than some big secret."

As soon as he said this, he grabbed the door knob and pushed open the door. Lights from inside opened up that looked different than the ones outside and as Kage stepped in, we all followed after him.

He put his hands in his pocket before pointing to what looked to be a giant, old storage room. "It wasn't some seal made by ancient mages, I recognize the design as something like a simple safe lock that's old and hasn't been used as much due to more efficient barriers coming up nowadays. I guess whoever made this was just using this room a storage room that was forgotten over time."

"Oh." The mayor looked a little disappointed after hearing that and looking at the room. "That is significantly more mundane than I thought it would be. And here I thought there might be some grand adventure behind this door or like a secret artifact." He sighed before looking to Kageyama. "But a deal is a deal, you will get your money."

While he was talking, I took the liberty to step in and take a closer look at a nearby vase with a nice design pattern. The artistic design of it tickled my mind and when the mayor finished his sentence, I realized what I was looking at.

"Whoa! Wait a second! I recognize these patterns!" I screamed out loud as I went deeper into the room. I stopped in front of a box that seemed half opened and pushed its cover to the side delicately. Inside the box was a large amount of colorful, patterned clothing that seemed similar to old Aztec designs back in my world.

"Guys, do you know what this is?!" I turned excitedly to everyone only for them to stare at me oddly.

"A bunch of old stuff?" Kageyama answered in the form of a question.

I rolled my eyes before taking a piece of cloth, finding out they seemed to be in pristine condition. "These items are from the Goralidan Nomad Tribes from X550's! I remembered studying their history in that that the traveled all around Ishgar in what they perceived as a Holy Pilgrimage for their patron gods. They left goods in random caves as marks so their dead loved ones and ancestors could follow their path after them." I only knew all of this because of a history book Levy let me borrow and how she told me how fascinating these people were. I have got to thank her for teaching me a crash course in this.

I eventually looked to see an elaborate staff and handed it over to the mayor. "I'm not an archeologist, but even I could tell that if you sell Goralidan artifacts to a museum or a Smithsonian of any kind, you'll probably get millions, if not more in jewels!"

At the mention of that, everyone looked around. "Are you serious?!" Macao was the first to ask as he looked around.

"Well, I could be wrong since I just studied that recently. But stuff kept this pristine from around two hundred years ago still should be worth a pretty jewel." Not as catchy as 'pretty penny', but they don't exist here.

"Whooo! Hoo! I hit the jack pot!" Harot Boutki, the mayor of Telo city jumped for joy.

"Ehm!" I coughed, stopping him instantly. "I do remember your reward also including the takers treasure if they found a lot. My good sir, there are a lot."

"Uhhhhh." That's a lovely look on his face as he glanced quickly at the four of us.

I tapped his shoulder. "Don't worry sir: we'll only take one each. I've taken a liking to one of those shepherd staves in the back. But as for everyone else here, take one. Make sure that pick counts."

* * *

Don't jinx yourself. Don't jinx yourself. For the love of all that is good, evil, and ambiguously neutral, do not jinx yourself until we are back in the guild!

"You know this was a pretty easy mission."

Dammit!

I quickly turned to the only fire mage among us. "Really, Macao, really?! You just jinxed us!"

The older mage looked at me weirdly while carrying an elaborate mask. "You don't actually believe that, do you?"

I glared harder.

"O-Okay, maybe I should have paid more attention to who I was saying that too." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Yeesh, you fairies get worked up over the littlest things." Kage nonchalantly started using his hand shadows to toss around a vase.

I instantly saw both Cana and Macao frown when looking back at Kage walking ahead. To stop whatever he was trying to start, I quickly responded.

"Kage, don't be the guy that grows up all alone with a dozen or more cats," After channeling my favorite crime/comedy series, Psych. Everyone looked at me in a bizarre manner of which I took advantage off to tell Kage what I wanted to say, "I can understand that being with people you don't know can be a challenge."

"You broke my nose."

"After you tried to kill me and confused my injured body as a soccer ball. I'm sure I'm the lesser evil here, but that is not the point." I fired back before pointing towards the storm still raging on outside the valley. "The fact it's still raining means that we can't leave even with the job done. We need to find an inn we can all borrow for the night."

I wasn't aware that everyone was looking at where I was pointing. This little fact might have not meant much, but for Kage, he was walking past a corner since he was in front of us.

Because of this, he bumped into someone around the corner, making him lose hold of the vase, which I instantly dove for and caught.

"Good catch." Kage looked to me with relief before looking over to who he bumped to with anger. "Watch where you're…"

I looked up at him as I heard all anger in his voice die instantly. In front of us was a beautiful woman with black hair and wearing exotic clothes who seemed knocked down by bumping into Kage.

"…you're… are you alright miss?" Uhh what? Do you not see me on the floor too? Kage? I think I slid into a jagged rock?

"Éclair! Are you alright?" A cartoonish talking bird flew over to the fallen girl.

The woman named Éclair opened her eyes, got up, and then glared at Kage with utter spite. She then walked away as if not even meeting with us. The cartoon bird, whose head made up sixty percent of his entire body, which was somehow flying with very tiny wings smaller than his legs, flew after her after apologizing to us.

…

So when I first met Kage, he kicked my ass for nearly no reason. But when he met a pretty girl, the guy suddenly asks her if she's alright from a bump?! I know people are always complaining girls get all the bad things happen to them. But in all seriousness, I think the world screws with everyone regardless of gender, race, and how much of an asshole they are.

"What?" Kage asked as he seemed to have caught me glaring at him.

However, since I knew I was now glaring, I chose not to relent in it.

"Let's just go." Those were the three words that came out that did not represent at all what I wanted to say.

* * *

"Éclair that was rude. You bumped into him too." The flying yellow bird said to the still fuming woman as she walked at a fast pace.

"I saw his past. He was a despicable man." She practically spat at the memory. For a very long time, she had this ability that wasn't magic, but could see into people's pasts. Seeing a criminal like him made her skin crawl.

"He didn't seem that bad to me."

"It doesn't matter. As soon as the storm is gone, we're leaving the city." The raven haired woman suddenly stopped as she looked towards an alleyway. She could have sworn she saw a shadow move in there. "Actually… we should leave now."

"But there's a storm!"

"Momon, we need to leave, now." Éclair wasted no time after saying this and started walking much faster.

The small bird tried to follow. However, the raven haired girl noticed in the distance, among people and carts moving around. There was a cloaked figure waiting in front of her path standing as if no one noticed this person existed. The woman quickly clicked her tongue and turned back, trying another escape, but saw another cloaked figure that seemed eerily unnoticed.

"What's wrong, Éclair?" Momon, the birdy seemed worried towards his friend. "I thought we were trying to leave?"

At hearing the tone of her friend's voice, the woman turned to see that her companion was indeed more confused than worried in this situation. "Momon, don't you see them?"

The bird tilted his funny shaped head. "See who?"

At hearing such honest and simple words, the woman stared in a frozen state. She slowly turned to see the figures start walking… away from her, but never facing away from her presence.

She looked around, seeing more and more figures staring from all around her, on the roof, passing by the mines, standing right behind windows, but still no one else seemed to notice them.

No one but her.

It was then that not one, but all of them slowly lifted their hand and pointed at her. " _SazaKnuk B'harim._ "

* * *

"What did you just say?" I turned back to Kage from the desk I was borrowing in the inn.

We had found an in that had two free room with twin beds. Seeing there were four of us, I offered to stay with Kageyama while Cana and Macao shared a room. While it was still raining outside hard, and while I was a bit worried for Ignis sleeping outside a cave in the outskirts of the city, the room itself had all the necessities needed so I wasn't really worried.

In fact, I just went straight to work by taking out a bag carrying a lot of the recent files Makarov wanted me to look at and starting a case file for all of them while just using the desk in the room.

However, Kage seemed a bit off when he and I were in the room together. While I was writing, he asked me something I half missed.

I removed the speed reading glasses as he sat up from his bed and repeated what he said, "I said that I don't get you."

Needless to say I needed more context than that.

Kageyama pointed to me. "What is your angle in all of this? Why did you go out of your way to help me more than other people? No one would go so far as to help someone who's been labeled as a criminal without anything in return! What? Are you trying to prove something to your friends? Is that it?!"

I stared at Kage because of the outburst. He was still confused as to why I was helping him?

Wait, I never told him why I helped him, did I?

The shadow mage pointed to me. "Listen, I don't know what your game is but don't you… don't you… what the hell is going on with the rain?"

I wasn't expecting a sudden topic about the weather after something obviously so personal, but the sheer oddity of it made me look back and stare at the rain through the window—wait.

Rain doesn't **pour upward**.

"Shit," I muttered as I fixed my papers and stuffed them back into a bag pack I was using. I then looked to Kageyama as I slug it over my back. "Kage, we can discuss whatever it was you were trying to point out later, but right now? I have a bad feeling that needs us to go."

I got out of the room quickly then proceeded to knock on Macao and Cana's room.

Well okay, I knocked like once before opening the door since it wasn't locked.

"Macao, get up!" I yelled.

The older mage sat up from his bed with a sudden jerk. He looked up at me then rubbed his eyes because of the light returning to the room. "Kain, what the—"

There was no time for this. "Macao, the rain is falling upward." I quickly interrupted him.

The older fire mage seemed to pause as he heard those words I just said. He gave me a look of confusion, but realized I was being dead serious. "Wait, is this why you told me it was a bad thing to say it was easy awhile ago?"

Oh right. That. "Don't remind me. Where's Cana?" Her bed was obviously empty, so she wasn't here.

"My guess is the bar inn."

"Get dressed up and meet me down stairs, also, look out the window and stare at the rain. While it is unlikely, I really hope this is done by a storm or water mage just messing around." I didn't wait for him as I started walking down to the first floor.

When the three of us got down, we had found Cana… just not in the bar like we thought.

She was in the lobby staring at the bar from the outside and she looked—let's go with "irritable".

"Cana." When she turned to me after I called her, the look on her face didn't even seem to let up.

Seeing time of the essence, and with how there was a growing nausea in my belly the longer this went, I cut to the chase. "We need your help. The rain is falling upward."

Instead of believing me, she actually seemed even more pissed and pointed to me. "The hell, Kain!? I haven't even paid my tab back in Fairy Tail, but you've been drinking behind my back!? That's bullshit!"

Any other day, I probably would have shown more care, but this horrible feeling in my stomach just kept getting worse and worse as time went on by. "Cana, the rain is falling upward."

While she was distressed, she was still sober. When she noticed I was dead serious about something so nonsensical, she looked outside a window. A second later, she soon realized that I was right.

"Well shit, you're serious." At that, she sighed and stood up from her seat. "This would have made so much more sense if I wasn't sober."

Soon we all left outside the inn to inspect the rain closer to the edge of the cliff.

"Well damn, the rain is falling upward. Should it be doing that?" Cana asked as we all watched rain fall in the opposite direction of gravity.

"I was half expecting all of you to tell me upside-down rain to be normal here. Is it?" I looked to all three mages who each said their own variation of no to me. "Okay, how crazy would it sound that I think I have an idea of what this is?"

"The water mage theory?" Kage asked. "Because if this is his idea of a joke, it's creeping me out."

"No," I only something like this before in a different series. "I saw something like this in a different fantasy story." It was from the Sci-fi show, Doctor Who. It described one episode about how an entire hospital had rain going up instead of down before teleporting the entire building and people in it to the moon. But I have no time at all to tell them the truth. "Long story short, the rain flying up meant that a powerful teleportation spell was about to activate and mass warp a lot of people."

"Wait what?! Can magic even do that?!" Macao asked with obvious disbelief.

However, no sooner than he said that, large symbols appeared at the edge of town, circling around the entire city and trapped the area in a barrier that glowed white.

I looked beyond the barrier to see Ignis roaring and trying to make a break for us, but before he could reach the edge of the ring, a bright light enveloped us—

My last words before the light swallowed us went along the lines, "Dammit, Macao, stop jinxing us!"

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **And so we begin the very first original saga! I have a bunch planned for this one that takes place before the Phantom Lord saga. I do hope you all enjoy it.  
**

 **Kain is now paired with an unlikely group consisting of Macao, Cana, and Kageyama instead of the usual A-team.**

 **Can this ragtag group handle future dangers that await them!?**

 **No.**

 **They can't.**

 ***Evil smile* But it'll be fun to watch them squirm.**

 **Anyway, for those of you have noticed the inclusion of Éclair from the first Fairy Tail movie, I kind of liked her design. She was really beautiful and I thought her being an immortal had a lot of potential in this story than more than usual. So she's crossing paths with Fairy Tail sooner than expected. I may have tweaked things a bit, since the pre movie manga suggested Momon, the bird that follows her around, was made after the 7-year skip, but I think it's vague enough for me to overlook here.**

 **What this means for the actual movie though? Well…. that's really far down the line when I get to the seven year skip part. I'm not sure I'll even do it, but I do have at least the ending of this story already planned out somewhat even if it's a little vague. ( I heard from sources that Mishima didn't even know how to end Fairy Tail. Though in his defense, it was implied that he really wasn't expecting it to last as long as it did which does explain a quality drop as the series went on. Yet it also implies that he had some things that potentially wouldn't be answered, but hey. Plot holes aside, I did enjoy Fairy Tail. And I'm glad he helped make it. I'm not going to hate him for making questionable story decisions.)**

 **Rant aside, thanks for reading and thank you all for supporting this story!**


	10. Chapter 10

I half expected to be on the moon. In Doctor Who, the flash of light meant that they were transported into the moon because of some super alien politics. Though in all fairness, I wouldn't be surprised if we did end up in the moon in some later adventure just to spite me.

But in Fairy Tail's world, after the light died down, I found myself waking up on a grassy plain again.

Oh wait, no. This isn't a forest. It's a jungle that is eerily quiet; especially thanks to the fact that it was the middle of the night with how the moon was shinning.

Still, I didn't seem to see any of the others I was sent here too, so I looked around.

"Guys!?" I yelled out, seeing that there was no sign of the others around me.

However, I suddenly felt a stinging pain on my right wrist and I looked down to see the Wyvern Knight Morpher cackling with green electricity before coming to a stop.

Half of me wanted to see if I could still use it, but the other half was suspicious about how it was on the fritz just a few seconds ago.

It was then that I noticed smoke in the air and followed it towards…

 _Another bloody volcano._

I'm in another volcano/tropical island, aren't I? After getting over my _odyssey_ in trying to get back to Fairy Tail some time ago, I get bloody sent back to another bloody stupid, asinine volcano island?!

SUN OF A MUD HER DUCKLING WITCH ON STEROID DRUGS.

*Crack!*

I blinked as I retracted my fist from the obvious fist-shaped hole I made on a nearby tree. I mean, I know Erza has been training me like hell these past few weeks, and she has told me that the Morpher is making me stronger, but I was not expecting to already be able to punch a tree and not feel hurt from it.

I guess in this case it's a good thing that I've become stronger since something with powerful magic brought everyone into whatever island we're in. I'll need everything I can to survive.

Hold on a second, the tree I punched, there's some kind of weird symbol on it. I'm guessing it's a magic rune or something, but I've never seen something like it before. Whatever it is, it's giving me a bad vibe.

Speaking of bad vibes, I really hope the others aren't dying right now. I still haven't even found any… one…

Huh? I think I hear something.

After a second, I realize I lost whatever it was I thought I heard. If only there was a way I could have sharp senses like Natsu, then maybe I could…

Wait.

I looked at my morpher then sighed. I always did want to be a Power Ranger when I was a toddler, but there's a chance that using this alternate universe morpher will increase my bad luck, and potentially make me crazier with each use; not to mention my opponents are less likely to be campy enemies.

However, it does have much sharper senses than I do normally and considering I need to find people quickly, somehow avoid thing in the dark, and potentially avoid dangers…

I activated the device on my arms, and in a flash of light, I felt the armor surrounding me, increasing my senses.

Hold on, aren't Power Rangers supposed to have a transforming sequence? Why don't I have one? Oh right, because I'm a young adult that got into this mess by accident, not a leader of a group of teenagers with attitude.

The armor increased my senses tenfold, I could hear sounds of countless footsteps moving around me, and I could clearly—ow—hear voices around me calling out for their friends and family. I needed a way to somehow focus everything I'm hearing and soon… I think I was able to filter the voices shouting out.

The closest one I could recognize was Macao who seemed to be shouting out my name. I didn't hesitate to move towards the voice. However, as I did, my heightened senses heard footsteps coming from a direction that wasn't in the same place as Macao's voice.

I hid behind a tree to glance carefully as two confused people wearing the same clothes from Telo City walked out.

"Carel, Josah! Where are you guys!?" A female with short brown hair cried out loud.

"Mua, are you sure you heard them?" The male with spiky blonde hair asked his compatriot.

"It had to be them, Gez. They're the mages among us so this has to be one of their pranks!"

"I'm fairly certain this is beyond anything the two can do." The man responded.

Seeing as it was just townsfolk, I relaxed.

I was about to walk up to them when I felt my whole body freeze at the presence of something else.

Fear had frozen my body as the instincts of what must have been the armor kicked in. All my honed sensed looked beyond the two civilians, sensing someone running towards them with uncanny speed and urgency. Was this the presence of what brought us here? Some powerful, malevolent force that was about to unleash hell upon those two unsuspecting people?

I-I must save them if that was the case, but my body! No matter how much I wanted to move, I was frozen with fear as out of the bushes came—

"Hail and well met my good friends!"

A guy with a really bright smile that was just as dark as the clothes he wore.

What the hell? Was my armor afraid of this guy? He looked pretty chipper despite how dark his tie and chalk-striped suit was. I mean he was carrying two swords with him, but he just didn't seem as threatening as I thought.

"Catch!" I stared with fascination as the man with dark hair that was swept back tossed one of his bejeweled blades at the man. After a surprised catch, the jolly man giddily pulled out his other sword. "En garde you magnificent bastard!"

I stared in awe as he suddenly attacked the man, who was then forced to unsheathe his blade and parry his opponent. The girl screamed back as the two started dueling. I have been only training with Erza for a while, but I could tell the civilian was a complete newbie with the blade. It was a fencing rapier and he was trying to use it like a broad sword. Yet the dark cloth man didn't seem bothered and he had excellent fencing form. In one beautiful parry, he stepped forward and stopped his fencing blade right at the person's neck.

"Well done! A bit unsteady, but a good strong grip! That may or may not help you in your love life." In one fluid motion, he retracted his blade and pulled the sword away from him. As he walked back, he picked up the sword the civilian discarded on the ground when he attacked and dusted it off.

"W-Who the hell are you!?" The woman pointed at him in utter shock.

The jolly but dark clothed man turned on his heel. "Why moi? I am Gomez Bison, a lover _and_ fighter! Alas, I'd love to talk to you more old sport, but my boss is already in quite the pickle with someone messing with his mass teleportation."

His boss? Wait, he's part of the reason why we're here!? But then that means those two are…!

In the stupor of the other two, I saw him take something out of the inside pockets of his suit, revealing two small green cylinders. "Now it's nothing personal. Perhaps we can one day have a grand duel!"

He threw the cylinders at the two civilians. As they flew, the opened up in half and flashed a green light on them and suddenly sucked them into the cylinders like Pokémon Balls. The cylinders flew back to Gomez Bison.

I can't believe that I just watched him capture those two! Why didn't I move!?

Was I really that afraid? Dang it! Is my armor actually amplifying my fear!? What good is it then!?

There was another rustling sound as Macao of all people ran into Gomez's view.

"Ahh! Well met, traveler! Would you like to sword fight?" The man called out.

"Wait what? Are you the one that just screamed?" The older mage asked as he viewed the rather chipper man.

Gomez bowed politely. "No no, it was two people awhile ago. Now if you will do me the favor of quietly getting in to this capsule here, my job will go much easier."

The older mage seemed confused. "Get into a capsule? What the heck are you on about?"

Suddenly the idea of Macao being captured snapped me out of my stupor as I forsook all caution and stepped out of my hiding spot. "Macao, those capsules can capture people! They're the reason why where here!"

The gothic dressed man blinked as he looked at me with surprise. "Blimey, how'd I miss someone wearing all that bright red here?"

"Wait, you're the reason why you mass teleported the town?! What's your purpose for doing that? Tell us now!" Macao started as he lit his flames read for a fight.

"Mages then?" Gomez seemed calm even though he was facing Macao with fire gathering around him. "That means I do have to get rough." He absentmindedly stated.

"Fine, you're not going to tell us?" I do not like how he said that especially how his magical circles were humming at a much higher frequency. " **Purple Rain!** "

I felt my jaw slack when Macao called out an attack at the guy when we bloody didn't know anything about this man's abilities!

My inner cynicism was confirmed when the fencer took out his blades and stabbed every flame burst at uncanny speed, making him untouched.

"W-What?!" The older mage looked on with surprise to see all of his bolts of fire be knocked away by the man.

I cupped my hands and got into the open plain. "Macao, of course he's powerful! He's with a group that somehow captured an entire town without anyone noticing, why did you think a simple attack would work on him!?"

Gomez seemed to turn to me with a smile. "Oh that is a wonderful thought. Why is it that you're the first one to say something so simple sounding when almost no one has ever done that in the past 100 years?"

Wait, what number of years did he just say?

"Unfortunately, our boss is in a—how you say—bad mood. So I must defeat you both right now." In one instant, both of the swords disappeared from Gomez' hands and out appeared a green whip. As he pulled his hand back, the whip he held started coming to life.

"Is that re-equip magic?!" Macao yelled before he turned towards me. "Kain, dodge! It's heading for…"

I got what he was saying as I avoided the whip—

*Boom!*

I wasn't expecting the edge of the whip to explode into the ground I was standing on! I almost fell face first into the ground until I felt my body move faster than I could think, making me land on my two feet even if it wasn't steady.

I turned around, seeing Gomez already aiming his whip at Macao and unleashing it right for him. Unlike me, Macao was more prepared and jumped away fast enough to avoid being caught by the shockwave from Gomez's exploding whip. While mid air and in one fluid movement after avoiding the weapon, Macao threw his own fire whip right for the dark clothed man.

The fencer didn't hesitate to jump high into the moonlight sky then a flash of light surrounded his whip as he then replaced it with a light blue gun. I was too stunned to stop him from firing it and hitting the ground just beneath Macao, turning it into ice.

Without friction, Macao instantly lost his balance and fell straight to the floor. However, I heard another magical hum as I looked back up to see that the freeze ray was now replaced with a Rocket Launcher aimed right at the fallen fire mage.

"Au revoir!" He cried out as the missile flew right for the older man.

I quickly started to move. With every ounce of strength I had I ran towards Macao, slid on the ice, and grabbed him as I was still moving from the speed of my slide. Behind us, the shockwave of the exploding weapon threw us even further, and made us come back into the air. However, this time I landed on my feet and started running, carrying Macao's weight easily with the power the armor was giving me and didn't hesitate to run away from Gomez.

After a few minutes of randomly running, I stopped nearby what looked to be a cave and dropped Macao nearby a stone.

"Hrk! T-That was unpleasant. I-I think I finally understand what Natsu feels like." Macao coughed somewhat before looking to me. "Why the hell did you get us out of there?"

I deactivated the armor by will as I turned back to the older man. "He said Boss, Macao, I'm more than willing to bet that he had associates coming up to run and back him up if the battle went on, and in a dragged out battle where he has home advantage and we have no idea where the others were? That wasn't a favorable fight and it wasn't best if we kept fighting and potentially reveal more of our abilities than we already did."

The purple haired man looked at me before sighing. "Crud that's a good point. So what's our next move?"

"Getting the others and finding what the heck is going on." I looked up to the sky then looked back down to Macao. "Hey, do you by any chance have constellations in this world?"

He blinked at my question. "Uh yeah. They're all also the same as Lucy's spirits. Each spirit she has is based off a major constellation in the sky and there's a round twelve of them."

I was surprised about Lucy's constellations actually being similar to my world, but that was not the point I was going for. "Do you know which one is pointing north? Maybe we could find some way to figure out where we are if we looked them up."

"Oh! That's a good idea!" As soon as he heard it he stood up and started looking at the clear night sky.

I saw him point a hand towards a bright start to our right. "That's the formation of Leo!" I was about to respond to that until I noticed he retracted his hand back a bit. "Errr, I think?"

His question made me question him. "What?"

"Okay, it's been a while since I've studied astrology and most of that was when I was a kid, so…"

Not this again. "Are you telling me you don't recognize any of them?"

"H-Hey! It's been a long time alright!?"

Fighting the urge to sigh, I shook my head. "Well, plan A is still in place. Let's find Cana and Kageyama. Then somehow figure out how to either get out of here, or save everyone then get out of here."

"Did you guys say, 'finding someone'?"

Macao and I tensed as we looked back into the cave. However, my brain registered after instinct that the voice that said this was small, scared, and familiar?

Out of a rock, a familiar yellow bird wearing a light blue vest stepped out. "You're those mages we met earlier today, aren't you?"

"Hey, you're that bird that was following that lady Kage bumped into." Macao responded before I ended up walking to the little guy.

I kneeled and tried to give him a small smile. "Don't worry, we won't hurt you. Are you looking for your friend?" He seemed close to that girl Kage fancied, so I'm guessing he was separated from her when the mass warp happened.

The small bird nodded as he started to fly again. "Yeah, her name is Éclair and I, Momon, am sworn to protect her!"

"That's very noble of you." Macao gave a warm smile at the declaration. "Do you have any way to find her though?"

The bird lowered his head as he heard that. "No. I don't."

Man, it feels like I just watched someone kick a puppy. "Hey don't feel bad. We're looking for our friends too, but we're trying to be careful because the guys here are capturing everyone that was warped into the town."

"Why are they doing that?"

"That," I paused for a second in response to Momon's simple question, "is a good question; one that I don't know as well. I do have a suspicion it isn't good if they have enough magic to kidnap an entire city against their will."

"We probably could have asked that guy who attacked us." I turned back over to Macao after he said that. "I still think we could have beaten him and have him answer our questions."

I decided to think about that a little more. Gomez did seem like the type to explain something if one asked him. But then again, "Maybe you could have, but I'm still new at fighting. I don't really want to risk him potentially abusing a weakness in our teamwork or my in experience because like I said: this is their home turf. We know nothing but he does."

"Those are good points, but no point arguing about what already happened. How do we find Cana and Kageyama?"

I opened my mouth—

*BOOM!*

Then closed it as another explosion came from behind me some distance away.

"How much you want to bet that's someone we know?"

"It's fifty/fifty in either way, but I have a strong feeling it's Cana." I responded to Macao.

The older mage's eyes widened. "Hey wait. Cana has card fortune magic which might help us pin point where Momon's friend is too if she's here."

Well I didn't know that. "She can do that? Then the more we have to help if it is her."

The three of us wasted no time running straight for the explosion.

* * *

Kageyama currently was annoyed. What the heck kind of magic needed to take everyone in town? Not only that, he was separated from Fairy Tail. Instead of feeling good, he felt conflicted. On one hand, it was obvious that the only one who liked him was Kain along with maybe the fire guy he fought back during the Lullaby incident. But at the same time, there was just something about Kain that rubbed him the wrong way. Why go so far to help him? There had to be some kind of angle that he was working so damn hard for him.

There was a rustle from the bushes that snapped Kageyama out of his thoughts. Instinctively, he activated his shadow magic which was made even stronger due to the fact it was night.

"Think you can sneak up on me!?" He yelled as several tendril shadows raced passed the bush.

"KYA!"

And then Kageyama blinked when he heard a feminine but familiar voice coming from the bush. His shadows pulled in their target—revealing it to be that beautiful woman he bumped into earlier that day. As of right now, his shadows were constricting her and for some dammed reason it looked strangely stimulating.

Kage let go of her, flushed, and yelped… in the opposite order of which was told. Éclair shrieked again before falling into the ground.

"I-I am sorry miss!" Kage nervously said as he tried to help her, only to have a hand thrown out in the form of a stop sign and with an icy and cruel glare sent his way.

"Stay away from me, mage."

"Hey, I'm not here to harm you. I promise!" Kage tried to say to the woman.

"The same for me. However, I do ask that you come with me peacefully."

The two suddenly turned to the sound of the voice. To their surprise, there was a tall man wearing royal blue armor with gold symbols of a griffon in the center of his chest plate. Beneath the armor, he was wearing chainmail that covered every part of his body except his face which was covered by a face plate. He carried a large spear beside him that seemed to be made of pure gold.

"Who the heck are you!?" Kage turned to the armored man. Inside his mind, he was panicking. He heard Éclair, but not this giant man wearing brightly colored armor walking up to them right now!?

"It is rude to demand a name when you did not introduce your own." The knight stepped forward.

Kage saw his moment to strike as over a dozen shadows launched themselves as spikes towards the ornate warrior.

*SlashSlashSlashSlashSlashSlashSlash*

The two stared as they suddenly saw all the shadows Kageyama launched were cut into shreds before they even reached in to arm distance of the ornate warrior.

"I'm waiting for your name, young man." The knight spoke out as if Kage's attack didn't even register to him.

"W-What the!?" Kage blinked in shock before summoning a magic circle in his hand and slamming it into the ground. As he did, a giant shadow fist came out from behind him and towered over the blue and gold warrior. " **Shadow's Fist!** "

As soon as he called out the attack, the large fist came barreling down on the decorated fighter. However, the enemy was still showing no signs of being disturbed by this.

It was then that the warrior simply raised a hand and then _stopped_ the giant fist. It wasn't that it was weak—no. The moment the fist was stopped, a shockwave blew from the impact, signaling that the attack was indeed strong; it's just that the one standing other the spell was in a league far beyond him.

"W-Who the hell are you!?" Kageyam began to sweat at a man who easily threw aside one of his more powerful spells.

A sigh escaped the man before he put pressure into his hand, causing the fist to crack with light before shattering into pieces. While Kage and Éclair stared with stunned awe, the man introduced himself. "My name is Horus Anhur."

That name did not ring alarm bells, they blared sirens throughout every fiber of his being. "Horus Anhur!? As in, the strongest mage in the age of The Gathering War? History's first Wizard Saint!? Impossible! He's been dead for centuries!"

"Well you're not wrong on that." The man spoke up as he took a step forward. "I've had other people react strangely when I ask this question: but what do you know of Necromancy?"

Hearing the word not only made Kage freeze, but it even made a mage hater like Éclair gasp in shock. "N-Necromancy? That magic is a myth! Legends says that even Zeref himself found the art of reviving the dead as an insult to nature itself!"

The knight planted his spear into the ground and slowly removed his face plate.

Kage and Éclair could only stare with unmoving horror as behind the face plate was a pale, rotting, green skinned corpse of a man's face.

"Insult to nature aside, it's annoying to have you nose sewed to your face every now and then." The crusader casually said as he put his helmet back on. "I mean. It still works even when it falls off, but then it just seems wrong to not have it on my face."

"Y-You're… you're a zombie!" Kage pointed at the crusader with horror.

The zombie in question had a much more muted response than the two in front of him. "Ah yes. That is the same reaction as most. But I digress my boss is in a sour mood and I really should be hurrying."

Before the two could move, they suddenly felt their world go dark. The ornate man had already knocked them both out cold.

"Hmm, I think this is the immortal he was aiming for." Horus said as he looked at the unconscious girl. As he looked at her, he couldn't help but feel pity. "Strange. Why can I sense such sorrow in her?"

* * *

"AAAUGH!?" Cards scattered as Cana crashed into a large rock. The heavy drinker heaved as she fell on her knees and looked up at her opponent.

"I apologize profusely for hurting you, milady. However, it is my sworn duty to obey my lord's orders even if they are against my chivalrous nature!"

A high pitched and confused sounding whine came from below the proud man. "Arf?"

The man dropped his stance as he rolled his eyes. "Yes, Audolf, I am still a chivalrous knight!"

"Bark!"

"W-What!? That's not fair; Sir Anhur was buried with his war armor, I wasn't! You know why I wear these modern clothes since I have nothing left!"

"Bark! Bark!"

"Him!? More chivalrous than I?! The man cheats at poker; he doesn't clean up after he eats; HE NEVER WASHES HIS HANDS AFTER THE TOILET WHICH IS ESPECIALLY WORSE BECAUSE HIS SKIN IS EVERYWHERE!"

"Arf."

"Audolf that was uncalled for!"

During the little back and forth, Cana had gotten back up and magically gathered her cards back. "You bastard. Who the hell are you?"

She was looking towards the red shaggy-haired, handsome adult man with blue eyes wearing jeans, a red T-shirt and a black zipper hoodie with red sneakers. Strangely enough, she imagined Kain wearing something like that instead of Gray's hand me down clothes. But then she turned her attention to the _stupid, shaggy, and old English Sheep Dog._

Yes, a sheep dog, those large dogs that can be confused as a giant mop without the stick. This shaggy bastard somehow deflected her attacks back at her!

"A yes, introductions! I am Sir Jeremiah Archibald the Seventh and this is my most trusted companion, the Celestial Spirit: The Shepherd, Audolf!"

"That dog is a celestial spirit?" To Cana that did make some sense to her. "Wait, I've never seen a spirit that looked so normal." It really looked like a regular dog compared to when she had heard and seen Lucy's spirits.

"That is the strange thing. I've been alive for a while—" Cana had caught that strange phrase before he continued on "—and no one seems to have heard of these types of spirits." Jeremiah fished his jacket and brought out a bronze celestial gate key. "A bronze key, have you seen one?"

"There are bronze keys? Wouldn't they be lower than silver or gold?"

"They are. And when they came out, apparently they used more magic than a silver key and a gold key did. … I can see now why they fell out of fashion in this age." As he said this, Jeremiah turned towards his key and sighed deeply at it. "Shame. I've grown quite fond of mine."

Cana raised her brow. "In this age? Alive?" Those words made no sense to her.

"Sorry, milady, but I have no time for this. My lord is usually a kind man, but the stress of recent times has gotten to him and you must be brought to the temple."

"Temple? Dammit all, this shit made more sense when I was drunk!" Cana snapped when she quickly drew a dozen cards at for each of her hand and threw them at all her opponents.

The sheep dog jumped in and started glowing, making his hair fly in all directions before suddenly, all cards were sent back right at her. However, Cana remained calm as she suddenly ducked and rolled to avoid the cards piercing through her like it did the rock behind her.

The brunette sighed as she took a hair tie from her pocket. "I knew something was off when the dog first reflected my attacks. You doubled the speed and power when you returned them, didn't you?" She said as she tied her hair up into a pony tail.

"And you used a weaker attack to test the strength of Audolf's reflect magic. Clever." Jeremiah stepped forward and his eyes turned black. "But you haven't seen my magic yet."

He pushed his right hand out and black light gathered in his palm. " _Twisted light; form a blade to help this fight._ " In a powerful burst, a glowing black blade appeared in Jeremiah's right hand before he threw out his left hand. " _The twilight I wield, form an unbreakable shield!_ " and on his left hand, a large tower shield appeared for him to wield.

Cana whistled even though sweat was starting to pour down her head. "Rhyming incantations? Talk about old school."

"Well then, milady," Jeremiah and his dog took a fighting stance that made Cana go into one as well with her cards ready. "It's time to show the newer generation some old tricks."

The heavy drinker grunted before throwing another card. Instead of at her opponents where the dog could reflect her spells back at her, she threw it in the ground right in front of them before jumping back.

Audolf barked as he noticed water spewing out of the card before Jeremiah used his shield to protect his canine companion.

While still mid-air, Cana threw another card—one with a thunder symbol on it—that hit the water and unleashed a powerful shock. However, the shield created a barrier that prevented the electricity from harming the duo from Cana's combined attack.

As the electricity died down, Jeremiah threw his right arm with his sword back. " _Shield and blade must be used as one!_ " He threw the sword at the brunette who side stepped the blade and watched it fly past her before looking back—and seeing the man had disappeared.

" _Warp me from one to the other so my enemy may be undone!_ " The card user paled when she heard that voice behind her. She turned around to see Jeremiah had teleported to where the sword was thrown and was now pointing an empty palm right in her face.

" _This is your last, Twilight Blast!_ " Black light appeared in Jeremiah's hands before exploding at Cana at point blank.

Cana's unconscious body flew from the direct hit. However, a giant purple hand created out of fire shot out and caught her, softening her landing greatly.

Jeremiah and Audolf looked over to see two men, one young and one older come in with a flying yellow bird.

"Cana! Are you alright!?" Macao cried out as he ran over to the girl who was gently placed down into the ground.

"Ahh," Jeremiah summoned back his weapons with the same incantation before looking towards Macao and Kain. "So you two must be her allies then considering I spot the same guild mage symbols on you."

"And you must be with Gomez Bison." Kain responded.

Jeremiah's face suddenly dropped as his eyes widened. "Gomez let you go? He knows now is not a good time to disobey our lord! Now I have to pick up his slack."

"What!? Hey! I did not let them go!" Macao, Momon, and Kain turned back to see Gomez Bison, appearing behind some trees as he ran in. "They all skedaddled and it took me a while before I finally caught up!"

Kain and the others tensed. One of their opponents was strong enough to take on the stronger mage of the group. Now? They had two people to protect while they had to deal with powerful mages they had no idea how to handle.

"Well then, it's best if we finish our job then!" Jeremiah cried jumped to the sky. " _Magic at my disposal can maim, I summon Twilight Rain!_ " A magical circle appeared in front of the red head as bolts of black light went straight for Fairy Tail.

"Macao, Momon, duck for cover!" Macao did so, after picking up Cana and hold her close so she'd be protected. The older mage even let the small bird fly in so he could cover them.

In a flash of red light, Kain was back in his suit of armor as he stood in front of Macao and the others and used his body to shield the incoming attack. The red armor did its job, taking most of the attack. However, Kain spotted Gomez readying a FREAKING ANTI-TANK RIFLE!?

"We're moving!" With the strength of a wyvern, Kain quickly picked up Macao, who was carrying Cana who Momon was riding on her stomach, and then the young red warrior ran to avoid massive bullets cutting through the thick jungle like wet tissue.

"W-Whoa!? Are you carrying me like a cartoon!?"

"Macao, in the middle of avoiding a bullet hell! Worry about image later!" Kain mentally knew what every character of every bullet hell game he every played felt like. However, unlike them, he didn't have infinite lives, so his need to avoid every single blast to protect his more vulnerable friends, specifically the anti-tank rifle. He did not want to test how durable the armor was to take something like that.

However, a new problem occurred. The anti-tank rifles stopped firing, prompting Kain to look back and see Gomez armed with two Anti-Tank rifles and a large metal backpack connecting to his weapons.

Kain now stood(ran) corrected. He was truly about to see a bullet hell.

He tried to make another run to escape. However, his paths were blocked with Jeremiah summoning large pillars of twilight to block him from escaping.

"Kain!?" Macao cried out as he saw Gomez about to unleash a powerful assault while Jeremiah was trapping them like rats.

The young boy started to panic. There wasn't much he could do in this situation.

Actually, there was one left. He didn't like it, but with how those rifles were charging up, there was no time to think of another plan.

"Hold on tight!" Kain yelled as he gripped on to Macao… then tossed him into the sky with the other two.

"Kaaaaaiiinnnn!?" The man yelled as he flew out of the trapped pillars keeping them in.

"Oh no you don't!" Jeremiah started to gather energy but Kain picked up a rock and threw it at the black light user. It interrupted his attempt to intercept his thrown friends. However, Kain lost his chance to escape by ensuring his friend's escape.

"Eat lead!" Gomez cried as a large amount of Anti-Tank Rifle bullets fell down on the crimson knight.

The entire area exploded, even being seen by Macao as he was thrown away.

"Kain!" He yelled out before gravity started to pull him back down.

"Damn it, what was he thinking—what's that sound?" The sound of loud running water made Macao blink before he tried to turn his head to where he was landing. Unfortunately for Kain, it appears his bad luck even affected where he tried to throw his friends as Macao realized they were all being thrown towards the bottom end of a large waterfall!

"Aaa! We're doomed!" Momon cried out in fear as he held tightly on to the older mage.

"Calm down, will ya!?" Macao quickly motioned his right hand out from supporting Cana as they started falling past the highest point of the water fall. "I need to concentrate! **Purple Swing!** "

A magical circle appeared, shooting out a large flame hand that caught onto a protruding rock. Macao held the younger woman tightly along with the bird as he started to swing. However, in his haste to stop them from falling to their doom, Macao had forgotten to properly make his flames water proof. The running water pouring down on the hand quickly simmered it down before the flame mage could complete the swing in order to somehow swing down.

Macao panicked as he started to fall again but this time, he fired another fire spell, this time in the form of a harpoon to launch into the dry side of the water fall and swing to a stop.

The flame mage gasped for breath as he held on to a make shift fire rope and tried to re support Cana. Momon, finally seeing it to be safe started flying again.

"What do we do?"

Wasn't that the million jeweled question? Macao thought to himself. The situation was looking worse by the second. Cana was knocked out cold, Kain's been captured, and Kageyama was nowhere to be seen—if he didn't high tail it out of here—no. Kain still believes in him, so Macao would as well. Still, he never thought he would be caught in a situation like this. Things didn't look this bleak since his divo…

Macao shook his head.

"Well, we can't stay up here." The flame mage started as he made the flame rope slowly and safely descend down to the ground.

As he did, Macao and Momon looked over and heard something coming towards them.

"Dang it! Already!?" The flame mage got ready to fight, but then his eyes widened as he saw what was coming towards them.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gomez, Jeremiah, and Audolf were staring over the recently knocked unconscious Kain.

"You are seeing this, right Gomez?" The twilight mage said this while still staring at the boy's face.

Gomez also didn't look back and just continued to observe Kain's unconscious body. "Jeri, I know I was revived after you, but I'm sure all of our eyes aren't fooling us."

"What is going on here?" The two and the dog turned to see Horus Anhur walking over to them. "I already have the immortal and we have more than enough people needed to start the ceremony. We should head back to the temple."

"Horus, you need to see this." Jeremiah pointed to the downed boy as the crusader walked closer. Because he was wearing a helmet, no one could tell his facial expressions. However, the way his body seemed to freeze spoke enough for his allies.

"… Hide this young man's face." Horus finally said.

"Hide it?" The other two men repeated.

"I have a plan. A plan that might work with the help of Rattleblade. But the young man's face has to be hidden from our leader otherwise we might have no chance to convince him out of this."

Gomez raised his hand, summoning a white mask with many holes as he did. "I went to a hockey game and got this as a souvenir. It could hide his face."

"Do it." The crusader spoke out before noticing something else. "Hold on. Is this young man part of a mage guild?"

"I did see him re-equip into a red armor. So yes, he must be a mage." Gomez assumed that Kain was a Re-equip mage, not knowing that he was technically something different.

"No that's not what I meant. This symbol he has is the same as one of the men I captured along with the immortal." Horus took out a capsule containing the person he was talking about.

"And? What about it?" Jeremiah asked.

"Was there anyone else besides these two?" The crusader asked the twilight mage.

"Yes, but the young man made sure they escaped before we could capture them."

"Then leave them be, we must return. Take that man to Rattleblade first before we give the immortal to our leader." As soon as he said this, Horus started walking towards the volcano.

Gomez bent down and put the mask over the boy before looking back at the crusader. "Are you sure this plan will work, Horus?"

He stopped and turned around. "No. But I must have faith, otherwise…"

They all became silent.

"Take the boy and go." That was all Horus needed to say before Gomez slung the unconscious boy over his shoulder, making all four of them walk back towards the temple.

* * *

Omake # 3: Team Names.

"Alright, team meeting, right now!" Kain said as he put a note book on to one of the guild tables where, He, Gray, Natsu, Erza, Lucy, and Happy were sitting in.

"Why did you call this meeting anyway?" Gray seemed kind of uninterested as he asked this.

"Well this is a rare time where we are all free and in the guild at the same time. Thus, I took this opportunity to bring us all together for a very important manner."

Natsu and Happy looked at Kain with confusion. "Did you just say, thus?" The dragon slayer started.

"Yes, Natsu. I used 'thus'." Kain shook his head. "But the real reason why I called this team together is because of what happened with Symphony, or rather, when I tried to make us look cool when we just made fools of ourselves arguing over our team name."

"I thought we were Team Natsu?"

"That name is never, and will never fly, cinder block head." Gray narrowed his eyes at Natsu who also returned the glare.

"Enough." Erza quickly said, making the two look like old friends. "Kain is right; we should have a proper team name like The Thunder Legion or even Levy's team, Shadow Gear."

"Thunder Legion? You know, I've heard stories about them but I've never met them here yet." Lucy thoughtfully said as she looked around.

"That's a topic for another day. We should focus on our name as of right now." Erza quickly said. "What do we name ourselves?"

The young man from another dimension cleared his throat. "So I've been actually brain storming a lot of names, and the only one that I found remotely satisfactory was Alpha Squad."

"Isn't that kinda overused? It also sounds like cheerleading team…" Gray's glance started to move when he said this.

Lucy seemed to narrow her eyes when she saw the ice mage looking at her. "Why are you looking at me when you say that?"

"You look like one." Natsu easily answered.

"And you're just about as useful as one." Happy added along.

"I am not just a cheerleader!" Lucy screeched towards the blue cat.

Deciding to stop that before it started, the young brunette spoke up. "Yeah, after like my one hundredth name consisting of the words, 'final' and 'darkness' with 'rainbow', I gave up completely." Kain threw the notebook back down on the table and looked to his friends. "Any of you got ideas?"

"Happy Group!"

"We'll put a pin on that name for later." Kain instantly said without any sign of interest in Happy's idea.

"Hmph!" Erza had her eyes snapped open with a triumphant look in her eye. "We shall be known as Avenger League! Named after the great heroic series that has inspired children to do the right thing no matter the cost!"

Kain blinked as he heard the name; from what he was briefly told, it's the Earthland equivalent of DC/Marvel. Erza was a fan of comic books and heroes? That… made sense actually. "I like the name, but it would sound like we're copying the comics, wouldn't it?"

The red head actually tried to speak against that point. However, she seemed to silently turn away after the young lawyer brought up his point.

"What about Demon Slayers? We did fight two of Zeref's demons…"

"Didn't we almost lose both times though?" Lucy hesitantly pointed out after Gray's point.

…

"Man, who knew thinking of a name would be so hard?" Natsu finally said, making everyone agree with him.

The team's resident Celestial Mage started thinking until she spotted Kain's notebook. "Kain, can I see the names you made?"

At the question, the young man blinked before opening the note book with the names on it. "Sure, but why? They aren't any good."

"I'm sure they aren't that… huh?"

Kain sighed heard Lucy make that sound. "I told you they weren't good."

"No no. It's just the first name you came up with, 'Trailblazer Crusaders'?" Lucy repeated, which made everyone but Kain perk up at the mention. "That doesn't actually sound bad."

"Nah, it kinda does. It was the first name so I didn't like it when I kept repeating it over and over again."

Lucy wasn't all that sure as she decided to read more names. "Battle Battalion, Omega Squadron, Arcane Heroes… Kain these names really aren't as bad as you made them out to be."

The young man in question had buried his head into his arms that was on the table and groaned. "They don't feel like it."

By now, the rest looked over Lucy's shoulders to see the list of names Kain had made.

"Whoa! Look at this one, "The Oncoming Storm"! I like that!" Natsu said before Kain responded.

"That name was taken in my world and by then I just ran out of ideas."

Soon, everyone but Kain started to look at the names Kain had listed. The young man buried his head deeper into the table as more and more people seemed to be attracted and start reading his list of names.

However, as Kain looked up, he had noticed that everyone seemed happy and they were having fun.

Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. He was trying to think of a catchy name, when maybe he should have been thinking of a name that matches each and every one of them.

But, besides being in the same guild, what did any of them have in common?

 _{"Do you want to join our guild?"}_

Wait.

 _{_ _I was bought a new batch of clothes while my old ones were being repaired. Gray actually gave me some of his spare clothes from when he was a few years younger that seemed to fit me well enough._ }

 _{_ _He said it was only natural that he'd give me his clothes since when we first met I did the same for him. I had forgotten that little fact in actually until he bought it up.}_

Wait a second.

 _{"Exactly, if anything, you deserve that crest in your arm for everything that you did do." That made me turn back to her with surprise before Erza started talking. "You helped an utter stranger save a village; you stopped dozens of women from being kidnapped; you helped a man finally honor his father's legacy; you stood up to a mad man even without powers, and not only inspired others, but gave them the courage to fight back and help you. And lastly, I will not stop admitting that we only won against Lullaby thanks to your quick thinking. Our guild is proud to have someone with a strong sense of compassion regardless of their magical ability."}_

Maybe…

 _{"Hey, Kain? Why didn't you come with us? I noticed Natsu was down when I asked about you coming along."}_

He thought…

 _{_ _Happy activated his wings and grabbed Kain in an attempt to get him out of here while the others relied on their close combat to ward off their mindless clients.}_

He had been doing this wrong the whole time.

"Lucy, can I see that really quick?" Kain asked, making everyone stop and look at the dimensionally displaced young man. As soon as she gave it back, he took out a pen and was about to write something down until he stopped.

Everyone that was making noise a while ago, suggesting names for fun or what they thought was good had paused because of how focused Kain seemed to be.

After a few seconds of silence, the brunette started writing down something.

"I've been going about this wrong for a while," Kain explained while he wrote. "I thought we had to choose a fancy name that sounded cool. But no matter what, each name didn't sound right to me. That was because I was trying to give us a name _we would follow to_ , when I should have been basing the team name _on who were_."

Kain put his pen down as he turned the note book around for everyone to see.

"I think despite all our many differences, we don't hesitate to stand up for those that need help, which is why I think this name fits Fairy Tail's strongest team…"

He pointed to the word he wrote.

"What do you guys think of the name, **Team Valiant**?"

Silence was his only response.

However, Natsu and silence never went together in the first place. "That actually sounds cool!"

Gray was next to smile. "I can't believe I'm agreeing with pinkie here, but yeah, the name actually sounds decent."

"That was very insightful in how it reflects all of us. Not to mention it sounds like something everyone could take seriously and doesn't sound like it was made by a child." Erza concurred as she nodded in agreement.

"Wait, you really think we're valiant?" The blonde celestial mage asked the brunette lawyer.

"You were willing to talk to Erza to convince you guys to stay even if you knew you disobeyed the rules. That seems brave to me." Lucy blushed at the compliment since she realized she did do that.

More murmurs came, most of them seemed to be on the same page about the name.

"Well then, it's decided!" To Kain's surprise, he didn't see Makarov standing on the table to his right. The small old man raised his hand. "Will Erza, Gray, Natsu, Lucy, Happy, and Kain please stand up in the front of the bar, please?"

The six all did what they were told as Makrov placed a hand out for everyone to hear.

"From this moment on, Fairy Tail's strongest team is named, **Team Valiant**!"

The cheers around the guild were loud that day as everyone started to party—get into another brawl because of the smallest darn thing.

However, as Kain watched all of Fairy Tail duking it out and causing Master Makarov to cry, he smiled.

… Then he was blindsided by a table thrown his way.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Fanfiction! I am disappointed in all of you! Using 'Team Natsu' as a name for Fairy Tail's strongest team while even Levy has a better team name than him!**

 **For shame on you all for not trying to come up with better names and just sticking to that! We're writers, we're supposed to do things better even if we are fanfiction writers!**

 **All that aside, I am really excited for a completely original Arc that I'm doing!**

 **It's my own spin to the usual formula Fairy Tail has but with my own personal twists.**

 **The first twist? I'm giving more character development to the side characters in Fairy Tail!**

 ***Gasp!***

 **That's right, imaginary audience I made to gasp! I'm letting the smaller characters from Fairy Tail shine! I've noticed sometimes that a lot of people either focus on new OCs to help build their story when Fairy Tail has a large cast of characters, why not use them instead?**

 **Like Nab! … You know, Nab! T-That one guy who just stands in front of the Jobs board?**

 **I just think that those characters that are sidelined deserve a chance to shine like the main cast does.**

 **Also, what is this TV Trope's page I keep hearing about? It sounds like a big deal. I kinda want one but I don't know how. Should I ask you guys to do it, or do it myself?**

 **What? What do you mean, I sound vain for asking for it?**

 **Ah forget it then.**

 **Thank you all for reading and enjoy your day!**


	11. Chapter 11

**{Author Notes}**

 **Happy Thanksgiving. I'm in Orlando Florida, in Disney World! (Y'ALL SHOULD GO TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM AND RIDE THE NEW AVATAR FLIGHT SIMULATOR. IT'S SO UNEXPECTEDLY GOOD AND DESERVES TO BE ALL CAPS.)**

* * *

Natsu was tapping his fingers on the table with all the grace of an angry piano player with none of the musical rhythm. That was just a fancy way of saying he was as impatient as a child told to go to a corner after a tantrum.

One could argue that Natsu _was_ acting like a child after a tantrum, but that could be considered semantics.

It was a dark and stormy night, but surprisingly the guild was rather peaceful for once. Mostly everyone had left the guild for the day leaving the following besides Natsu and Happy: Lucy and Levy were talking with each other; Gray was hearing jokes being passed between Jet and Droy; and Mirajane was cleaning up tables.

To Mirajane's confusion, she saw Erza walking up to her. "Oh, Erza, I thought you left already?"

The S-Class mage responded plainly. "I received a call from the owner of the quest. Apparently it was already completed by Bacchus Groh of Quatro Cerberus, but there was a technicality in the process that made it look like the quest was still open. So here I am instead," The knight mage looked down at the table. "I could help you with cleaning if you would like?"

"Oh it's alright, I'm about finished anyway. The guild is actually quiet when there's a storm funny enough. Even Master decided to go home early for today."

After she had said this, the heavy rain from outside seemed to let up until it went to a complete stop.

Natsu, hearing the rain vanish looked up a window. "Finally, the rain is gone. I was getting sick of hearing it." However, with the rain finally gone, his ears started twitching and he suddenly stood up from his seat and looked out the door.

To the surprise of everyone else, the resident dragon slayer bolted out the door regardless of the splashes of water he was making as he sped out.

"Natsu!?" Lucy cried out and eventually chased after him as everyone else did the same.

They didn't have to run far because Natsu stayed a little way outside of the entrance looking up into the sky.

To their surprise, up among the starry sky, a bright red and familiar creature that was drenched in water and covered in wounds flew towards them with all the stability of a bumble bee. As he came closer, everyone stood back as the usually powerful wyvern made a clumsy crash right in front of them, but then forced himself to get back up.

The fired dragon slayer did not waste any time as he ran up to the weakened and soaked red wyvern. "Ignis! What happened? Where are Kain and the others?!"

The pseudo dragon only got back up and turned away from them with his saddle facing them. It was wet, but it still looked to be in good condition. For the dragon slayer, he understood the action and quickly got on the wyvern. "Come on guys, Kain and the other need help!"

Lucy was the one to point out something first. "W-Wait, Natsu! Can Ignis even carry us at that state?"

Ignis growled at the question and flapped his wings as if to show he was fine.

"But Ignis, you're hurt!" Ignis' response to Lucy's declaration was to growl louder, as if he was saying he was fine.

It seemed like Ignis was as stubborn as Natsu during desperate times. "He must be desperate if he's willing to carry us all even in his state." Erza stated before looking to everyone. "We must go."

"Should we come too?" Jet asked as well, referring to him and the other members of Team Shadow Gear.

Ignis was the one who answered this by nodding his head.

"Seems like Ignis thinks we need all the help we can get," The dragon slayer repeated for him. "Now come on, we gotta hurry!"

It seemed like Team Shadow Gear and the rest of the newly named Team Valiant climbed aboard Ignis.

Mirajane, being the only one left, looked to Erza and said, "Please be careful, all of you!"

"Don't worry, Mira! We'll bring them all back in one piece!" Natu cried out as Ignis ducked then flew off into the night despite carrying more people than before.

The beautiful white haired woman frowned as she all saw them speed into the night. Despite her best attempts at believing Natsu, there was a part of her that had a very, very bad feeling about this. Still, Two of Fairy Tail's most prominent teams are on the case.

"Please be right, Natsu…"

* * *

After flying for a while at great speed, Erza looked on ahead and shouted over the winds, "We shouldn't be far from Telo City now! Get ready everyone, we don't know what kind of situation happened to Cana, Macao, Kageyama, and Kain!"

However, Droy was the one to point at something in the distance with a rather uneasy tone. "Guys!? Is Telo City supposed to be a giant, glowing pillar shooting to the sky!?"

When he pointed, everyone saw that he was indeed correct. Where the tone should have been, a large pillar of light surrounding the entire mining city was standing in its place.

While everyone was in awe, Ignis suddenly lost strength for a second which caused everyone to stumble at the sudden loss of balance. Thankfully, Ignis just as quickly regained himself and flew faster towards the edge of the town.

At the outskirts of the City, Ignis slowly started to lose feeling in his wings. Natsu noticed this and quickly shouted to everyone. "Guys, get off! Ignis, can't handle it anymore!" He quickly jumped off the wyvern, prompting everyone to do the same. No sooner than they all did, Ignis crashed and slid on the ground, utterly exhausted on the return trip.

"Ignis!" The dragonslayer ran back up to the red wyvern who only growled weakly before closing his eyes. Natsu sighed in relief before looking to everyone else. "He's just tired."

"Are you sure he's alright?" Lucy asked as she looked at the state the red creature was in.

Erza put a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Ignis is stronger than he looks, and that's saying something. However, we need to put Kain and the others as our priority."

The two teams looked at the large pillar in front of them that was shooting upward even beyond the ceiling of the cliff.

"Man, what is this?" Jet asked as he looked at it.

Levy took a step closer and looked towards the ground. "Hey look at this. There are so many claw marks and it looks like something here was burned recently."

"Don't they kinda look like Ignis' talons?" Gray pointed out as the foot prints did seem to match the wyvern.

"Was this it then? Was this why he was so injured? He must have been trying to get in, but couldn't break through it." Lucy said while deep in thought.

"Which means we gotta break through it!" Natsu lighted his fist before rushing for the pillar of light without anyone able to stop him.

However, instead of his attack connecting, Natsu's fist phased through and he ended up falling into the pillar of light as if it was never there.

"Natsu!" Happy cried out as he flew right after his buddy. Yet unlike his friend, the cat was instantly shocked and warded away by the pillar of light. Erza was the first to act and catch the falling blue cat.

"Happy, are you alright?" Erza asked the cat.

"O-Ow…" Happy groaned before Erza carefully put him to the ground and walked up to the pillar of light herself. She carefully put a hand out—when she did her hand moved through it as if it wasn't there at all. Erza looked back at Happy then over to Ignis before seemingly getting something.

"I think it only lets humans in. Ignis obviously tried to get in but he couldn't, when Happy tried to go in, he couldn't enter in as well."

"W-Wait, what does that mean!?" The blue cat asked.

Erza knelt to the cat. "I'm sorry, Happy. It seems you must sit this one out and watch over Ignis."

"B-But I've never been separated from Natsu before in a quest yet!"

"I apologize, but it appears that the pillar only accepts humans, not animals. But you have my word we will ensure Natsu will be safe… as possible as he usually is." The red haired mage stood back up and turned her back on the cat. "Watch over Ignis for us."

Happy couldn't even remember the last time he was separated from Natsu. He felt a pat on the head by Lucy before she followed the rest in front of the pillar.

"Everyone, be careful. There's no telling what's beyond this." Erza said before she led them all into the pillar of light.

Happy's ears fell at the fact he was almost all alone. "Please be safe guys."

* * *

Natsu Dragneel was looking around the area for any sign of the lost members when he heard a strange sound coming from the area above and behind him. As he turned to look, he saw everyone else falling from a few feet in the air and all but Erza and Gray landing on their feet.

"About time you guys came—hey, where's Happy?" The fire dragon slayer asked as he quickly noticed the severe lack of a mascot with them.

"The barrier only allows humans in, Natsu," Gray said as he walked up to him. "He had to stay behind with Ignis."

The dragon slayer's eyes widened. But after a second, he folded his arms and looked away. "At least he should be safe…"

It was obvious the absence of his friend affected him more than he let on.

As soon as everyone got back up on their feet, Jet was the first to look around. "Are we in some kind of jungle?"

Out of everyone, Droy was the one to speak up. "I think we're somewhere on the Volcanic Isles, a south western series of island from the coast of Fiore famous for having many nearby islands with volcanoes."

"How do you figure that?" Gray asked the black haired member of Team Shadow Gear.

"My spells are basically plants. I understand enough about flora to recognize trees from another." Droy walked over towards a tree as he said this. "Huh, I just noticed that some trees and plants have symbols I've never seen before marked in them."

As soon as he said this, everyone looked around, indeed spotting unfamiliar symbols scattered around them.

The celestial mage among them looked around with worry. "I have a bad feeling about this. How are we supposed to find Kain and the others here?"

Natsu pointed over to himself. "Happy can fly me over and…" He trailed off when he remembered the cat wasn't here. "I mean, I can sniff them out! It's hard not to smell Cana's drunk body from all the way at the end of Magnolia."

"Hey!" Gray tried to say, obviously offended by the tone the dragon slayer took towards their friend.

"What? It's true though."

"Still…" Unfortunately, Gray didn't really have a way to prove him wrong in that.

With that, Natsu sniffed the air around them. "Hey, I think I got their scent! Follow me!" With that he ran ahead again. This time, everyone was more prepared than a while ago.

The dragon slayer was in the lead as he let his nose lead them closer and closer until…

"Macao!" The salmon-haired young man smiled as he and the other spotted the older and slightly disheveled fire mage, a flying bird they had never seen before, and a somewhat injured Cana.

"N-Natsu!? Erza!? What the—what are you all doing here!?" Macao had dropped a fighting stance he was holding up. It seemed like he expected a fight, not the cavalry.

"Macao! Who's the bird? And where's Kain?!" Erza stepped in and motioned Natsu to calm down.

"Macao, sorry, but I'm going to need you to tell us what had happened ever since you four went into the quest." The red head calmly explained.

The older fire mage sighed. "Sure, you guys might want to take a seat though."

* * *

As his mind resurfaced, the first thing that popped in his head was the image of the imposing man in a crusader armor somehow taking him down without a sweat.

Kageyama groaned. Out of all the ways to wake up, it had to be with that memory along with him being chained and being surrounded by the voices of hundreds of worried screams—wait a second.

He snapped his eyes open as color, vision, and depth perception came back to him. The first thing he felt was the fact he was chained to some kind of upright table. He instinctively pulled his hands; however, the restraints around his legs and hands didn't budge. Next, he tried his magic, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it to activate. However, he noticed the strange runes around his body seemingly glowing whenever he tried to activate his shadow magic. He had never seen anti magical runes like that even back in jail.

However, Kageyama looked over to where exactly he was in.

He was not expecting a room—no stadium with walls and floors so white it looked like it could go on forever. He didn't like how massive this room was filled with chained slabs like his all full of people he had seen in Telo City.

And in the center of the large empty room, was a pool of odd green liquid that slowly filled out lines all across the floor.

Yet despite all of this, something else had caught his attention. In the distance, he saw the familiar body of Kain being taken into a different hallway with two figures carrying him. One familiar and one he had never seen before.

"The hell? Kain?"

*Pop!*

Kageyama was stopped from whatever thoughts he was forming when he heard the sounds of bubbles coming from the center of the room. It was one, but then two other popped up, then three, then four, then seventeen…

His unsettling feeling started to become worse when he noticed the bubbles were now moving down the miniature moats made throughout the room.

The bubbles unnerved him. _What came out_ horrified him.

The ones closest to the pool, what came out of the green liquid were _symbol_ s; symbols that moved like swarms like insects and started covering each person in a cocoon of green web. Slowly but surely more and more of these alive written symbols crawled out of the green liquid like spiders wash away by rain. They swarmed over their host and began to spew web all over them.

Kage started to panic when he saw the strange, animated symbols now heading towards his legs.

"Back off! Back the hell off!" His shouts were futile as he actually felt them climb his feet. It was like he was being swarmed by ants. "No! NO! NOO—"

Despite his increased struggles, he could not stop the runes from covering him and everyone else.

For the first time in a long time, Kageyama was afraid of the dark.

* * *

Macao explained everything that happened, not that in the grand scheme of things explained what exactly was going on here, but it did explain enough to get everyone up to speed at what could be happening.

"Kain got kidnapped again? Never thought of him as the damsel in distress type." Gray commented. On one hand, it was bad for Kain to be captured by the enemy again. On the other, the impact of it was lessened greatly considering this had happened not too long ago.

"Have you seen Kageyama?" Erza asked towards the original group.

"No, there's a chance he might have been caught by an ally of the two that defeated us," the older fire mage looked at Momon. "Along with Momon's friend here."

It was after that conversation that a new voice started a new topic. "Hey, Lucy," Cana spoke up, making everyone look at both her and the Celestial mage. "One of the jerks I was fighting with was a really weird celestial mage. What do you know about bronze keys?"

The look on the blonde's face was one of bewildered surprise. "Bronze keys? Oh wow, I haven't heard of those in a while." Lucy put a hand near her mouth after hearing that. "Bronze Keys were pretty much like the prototype Celestial Spirit Keys. Old wizards wanted to base their power off the gold keys, but the keys they forged where never strong enough to summon even normal spirits and could only summon much weaker spirits than silver ones."

"Wait what? Weaker spirits?" Cana repeated that with shock. She definitely didn't see that in Audolf. "I wouldn't call that dog weak."

"Dog?" The celestial mage repeated. "Did he have a Nicholas Spirit?"

"No, like an actual dog: an English Sheep Dog named Audolf."

The card mage and everyone else was not expecting Lucy to gasp in shock. "Audolf!? The fabled dog spirit!?"

"Wait, you know the name?"

Lucy seemed surprised but nodded. "Know it? It was one of my favorite stories my teacher spirit kept telling me, The Exploits of Jeremiah Archibald and Audolf, The Heroic! But he died around three hundred years ago. Is this guy parading as him with his celestial key?"

Cana's eyes widened. As she thought back to her opponent, some things start to add up in a way she didn't like. "Uh hey? Just a quick question, what does anyone know about rhyming incantations?"

Levy was the first one to speak up. "Rhyming incantations? Those are so old, and they fell out of style when mages figured out magic didn't need to have rhyming incantations during battle."

"How old?" Cana asked with a strange amount of seriousness.

"Like… three…" Levy trailed off as she looked to Lucy. "Hundred years ago?"

"Cana, is there a point you're trying to make?" Erza asked as she noticed those two strange coincidences the card mage brought up.

"Because I think that man I fought might have been the very same Jeremiah Archibald described in Lucy's stories." Cana put a hand on her head. "He kept saying strange things like 'our generation' and he fought with rhyming incantations with a magic I haven't even heard off in history books."

"But that's impossible he's been dead for three centuries!" Lucy began. "Maybe he's an imposter who posing as him! There's no magic that can revive the dead! … Is there?"

"Hold on. I may not be a history buff," Macao started. "But does anyone know the name, Gomez Bison?"

"You mean the famous cartographer and explorer?" Jet spoke up, much to the shock of the older flame mage and the heavy drinker. "He's the guy who explored all of Ishgar and created the maps we all use today."

"You're kidding me, he's famous too!?" Macao looked on with shock. "Do you know anything about him?"

Jet was kind of surprised at the intensity of how it was asked, but complied. "Huh? Yeah, history describes him as very eccentric. One of his most famous quirks was giving a sword to random strangers he met and dragging them into a sword duel."

Macao leaned into the rock he was sitting on and put a hand on his head. "Holy crap."

"Are you both saying that you just fought legendary mages who should have been long dead?" Gray looked surprised to even say something like that from his own mouth.

"I'd say it sounds impossible, but to quote what Kain once said, 'Magic is bullshit'." Macao stated.

Natsu stood up with an angry growl. "Then we gotta find him and Kageyama and beat these guys back to their grave or something!"

The others seemed to agree with their resident dragon slayer. However, Erza was the first to ask, "Do either of you know where they took him?"

Cana and Macao shook their heads.

"Actually," Everyone turned to see Momon. "While I was flying around, looking for Éclair, I saw a strange cave with a lot of runes. It gave me a weird feeling and I flew away from it instantly."

"That sounds like a base of operations to me," Gray stood up. "Where did you see it?"

Momon pointed, "Over there, in that smoking mountain!"

The bird was pointing to none other than a volcano.

"We have to go inside there!?" Lucy cried out.

"I think my magic is a bad match up inside there." Droy commented out loud since his magic was based more on plant life. The temperature there could instantly burn up his spells.

"Same for me." Gray clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"We'll need to be careful then. Who knows how many of these 'acclaimed' mages are in this mysterious group? Remember, they had enough power to abduct an entire town that had a fair amount of mages themselves and we have no idea how many allies they have in there." Erza then looked to Momon, "Please lead the way to where you saw this cave."

* * *

"It has begun."

An ancient and echoing voice in the darkness of the lava smoke spoke out as he looked on above with glowing yellow eyes. "How long has it been? Since I've seen those smiles that made even the sun seem dim and pale? I've dreamt of nothing but it in these endless days, yet for the first time in eons… despite my own eye balls having long dried and turned to dust… I wish to see rather than imagine."

The being slowly looked towards a tabernacle where a woman was chained down and had symbols written all over her exposed skin with goat's blood. Beside her, there were two other tabernacles, both with chained skeletons that seemed persevered. One was small, the other was smaller. All around them was an intricate and detailed magical circle filled with symbols and writings the likes the masses had not seen before.

"Now then… it is time to begin…" The owner of this voice grabbed an elegant, black staff with a white orb in it.

"ÝËĀΛΖ ЮФШ ЖΣΚΨΦ!"

He slammed his staff into the marble carved floor beneath him.

And then there was light.

However, the necklace Éclair was wearing started to shine a different light than that of the circle. As soon as it did, a large ghostly figure with a hundred arms towered over the cloaked figure.

कौन मेरे जादू पर अपमान की हिम्मत !?

It uttered sounds of an ancient and forgotten language as its eyes lit aflame with blue fire and pointed half a dozen hands towards the figure with a staff.

"So the rumors were true. However, not even a god can stop me now. ꙈꙊꙚꙘ!"

Some of the symbols on the ground threw itself on the ghostly figure and then more and more did so, swarming the strange apparition until it started to shrink despite all of its efforts. It retreated back into the necklace where a new symbol was written over it.

"Now then," The voice began as it went back to his original position. "to begin the ceremony once more…"

* * *

It was as sudden as an earthquake, coming from nowhere, but felt all around. Fairy Tail was quick to notice how the volcano was now marked with hundreds of giant runes that now glowed a pale green in the night.

"That doesn't look good!" Lucy stated the obvious before the runes started to spread from the top of the volcano to around the trees surrounding them in the jungle.

"And that looks worse!" Droy added as soon they all noticed something in the distance.

At the very edge of the island… trees were dying.

As soon as the last of the runes hit the edge of the island, the trees from outside to in started withering and being drained of all life. Great trees withered, water dried up, stones cracked and turned to dust, and so on and so forth.

Erza was the first to act as she saw the decaying force reaching them and pointed to their destination. "Everyone, head for the volcano!"

That was more than incentive to make everyone beeline towards the volcano with Momon leading the way towards where he saw the cave.

"There it is!" The small bird cried as he flew into the cave with everyone from Fairy Tail not even hesitating to run in as well.

As they blazed through the cave, no one had quite noticed that they were no longer running on a ground or rocky path. The sounds of feet running on dirt were soon replaced with feet running on something metallic.

"Is anyone else hearing that sound we're making now? It's so dark in here I can barely see."

At the sound of Lucy's point, both Macao and Natsu lit up their hands to light up the path they were in.

As soon as the light surrounded them, they all noticed that they were now in a metal corridor.

"What the heck? There was something like this here?" Droy managed to say what everyone was thinking.

There was a sudden sound coming from up ahead that made everyone tense into battle positions. In the distance of the hallway, lights started to activate one at t time before they reached up to the Fairy Tail group.

"That's creepy." Everyone silently agreed with Levy's point as she drew her own hand closer and made a slight step backward.

However, with the lights now on, they all saw the metal corridor lined with lights etched into the walls with items they have never seen before.

"Hey guys… I think I hear something up ahead…" Natsu pointed down their path. After Lucy asking for clarification on what he heard, the dragon slayer responded, "I think I hear… music?"

Needless to say with what was going on, and how they still had no idea what was happening, Fairy Tail seemed to be on the cautious side for once.

Soon the entire group decided to move after the sound Natsu was hearing. As they kept moving forward, they did hear what Natsu was listening to earlier. It was a strange melody composed of slow high notes and fast low notes.

The music became louder and the further they traveled, the more they realized that there was a light at the end of the hallway.

As Fairy Tail went through the hallway, no words and no thoughts could capture what was in front of them.

A room filled with uncanny white walls that seemed to go on for miles and with a mysterious green pool of green liquid that filled out the markings in the floor, creating the illusion of a moving and animated magic circle.

Those were not the strangest things seen in the room. It was not the hundreds of green, giant cocoons that surrounded the room, but instead… they all looked to the roof where circling above all the cocoon was the source of the musical notes: flying and moving symbols.

"Holy shit… I… I didn't know magic could do this…" Macao breathed in shock as everyone took in the sight before them. To them this wasn't even magic—there was something about this that was so much more raw and primordial before it became a studied craft.

However, Natsu felt a strange feeling in his stomach. There was something nostalgic about seeing something like this but he didn't understand what. However, his nose started to pick up a familiar but covered up sent.

"Guys, I smell Kageyama!" The dragon slayer cried out before jumping like a track athlete over the rivers of green liquid and making sure to avoid the strange flying letters.

They all eventually stopped in front of a random cocoon and after a small confirmation from Erza, Natsu enflamed his fists and ripped open the cocoon.

However, no sooner than he did, the music stopped and all the flying symbols froze in an unsettling manner.

"Uhh am I the only one who thinks that's a bad thing?"

"No, Droy." Jet returned to his best friend.

"Okay, thought I would check first."

However, before anyone could say anymore, a scream that sounded so desperate and mad came from Kage's opened cocoon.

"Kage! Kage! Calm down man!" Natsu said as he pulled what was left of the cocoon out of the way and the others all came in to get the man out of his chains and to somehow clam the man down.

The way he was screaming was as if he was seeing some kind of unimaginable horror.

"Ahh…ahhh!" After a few seconds, Kage started to calm down. "S-Shit! W-Where am I!?"

"Kage, calm down. You're safe with us." The red haired S-class mage began.

"Erza? Oh man, I take back everything I ever said about you guys. You saved my butt a second time!" He said in what seemed to be elation.

"Well that's different from before." Cana was the first to note that considering his somewhat confrontational attitude before today. "What the heck happened in there?"

Kage shivered as he looked back in where he was just recently freed. "I-I don't want to talk about it."

At this point, Momon flew over to Kageyama with concern. "Hey mister, have you seen Éclair?"

Before Kageyama could answer, everyone suddenly looked to the edges of the room where they had come from. The reason for this was they heard a large amount of footsteps that were all united in synchronicity heading towards them.

Soon, they were surrounded by a large amount of cloaked figures with eerie white raven masks all pointed towards Fairy Tail.

"Looks like we've got the entire Island against us…. where ever we are." Macao got his fists ready as all the other Fairy Tail mages prepared themselves.

Yet eerily enough, a few tense seconds passed with no trace of a twitch before Erza looked on with worry.

"Why are just standing there?"

There was suddenly a blare as the pool in the center of the stadium turned red and the symbols started to wildly trash around like erratic static.

The pool started to over fill, filling the lower floors with a red liquid with screaming symbols of madness.

"Okay, all in favor of getting to Kain, run for your dam lives!" Cana yelled as they all made a beeline for the opening Kage pointed to.

Natsu and Erza suddenly sped ahead only to suddenly motion everyone to stop. Before anyone could ask why the two did that, Erza slashed the air in front of her while Natsu punched it. No sooner than they did, several figures were sent flying and crashed into the wall.

"Everyone, the figures all have invisibility!" Erza cried as she looked to her right to avoid something hitting the ground and used a sword to down a large henchman that was previously holding a mace.

Natsu jumped back and flying kicked an attacker that was heading towards Lucy and Levy into more of his comrades.

"What the heck, I can barely even hear them!?" Macao cried out as he fired randomly, hitting several people before he felt something sucker punch him in the cheek. He didn't have Erza's prodigal battle senses or any of Natsu's super human senses to figure out where his opponents were.

Despite those two, the others were having trouble being attacked by almost anywhere. Erza and Natsu themselves seemed to be separated from the others by sheer numbers of the invisible warriors.

"Cana!" Levy cried out. "Cover us! Droy, Jet: Petal Field!"

"Right!" Droy reached for his pockets and threw seeds into the ground as several magical circles opened up. "Plant: Giant Thousand Petal Flowers!"

The seeds planted into the metallic ground and instantly grew into tree sized flowers with a multitude of small petals all combining to look like one giant flower.

"Speed: Arms!" "Solid Script: Gale!" Jet started moving his arms in circles at such fast speeds, he created a cyclone blast towards the flowers at the same time Levy fired a word Gale that came to life and suddenly burst into a bomb of winds.

But the air blasts were all aimed at the flower that suddenly exploded with petals scattering out throughout the stadium. After the winds died down, they noticed petals scattered everywhere, including all over their invisible opponents!

"Now we can see them!" Cana excitedly said as she proceeded to electrocute the closest enemies to her.

"This is much easier than before!" Erza took down several henchmen by the petals sticking on them. "But we must get going: they'll still overwhelm us at this point!"

That was all that was needed for the rest of Fairy Tail to plow through the henchmen in front of them as they entered into the corridor Kage pointed to. As soon as they were all in, Droy instantly threw seeds into the ground again.

"Plant: Wild Barrier!" Suddenly, very thick vines grew and closed up the entire entrance of the corridor.

"Ice Make: Barrier!" Gray shouted, also adding another wall of ice behind the wall of thick vines.

Cana prepped two cards then threw them. "Card magic: Enhance!"

Both cards hit the ice barrier and suddenly they made both the ice and vine barrier glow white. As soon as that happened, two floating white magic circles appeared in front of

"Well done everyone. That should buy us some time." Erza said, eying the triple enforced blockade. "We should use this time to begin searching for Kain—"

*BOOM!*

Fairy Tail quickly snapped back to the barrier. They didn't know what, but something was trying to break through the impromptu barricade made by three mages.

The first magic circle seemed to be cracking… even the wild vine barrier seemed to be loosening with each hit.

"Perhaps less time than we imagined. We must make haste!" Erza corrected herself as they all began to run into this next corridor. However, not long after they did, they heard something that chilled their bones.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!?"

It wasn't the horrified scream that got them. It wasn't how even though it sounded distant, it sounded so vivid as if the owner of the voice was right in front of them. It wasn't even how it also seemed to be in horrible pain that made them pale like ghosts.

It was the fact they all recognized it to be Kain's cry of horror that made them give pause.

"A-Are they doing the same thing to him!?" The dread in Kage's tone was noticeable by even Natsu as he ran along with them towards the sound.

"Kage, what do you mean by that!?" The blonde celestial mage asked off him.

"When I was covered by those eerrrggghhh! By those things!" Kage shivered as he recalled. "I… I think I was trapped in my worst nightmare. It felt like I was there for days, but when you guys got me out, I realized I was there for only a few minutes. I can only imagine what they're doing to Kain. Poor bastard."

"We gotta hurry up then!" Natsu shouted as he picked up the pace and ran even harder than before, racing towards the new corridor.

They had reached a smaller room than the one before. However, they had all seen Kain, chained to a cross as right in front of him was a floating, giant orb with a bunch of images moving so fast, no one could catch. The orb was even shocking Kain's head with electricity seemed to only be aiming for his brain that was the cause of the young man's horrible screaming. Behind him, a different cloaked and masked figure was writing on a book. The figure turned around towards the group that had come in.

"Wait, where you the ones who were making all that racket? But the ceremony—"

"KAIN!" Natsu forsook all pretenses and completely ignored the man as he jumped, fists blazing and tried to punch the orb.

"NO, YOU FOOL, STO—" The figure desperately threw a hand out towards Natsu but was unable to even finish his sentence as the dragon slayer punched the orb with enough force to make it crack all over— and then it instantly exploded with light.

* * *

…

When Natsu woke up, he felt like he was lying down on stone.

"Ugh, Kain?" He groaned as he got back up. However, to his surprise, he wasn't in the strange metallic room where he saw his friend being tortured. Instead, it looked like he was in some kind of house.

"Natsu? What the hell lizard brain!? Would it kill you to not charge in like that because it's starting to look like it will kill you if you do!" Gray snapped at his rival with a snarl as he came from behind a sofa in a living room.

"Shut up! That bastard was hurting Kain!"

That was really all the two needed to get right into each other's fac—

To both of their surprise, when they tried to butt heads, they both phased through each other as if they were made of nothing but air.

"What the?!" Instead of both questioning what had just happened, the two just jumped to the conclusion that the other was messing with them and tired to punch each other.

Yet the two didn't seem to realize that the repeat from before was no fluke. Both of their punches and future attacks kept flying through one another.

"The hell!?" Natsu, not quite understanding what was going on started to use magic. Gray did as well. However, just like their physical punches, neither found out they could access their magic.

That was enough to get the two to finally start using their heads and not their fists.

The two then heard the sounds of footsteps and looked towards a person who seemingly entered into the room from upstairs.

"Gray? Natsu?"

"Levy?" The fire and ice mage repeated at the same time.

"It's good to see you guys. But where are we?" The solid script mage asked.

"Who knows? The last thing that happened was pinkie here punching something that was obviously more complicated than it looked." Gray motioned to an irate Natsu who tried to punch him only to have his fist pass through him again.

"Wha? Did your body phase through Gray's?" Levy asked in confusion before the two explained that it seemed like they couldn't touch each other or use magic. After hearing all of that, Levy put a hand on her chin and seemed to wonder. "Hmm, now that I think about it: the figure who was managing this thing sounded desperate to stop Natsu from hitting it. Was this what he meant by that?"

Levy looked back at the two. "We should probably try to find the others. Natsu, can you sniff them out?"

At this, Natsu sniffed the air. However, no sooner than he did, the other two mages noticed the look on shock on his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Natsu looked over to the two and sniffed the air again. This time it looked like he couldn't believe something was happening. "I can't smell you guys."

"What?"

"I said, I can't smell anything! This entire place doesn't even have a scent, and then there's you two! I know your scents by heart, but I can't even smell it on you!"

As soon as Natsu said that, it made everyone in the room realize something was wrong.

"We should still find the others," Levy nervously said. "I think we should try to find out where we are." As she said this, she started to walk to the door and tried to reach for the knob leading outside. However, as she reached for the door, the knob started moving by itself.

The door opened, forcing Levy to move back. Natsu and Gray were quick to jump ahead in case someone tried to hurt them.

However, all three were surprised to see two kids entering the room.

"Hey, Rico, do you understand how multiplication works?"

"It's not that different than adding, Kain. You need to study more."

One kid looked like a young boy with black hair and tan skin, but the other was someone they were all too familiar with.

"Kain?! Kain is that you!?" Natsu asked towards the two talking children who didn't seem to notice them. "Why are you so sma—"

The two young boys raced past Natsu, phasing through his body as they did and jumping on the couch as the small Kain started pressing buttons on a strange black device. It came to life with strange sounds and a moving picture.

"What the heck? Kain?! But you look like a kid! And who's that guy?!" Gray asked a bunch of questions but again the boys didn't seem to notice.

"Levy, Natsu, Gray?"

The three looked at the back of the door to see Erza in the lead with everyone else. "Are you also following the memories?"

"Memories?" Gray asked as he looked back at the two boys.

"We kind of figured out a while back when we were in a school," Macao began while the two were playing video games. "It seems like we're trapped in Kain's memories of when he was a child which explains how eerily similar but different this place is to a home in our world."

"So we're in his world?"

"No, we're in a memory of his world. We sorta pieced it together when Erza said she saw some familiar sites around this place from the flashes of images going through the orb that was torturing Kain … Yeah it's still pretty hard to understand ourselves since we had just come from a secret base inside a volcano." Jet rubbed the back of his head. "It's like this rabbit hole doesn't end."

The new trio seemed to understand now. This was the reason why their opponent seemed desperate to stop Natsu, his attack somehow trapped all of them into the young man's memories.

"So what do we do? Just follow Kain's memories?" Gray asked.

"It was the only thing we could do for now…"

As soon as Erza said this, the world around them turned black, even swallowing the memories of the two young boys.

"Kain!"

"Relax, it did this before when Erza and I ran into Cana and the others. After a random period of time, the memory skips to a future event." Macao explained.

The place changed into the same living room. But instead of the day, it was late night and Kain was all alone on the sofa covering himself in a blanket.

Unlike before, he seemed sadder and was doing his best to cover his ears.

There was a sound of glass shattering that made everyone look towards the kitchen where the light showed the shadows of two silhouettes arguing.

"That was not your decision!"

"It was! And you had no right to say in that room!"

It was a man and a woman, and they were arguing passionately with each word flying more brutal than the last even though not too far from them, a small boy was wishing they would stop.

"Are-Are those Kain's parents?" Gray asked nervously before the screams became more hysterical and things were starting to be thrown.

Instinctively, everyone looked over to Macao. "Oh no…" The words were different, the voices were different.

But the hurt, raw emotions coming from both of them? He knew it far too well.

Even when they found themselves in a giant tower filled with people that looked over a city potentially even larger than the capital, Macao still stared with horror as he read the words on the door.

Divorce Lawyers.

It was… horrifying to know even in another world marriages could fail. It was worse to know that Kain of all people was one of those people caught in the crossfire. Romeo had the advantage to be far too young to even know what it was like those last few years with his mother was like.

Kain didn't.

The memory passed over again with Kain sitting down on a bench with his best friend Rico.

"Are you alright?" The black haired boy asked his friend who was just sitting in the corner.

"I miss mom." That was all he said, but everyone could tell those three words held more emotion than a child was supposed to feel.

"Hey, it'll be alright. I'm here for you! We're friends aren't we?" Rico said with a smile.

Seeing Kain not reacting, Rico pulled something out of his pocket. "Hey, ya wanna see something cool?"

The small brunette looked over as Rico took out a piece of paper. He crumpled it up as much as he could in front of Kain and kept it frozen in front of him as he closed it as much as he could. Rico gave a huge dorky smile to the boy. "Abra kadabra!" As soon as Rico opened his palms, instead of crumpled paper, there was a chocolate chip cookie in his hands, surprising Kain and everyone else.

"Here, take it." Rico laughed as Kain took the cookie in awe.

"How'd you do that?" Kain asked with light returning to his eyes.

"Magic tricks! They're so cool! I could teach you some if you like!"

Kain smiled and nodded quickly at his friend's offer. Rico's friendship was really all needed to bring Kain back to smiling as well.

It was too bad the next memory was that of Kain standing in front of Rico's house with the door broken down and police everywhere.

"Mr. Cop!" Fairy Tail watched with frozen horror as the young seven year old Kain looked towards the man in a strange uniform. "Where's my friend!?"

The cop had a frown as he looked at the kid. He took off his hat and kneeled to the boy. "I'm sorry kid. He and his family were hiding a drug dealer, who more than likely was helping them with finances to support their family—poor guys. Not only that, it seemed like they came to this country illegally, which means they're all going to be deported to Mexico for not having legal papers."

Fairy Tail didn't know what Mexico was. But they did understand what happened to illegal immigrants.

"B-But, he was my best friend!" Young Kain said near tears.

"I'm sorry kid, nothing we can do about that but hope they've got a good lawyer." The police man got back up as soon as he said this.

For some reason, that word made everyone look up.

"Did he say lawyer?" Kage asked with confusion. There was a small feeling inside him that maybe… he knew what was going to happen next.

When the memory changed again, it was of Kain talking to his dad, a brown haired Caucasian man over a dinner table.

"Can't we lend our lawyer to them? I think he's much better than the one standing up for Rico's case! At this rate, he'll be sent back to Mexico and no one's helping him!" The young boy cried out.

"Kain, he's not a defense lawyer. And don't ask me for helping you, don't be selfish." The father coldly finished.

Natsu stared in shock at the cold and somewhat cruel answer from the young man's dad. "W-Wait, I thought Kain had a good relationship with his dad?"

Soon after, the memory had changed with Kain sitting in a police station. Fairy Tail watched as the man kneeled in front of Kain again and handed him a note.

"This was found on your friend's body after the prison riot in the border jail. It had your name on it." It was just words, but after it was said, everyone filled up the gap. It meant that Kain's best friend was…

The young boy noticed the bulge in the note and as he opened it up, he found a crushed chocolate chip cookie along with a crumpled piece of paper.

Even when Rico was away, he still cared more about his friend. Kain started to cry at the realization he wouldn't be seeing him anymore.

The older cop started to hug the crying child. "Sorry kiddo. They didn't have a good lawyer after all."

As soon as the older man said that, the memory faded again.

Levy was the first to realize something after seeing those sequences of events. "Wait, is that why Kain always studies our laws back in the guild?"

"So, he's studying to be a lawyer, because he lost his friend to a bad one? Damn, I didn't know that." Macao added on.

Erza looked down into the ground after hearing that. This was the reason Kain was helping out someone like Kage in the first place before he left for this quest gone wrong. He lost his best friend to a bad lawyer and didn't want that happening again.

The memory passed and it showed a seven year old Kain staying with an old man in a different house.

"Grampa, when is dad coming back from his business trip?" The young and sad looking child asked.

However, Fairy Tail seemed to get a bad feeling when they saw the old man scoff and give a needlessly stern look. "He'll get here when he gets here! It's for your own good, so don't be selfish!" The old man yelled at the boy.

The memory changed again with an older nine year old Kain now looking at the wedding invitations of his father and a completely different woman. It wasn't hard to see that their usually unflappable friend was looking much worse than before.

He was on the phone and talking to someone else. "Mom, are you sure you don't want to come? I-I… It'll be nice to see you after a few years."

He missed her. He missed the old times that was so much simpler and kinder.

"Your father and I do not want to see each other again, Kain. It'll also be too hard to pay for a flight back to Vancouver. Don't be selfish!"

There were those words again. "Don't be Selfish." Fairy Tail noticed how Kain's face seemed to grow sadder whenever he heard those words. It looked like even they were starting to feel it too. How could they not? Their friend had suffered this much and none of them had a single clue of that happening!

"I-I don't think I can keep watching this. I-Is this Kain's worst nightmare!?" Droy asked as he looked at Kage, recalling that the shadow mage did say he saw his worst nightmare.

That sadly gave everyone hope. Maybe this really was the worst possible things that were happening to Kain, and his real life was nothing like this.

"S-Something isn't right," Kage started to say as the memory vanished again. "When I was subjected to my worst nightmares, everything was twisted to the point where everything looked monstrous. This? I- I think these are his real memories."

"You mean _this_ was Kain's life? But he never showed any sign of something this heavy!" Gray shouted as he pointed to where the young man moping used to be.

And it only became worse for there, memory after memory, it started to show how Kain's father and mother were both starting a new family away from the other. Not only that, they kept hearing the words, "Don't be selfish," used on Kain all throughout his life when it was so clear that the young boy actually wanted something that was _needed_ not wanted like affection, yet everyone ironically was caring for themselves rather than him. Hearing those words used so many times made Fairy Tail sick to hear those words uttered in hypocrisy, but they were so angry that they could do nothing but watch a good friend of their suffer.

Neither of his parents seemed to care for Kain as he became more silent, and so lifeless compared to the sarcastic yet kind man they knew back in the guild.

And then, the memory jumped to when Kain was in high school, he was holding a paper that read a big bold F and a note saying to see the teacher after school. It was a bit of a surprise for everyone in the guild considering that their friend was so studious when they had met, but at the same time it looked like at this point the boy seemed to care very little about himself or his academics.

There was a ringing sound coming from one of his pockets at the time, he took out a device that was unfamiliar to all of Fairy Tail and Momon and soon started to walk. Later on, Fairy Tail found out from Kain that he had gotten what he called a 'text' or message from his dad to pick up his younger step sister in a nearby school and he walked over to it.

Fairy Tail watched as Kain walked over to his little sister who was five years old and crying nearby the street because her doll was crushed by a car.

"Hey, Laura, are you alright?" Kain asked in a voice that almost felt empty. However, Fairy Tail seemed to be the only ones to notice that, not anyone else in the memory did.

"Pauline got broke!" The small girl said between hysterical sobs.

"Aww the poor doll broke…" Momon said this as he floated over towards the broken doll.

Kain tried to comfort his little sister. "H-Hey, calm down. D-Dad and… your mom can buy you a new one." The hesitation in his voice to say the young girl's mother was very noticeable to his friends.

"No you don't understand!" The little girl shouted harshly to her older half brother. "You're just being selfish!"

Fairy Tail flinched hearing those words coming from a small girl of all places. However, this time was different.

Kain's eyes… they looked more than dead at this point. They were just staring at the crying girl in a manner that looked almost… scary. Years of hearing those words told to him by his supposed loved ones and now a little, ignorant girl had said those very same words that made him feel so lonely and cold in this world? Even Fairy Tail could only imagine how much that could have hurt the young boy at his state.

"Kain?" Natsu worryingly called out to his friend even though his voice wouldn't reach him.

In the distance, all the Fairy Tail members here looked back behind them to see a car moving so fast in the road in the distance. It was swerving all around and it looked like someone was recklessly driving.

Lucy gasped as she pointed back to the young teen. "Uh guys!? Why is Kain staring at the fast moving car?!"

They all looked back again. Kain had a very unnerving look in his eyes as he looked at the incoming car… and back to his crying little half sister. There was something dark in his eyes as he stared at his half sister like that of an executor and his prisoner.

"H-Hey, y-you don't think—" Jet shut up immediately when they all saw Kain raising a hand towards the still crying girl who was obliviously close to the road.

"Kain, don't!" Natsu and the others cried out desperately as they watched Kain's hand moving closer to the girl as the wild car came speeding in that forced everyone else in the area to back from the road.

"Kain!"

The hand moved closer.

"Kain!"

The car moved closer with faster speed.

"Kain, don't do it!"

Then in one quick motion…

Kain grabbed Laura as the car quickly passed by her.

….

"Hahahaha!" Kain started laughing as he let go of Laura safely into the sidewalk. He was laughing so hard, he was crying. "S-Sorry! Sorry! You're right though… I was being selfish."

Everyone released a breath they were holding when they saw Kain save his half sister. But they were all also confused as to why Kain would suddenly admit that.

"Hey," The young teen looked to the teary eyed girl and gave what seemed to be a genuine smile. "Watch this."

He took a piece of paper and crumpled it right in front of her. He made sure that it stayed right infront of her face before he said, "Abra kadabra." And when he opened them, a cookie appeared in place of the crumpled ball.

The girl looked on with shock, stopping her cries as she took the cookie. "How'd you do that!?"

Kain just gave a soft laugh again as he stood up… and picked the crushed remains of his half sister's doll. "You were right though: I was being selfish. I'm sorry. But hey: why don't we talk to your mom, and she can hire someone to fix up Pauline for you." Something was different. His voice sounded much livelier than it was a few seconds ago, but calmer? More at Peace? How? And why?

The memory showed the little blond girl, Laura slowly stop her crying and sniffing to a stop. She then held her hand out. "Really?"

The older half brother caringly rubbed her head and smiled. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Pauline will be as good as new." Kain said as he held her hand and started walking.

Everyone was still confused though, what was with that incredibly sudden change? They were thankful Kain had snapped completely out of it at the very last second, but what had cuased him to make such a decision then and there?

"You know, I have to thank you."

Both his half sister and the people watching the memory looked up to the younger Kain as he said that.

"Huh?" The little girl tilted her head at her older half brother.

"All this time… I was just moping around, waiting for things to get better. I really was being selfish. But then, when I saw you crying, I was reminded of Rico," The old name caught everyone's attention and made the little girl look with even more confusion. "He went out of his way to help me… even though he was having his own problems, he still helped me. How could I be so stupid? I shouldn't have been feeling pity for myself, I should have been making an effort just like him in trying to help others—trying to help myself." Kain babbled out loud as if someone there would understand his strange monologue. There were.

Hearing that…

It was relieving for Fairy Tail.

"Whaaaaa?" The little girl seemed more confused before Kain laughed again.

"Never mind. I was just thinking out loud."

Fairy Tail watched as Kain walked with his half sister. Gone was the near dead, soft spoken boy tortured by life's unfairness, in his place it looked like he had an epiphany in his darkest hour and there was something brighter about him.

The memories changed again.

Instead of dark, dreary, and miserable memories—they were replaced with Kain working tirelessly on his grades studies, and even joining his local town hall to learn more about the judicial system.

His grades got pushed up to straight A's, he had more friends, and he was smiling much more often now. They even showed Kain playing with all of his half brothers and sisters from both his mom and dad's side.

In one memory, Kain was surprised as just he and his dad walked into an old ice cream store.

"W-What? You don't like it? You used to love coming here." Kain's father said to the now sixteen year old Kain.

"Well yeah, when I was four years old." He didn't say when he still was part of a whole family, but it was still in the air even though he tried his best not to mention it. "God this place hasn't changed at all…"

The two went into a booth where they seemed to be looking through the menu. "So, dad, why are you taking me out here? You and I are now busy with work and school respectively."

"Well, I just received word that you've gotten invites from over 100 colleges because of your grades and community service." Fairy Tail was surprised to hear that. Kain was wanted that much by that many colleges? "And I thought you might like a reward after all that hard work."

The young teen seemed uninterested at this fact. "Not really. I still have a few projects to do…"

"… Kain, did you forget it's your birthday today?"

Kain shrugged his shoulders as he heard this. "No, but I don't really expect anything on my birthdays." There was a silent, 'anymore' that everyone caught in that sentence.

"Listen, Kain…" The dad started slowly. "Laura and Joseph have been spending a lot of time with you—they really look up to you. Even Yana's kids, Anthony and Caitlin, like you a lot."

"And I like them too?" Kain seemed more confused at what was going on.

The dad seemed to put his hand on his head as if he was having a hard time trying to remember how to speak. "Listen, the more time you spent with them made me realize… you didn't have the same childhood as them."

"Understatement. Urgh!" Droy felt a chill as he felt Levy plant an elbow into his body in an attempt to hit him, but instead phased into him. "W-What? It was though!" The plant mage said to the smaller girl.

Everyone ignored him as the father of Kain continued. "And the more I thought about it… the more I realized that I didn't do anything to really help you after you lost your mother or your best friend. So what I'm basically trying to say is… I'm sorry. I'm really really sorry."

Two people among Fairy Tail, both female, stared at the sight before them: a father apologizing for his mistakes and getting closer to their child. While most of Fairy Tail was feeling happy they patched things up, making it the implied relationship it was now, the two girls felt an uneasy part of them grow when they saw this.

At the admittance of an apology, Kain seemingly stared in disbelief at his own father. He remained frozen like that for a few seconds before his face turned into something like that of a nervous and confused young man. "Apology accepted? I don't blame you dad. It really was mostly just… my fault for growing up weird. I felt bad for a long time, but I don't really think you or my mom should take all the blame. I'm okay with what happened now, so you didn't need to apologize in the first place. And-And can you lower your voice? I think people are starting to stare." He said with a blush.

The father of the young boy heard this gave and silently thought to himself. That was rather adult like to share the blame. When had his first son turned into a mature adult without him looking? The father found himself picking up the ice cream menu, seeing as there really was nothing more to discuss about that topic. "So what are you ordering?"

"I'm actually curious what you're getting, dad. I thought you didn't like ice cream?" Kain honestly asked as he picked up his menu again.

A small smile appeared on the father's face. "I don't. Especially when the kids start eating them, but if any of my kids are allowed to eat ice cream, it's you."

"I'm sixteen, dad. I out grew my sweet tooth."

"And that's why you're now allowed to eat ice cream whenever you want." He… needed to do better as a father, but apparently his own son was good enough for the both of them.

"But I thought you liked chocolate." For now, the Father thought to himself that he needed some catching up to do.

"I haven't ate that in years."

While mostly everyone was feeling warm from the interaction between Kain and his father, two females weren't as happy as the others. They were happy for him—don't get them wrong. However… for both Cana and Lucy, they would be lying if they said they weren't feeling 'jealous' of Kain for patching things up with his father.

Then that memory went by as Fairy Tail found themselves on a top of a stage that was in front of a large amount of people inside a gymnasium.

"And it is my great pleasure to introduce to you all, The Class of XXXX's Valedictorian, Kain Obadiah Reynolds!" A man stepped off the podium as the entire student body started chanting out Kain's name as he walked towards the podium in decorated form.

It was so different, seeing the lonely boy now turn into a shining star in his community.

When Kain came to the podium, the chants died down as Kain spoke to the mike. "My fellow students. I'm here to give us our graduation speech because apparently people think giving the smart guy that job is a good idea even though most smart people are busy as all heck and don't have any form of free time. … That was a veiled insult, Principal, I didn't have free time when you told me to do this. " He began honestly, making everyone smile and giving a few giggles at his personality.

"Now that sounds more like the Kain we know!" Natsu beamed with a giant smile as everyone else silently agreed, watching with pride seeing someone overcome harsh conditions by himself.

"Though, I don't know what to say really. Thinking for hours and hours, I couldn't come up with any speech no matter how hard I tried. So instead of the mind, I tried to ask what my heart wanted… and boy did he have words!" Kain laughed before he calmed down a bit and looked over everyone seriously. "Life is different for everyone. No matter how much things seem similar from one life to another, how we react to them is different. I found out that we all suffer, we all have our inner demons, and sometimes we fail when we shouldn't have."

Everyone stayed silent. The people of Fairy Tail also listened intently to Kain's speech.

"But I am a firm believer that we are better than our faults." Kain said with confidence. "Despite everything, we do have the ability to face our demons and win over them. … I wouldn't be here if I didn't, so I'm here to tell you that it is possible to see past all the bad things, it is possible to make good in this world that seems so horrible and scary and makes you feel powerless. And if you don't believe me—that's fine, but listen to the immortal words of Rocky Balboa: ' _Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!_ '"

Everyone but the Fairy Tail group cheered after hearing that. They had no idea who this Rocky Balboa was but the quote Kain took from him sounded so true in every sense of the way.

"A cynic would say that kids like us are going to be swallowed up whole by the world and real life when we get out of school life," Kain continued with his voice rising in defiance and to silence the crowd again. "Me? I say we go out there into the world, and show them what _true_ hell is!"

Kain threw his fist into the sky, pumping up his fellow students as well to go out there in to that unfair world… and win every battle that goes their way no matter how difficult it was. Fairy Tail, especially Natsu, was cheering on with the other students at Kain's speech.

Once more the wild cries of acceptance died down, but it seemed like the brunette had one last thing to say. "I know that sometimes, things will get hard. When things seem impossible, don't give up. But most importantly, don't lose yourself. It's easy to retreat and blame others for our misfortune, but in the grand scheme of things it does nothing," Kageyama seemed shocked when he heard this. It was similar to when Kain had called him and the other Eisenwald mages out back at the train. Back then, Kain had spoke similar words to them with such energy despite his situation, was this why? Was it because he technically survived something far worse in his own life emotionally that he could say something so fiercely?

Seeing his life, Kageyama finally understood Kain. He was just like them in begin thrown out, cast aside, and uncared for. But unlike him and the other mages, Kain really did take back his own life when so many things bad happened to him.

That… so that was why he helped him so much. The boy from another dimension believed in him.

"So take your time, cry, whine, and curse. But know that when the time for moping passes, it then becomes the time for you to get up and show everyone, including and especially yourself what you're really made off." He said those words genuinely as he looked to the side and seemingly nodded at a signal.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, and future world challengers, it is with great honor that I am allowed to say: that we of Class XXXX have now graduated!"

All students stood up, then moved their tassels to the left. After they did, the roars of cheer came out as everyone took their caps and threw them into the air above them.

Kain smiled as he turned and glanced towards Fairy Tail's direction. This surprised the group before Lucy looked back and pointed to what Kain's memory was really looking at.

It was his dad, step mom and two other people with their children, meaning that his mom and her new husband where there with their own kids. All the children were smiling brightly with 'go big brother signs' and whooping in joy towards him.

Fairy Tail turned back to see Kain smiling softly, before he too tossed his cap into the air with all the vigor of a slave that was finally freed from slavery.

However, it was at this moment that everything froze into place.

"Huh, what happened!?" Macao asked as all of Fairy Tail noticed the memory freezing in place. "This never happened before!"

"There you all are." A new voice echoed around them as something was appearing behind a frozen Kain.

It was the man in the same mask who was watching Kain a while ago.

"You bastard!" Natsu was first to pull the trigger as he rushed straight for the guy… and had his punch fly threw him.

"You idiot! Don't you ever learn!?"

"Shut up, stripper!" The dragon slayer snapped back to his rival.

There was a sigh coming from the masked man as he shook his head. "I don't have time for this!" He snapped his fingers and the world went black.

Fairy Tail quickly tensed into fighting positions in the face of their enemy.

"None of you can perform magic while in your astral projections, so don't bother." The man said. "In fact, I actually am here to thank you and ask a favor of you."

"Why should we listen to you? You were hurting one of our own!" Macao cried out.

"Then don't listen to me, you all don't have much time left before you get back to your bodies, so I'm just going to say this right now: when you all get back to your bodies, kill me."

That surprised everyone. A bad guy was asking them to kill him right off the bat?

Erza was the first to relax as she had a feeling he was being genuine. "What's going on?"

"I don't have enough energy to show you so you're going to have to listen to what I say. I was originally trying to rewrite this boy's memory into someone else."

"What?! Why would you do that!?" Natsu angrily shouted.

"Because we were desperate to stop our friend from doing something stupid." The man fired back, quickly making everyone blink in surprise. "Your friend… looked exactly like our friend's dead son and we were trying to gun on the fact that if we re-wrote this young man's memory, we could stop our leader from killing hundreds of innocent lives."

"Kain looks like your boss' son?" Jet repeated. "Did you really think that would work? I mean, his son's been dead, it would look like an obvious trap."

"It would if he wasn't sacrificing so many people to revive his family in the first place." The masked figure responded, making everyone pale at the mention.

"W-What did you say?" Cana asked for repetition at the casual way he had said something so unbelievable.

"To make a very long story short, my leader lost his family and it changed his life forever. He dabbled into lost magic for such a long time that he created a spell that potentially has the ability to fully revive someone from the dead and he based it off the lost notes of the black wizard, Zeref that he found." The man quickly explained. "Everyone you see on this island is a product of his work, of the old ancient magic known as Necromancy which brings back the corpse of a dead person and animates them to the will of the caster."

"Necromancy is real!? But legends say that even Zeref abhorred such magic!" Erza said what Kage had said not too long ago.

At this point, the stranger reached for his mask and removed it. Everyone watched in anticipation as he did so, but only paled as he revealed his visage.

"W-What's wrong with your face?!" Natsu was the first to yell as he pointed to the man's face or what was left of it. It was rotting, green, moldy, and some parts of it were gone.

"Y-You're just like him aren't you!" Kage was the next to respond, ignoring Natsu's comment. "You're a zombie like that crusader guy!"

"I see you've met my associate, but this should prove to you all that I was telling the truth. Most of your opponents here are revived acclaimed mages from their time to help assist our leader, but even we do not wish for him to go through with this."

"Wait, if you all don't want to do this, why are you obeying him?" Levy asked.

"He was the one that re animated us in the first place. If we openly spoke out about it at the state he was in, he'd no doubt send us back to being corpses where we could do even less." The zombie frowned after saying this. "Please believe me when I say that he is a good man. It's just years of isolation and desperation to see his family have blinded him from his morality, but we can't properly tell him he is wrong about this."

No one expected this, but the zombie in front of them sounded so sincere. Everyone looked at each other before Erza seemed to speak up for everyone involved.

"I am sorry to hear the situation you are in. It seems all of you deeply care for your leader even with the state he is in along with your situation. But please, do not erase our friend's memory." The S-class mage began. "After seeing it fully, it would be an insult to everything he has accomplished to change any of it."

Everyone silently agreed. To see Kain's past and what he had accomplished… it was such an underdog story that they couldn't help but love it.

The zombie laughed that sounded as joyous as Santa Claus'. "That was the reason I was so hesitant to do that. When I saw that boy's memory, every fiber of my being thought it was an insult to touch it, so believe me when I say I'm glad you all stopped me even if he had a surprising amount of resistance against my magic."

Suddenly, the black world around them started to shake. White giant cracks appeared around them.

"We've run out of time!" The zombie said as he put on his mask and looked to everyone. "You must kill me the moment you all get back to your bodies!" He removed his cloak, revealing a rotting body but a strange orb etched into his chest with runes all around. "The best revived undead have this orb where our hearts used to be, shatter them, and you will send us back to our grave. It is important that you shatter mine the moment you get out of here!"

"W-What? Why would we do that!?" Lucy cried out. A while ago, they wouldn't have minded taking out an enemy, but hearing a shortened version of the full story, it felt kind of sad hearing a man ask them to kill him.

"Do not worry, I already died once. However, the moment we get back, my master will order me to kill you for interrupting the ceremony! You must kill me before I can receive that order!" He cried as more cracks started to appear and the world started shaking. "My magic can directly manipulate memories! I can literally turn you all against each other against your will! Before I can do that, you must kill me once more!"

The idea of a mage being able to freely re-write someone else's memory was a scary ability indeed. No one liked the idea of fighting their own friends or having their memory perverted, but they also didn't like the idea of hurting an innocent man, even if he already died.

Erza stepped forward to the man. "There are still other powerful undead mages like you under your leader's wing, isn't there?"

The zombie nodded only once, but that was all it took.

"Then I will do so. We will stop your leader for you, and try to convince him out of this if we can."

"I hope you can. By stopping this, we now have to leave things to you all." The zombie said as all the blackness started to disappear and slowly everyone was being enveloped by light.

"Good luck." The zombie said as the light enveloped them all.

As the light died down, everyone slowly seemed to get up.

The cloaked figure seemed to get up as well—

*Stab!*

The sound of rotten flesh being pierced echoed in the room as Erza pierced through the area she was shown to aim for.

"Hahaha… thank you… for listening to my request," The zombie weakly said. "If I may ask another? Defeat my leader, and make him realize what he is doing… is wrong. He revived me against my will… but… my second life was actually filled with a lot of good idiots that made me wish I met them in my first one… so don't… hate… him…"

"Wait, please!" Erza cried out to him as she caught his falling body. She removed his mask, revealing his rotting and fading face. "What is your name!? We never got it!"

"Oh… that? … It's George… Ra…ttleblade…" and with his second last breath, the zombie ended with a small hopeful smile and his body turned to dust, leaving only the cracked sphere, his cloak, and mask where he was.

"George Rattleblade? No way! He's a famous for writing so many legendary plays hundreds of years ago!" Levy explained the name of that man. "I-I didn't know that was him! I'm a huge fan of his works!"

"Me too!" Lucy added in, shocked that she was actually talking with a (un)living legend. "I also recall history saying he was a mage, but I had no idea he had such potent magic!"

Erza got up and looked to the imprisoned Kain who seemed fast asleep. With a few slashes, she freed and caught the brunette before gently laying him down on the floor.

"Is he alright?" Macao asked the red head.

"He's fine, he's just sleeping."

The fire mage sighed in relief knowing his younger friend was alright. "That's great to know. … Now what?"

The red head mage stood back up and looked to everyone in the room. "We stop Rattleblade's leader. He plans to sacrifice hundreds in order to revive his family differently than how he raised these men from the dead. We must stop him from doing this for not only our sake, but for his and his friend's sake as well."

"Right! Let's do this!" Natsu cried out before realizing something. "Uhhh how do we do that?"

It was then that people were surprised at two things. In Rattlebalde's haste, he never told them how to stop his master. The second thing was that Natsu of all people was the one who pointed this out.

As if to answer his question, the wall behind all of them opened up, revealing a new area with a staircase leading upward.

Kage was the first to start moving, but instead of towards the door, he moved towards Kain. "Here, I can keep him tucked into my shadows where he'll be safe. I… owe him for being a jerk to him."

The shadow mage waited for the red head to nod before he made his shadow swallow Kain whole. "He's fine. This way, he isn't slowing us down too much."

"Right, everyone, let's go!"

* * *

Fairy Tail and Momon ran up the stairs (or in Momon's case, flew) to enter a large, empty room where one lone warrior was standing in front of an elaborate door.

"… It seems my friend Rattleblade has fallen. I am a bit sad at this, but then again, we have all died before." The man wearing armor reminiscent of a crusader declared as the group of people stood before him.

"Crap! Him!" Kage yelled as he pointed to the guy in front of him. "This guy beat me without breaking a sweat! He's really powerful!"

"Oh?" Instead of fear, Natsu seemed pumped up as he pounded his fists together. "You sound pretty strong, what's your name?"

"While it is manners to introduce your own name first, I will do so anyway," He planted an elaborate broadsword into the ground for him to rest his hands on before declaring, "My name is Horus Anhur, Grand General of the Yldarian Kingdom."

Everyone in the room paused in shock. They had recognized that name whenever they had looked into a history book!

"Horus Anhur!? The strongest mage in The Gathering War and history's first dubbed Wizard Saint?!" Lucy cried out in shock again. Did they have to fight through an army of acclaimed past mages!?

"What is a Wizard Saint?" The crusader asked innocently. "Is it a title future historians have given me? I appreciate it, but I don't believe I did much." He pulled out his blade and pointed to the group. "Now then, by order of my lord, I must defeat you for interrupting the ceremony."

"You're a Wizard Saint like gramps!?" Natsu, instead of being shocked like the others seemed only more pumped up. "Well now I'm more excited! Show me what you got, old man!"

Natsu didn't hesitate to set his fist ablaze as he rushed right for the giant of a man, despite both Kage and Erza saying that he shouldn't do that. The Dragon Slayer threw his signature punch—

Only for it to be to be stopped fully by two fingers from the blue crusader.

"Is that… Fire Dragon Slaying magic?" Horus began with interest at the spell more than the fact he was attacked.

The pink haired man in question grunted as he tried to push harder with his fist. However, much to his growing frustration, the two fingers were not even budging while his fist was shaking.

"Take me seriously, damn it!" Natsu stopped the attack and tried to reverse round house the crusader. However, as he did, Horus ducked under the kick and moved his hand close to Natsu's forehead with it in flicking position.

Then he released his middle finger.

That was all it took to send Natsu flying into Droy and Jet and knock them over like bowling pins.

" **Ice Make: Lance!** " A large spear of ice shot itself towards the wizard saint. However, the giant crusader picked his blade and with one slash shattered the ice into pieces.

"The history books weren't kidding! This guy is as strong as he deserves to be!" Gray started to sweat as he felt the magical pressure destroy his spell with ease.

Erza re-equipped into one of her sword armors and pointed a blade towards their opponent.

"Everyone, attack! Do not just fight him one on one!" With her command, the ten Fairy Tail mages except Momon attacked Horus in tandem.

…

But even that didn't work.

Horus was skilled as he was powerful. He avoided the likes of Jet and Erza as if they were snails compared to him and took on blasts of both Gray and Natsu like they were nothing. Even against more flexible spells like the ones Levy and Cana fired at him did little to even slow him down.

After only a minute, all of Fairy Tail was pushed back like they were minions in the way of a hero's path.

However, the room around them started to hum and shake.

Horus looked back up and sighed. "It seems like milord is once more starting the ceremony. Alas Rattleblade's second death most have meant little to him at this state." He looked back up to the warriors getting back up and said, "We are running out of time. You all must find a way to get past me."

Erza stood back up, and reequipped into her black winged armor as she held her blade. "He's right. Everyone, go on ahead and leave me to battle him."

"What!?" Everyone but Natsu cried.

"Hell no!" Natsu cried out.

"We don't have enough time! We have to stop the necromancer!" Erza barked.

"I'm staying to beat this guy up. There's no way I'm missing an opportunity to fight a guy around Gramp's level again!" That was something Erza expected Natsu to say. However, she wasn't expecting how he said it. His tone was much more serious than it was usually. And he didn't specifically tell Erza to go ahead instead.

It was like he was secretly saying, 'I'm staying here with you since you also don't stand a chance alone.'

"If ash-for-brains thinks he can hog one of the strongest fighters here, he's got another thing coming!" Gray stepped beside Erza as he stared down Horus. "If anyone's going to reach Gramp's level first, it's going to be me."

"Keep dreaming, always-naked!" Natsu fired back without looking at Gray.

"I-I'm joining too! I'm also a part of Team Valiant!" Lucy cried out as she somewhat hesitantly stood beside Natsu against Horus.

Erza wanted to argue, but against the overwhelming pressure of Horus, and with how short they were running on time, it had to be done.

"Everyone else, get to the door past him. We'll take care of him!"

"But Erza—"

"Go!" The red head shouted at Cana before she and the rest of Team Valiant attacked Horus once more.

The others watched as Fairy Tail's best team, while missing both Happy and Kain, were fighting hard against Horus and trying their absolute best to hold him off.

Cana gritted her teeth and looked to everyone else. "Come on! We gotta go!"

"But the others—"

"They can handle themselves!" Cana quickly stopped Droy from finishing that even though she wanted to help them. "We need to save everyone on the island or else!"

Everyone understood the weight of her words as they all resolved themselves and ran straight for the door.

Each of them heard the cried of their friends as they continued to get beaten up by the powerful zombie, but none of them turned back no matter how much it hurt… Kage on the other hand did look back and worried for them, but he had to trust the guys who defeated Lullaby, even if they were three members short.

Cana threw her cards at the large door, making an explosion and making a hole for everyone to pass through.

As Horus saw the other six move in, he raised his blade back at the already gasping Team Valiant. "Let us hope your friends are strong enough to fight mine."

"They will win and beat your allies, just as we will do to you!" Erza cried before rushing right for him.

* * *

The other six ran up the stairs until they reached another similar room where someone familiar was waiting for them.

"I honestly never expected someone to get past Rattlebalde, let alone Horus. Did you, Audolf?"

"Arf!"

Jeremiah Archibald the Seventh and Audolf, The Shepherd were the ones who greeted the other mages into this large room.

"I welcome you all here. However, orders are orders. I must stop you from reaching my lord even if I am against his wishes." The red haired man declared as he stepped forward, said a familiar rhyming incantation and summoned a shield and sword made of black light.

Cana stared before stepping forward. "You guys go on ahead. I've got a score to settle with this one."

"Cana, not you too!" Levy cried out.

"Don't worry. I know this guy isn't as strong as Horus. I can handle him."

Jeremiah gave a deadpan after hearing such a bold claim, "I am right here, miss." He said with a deadpan.

"Arf."

"Pfft hahaa!" Momon laughed at the dog's comment as if he had understood what he had said.

"Why are you agreeing with her!?" The modern looking man cried out to his dog in a somewhat hysterical manner.

"Just trust me, and go!" The brunette drinker yelled to her allies.

Levy tried to say something again, but Macao put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "She's right. We still need to stop the necromancer." The flame mage told her before looking to Cana. "You kick his ass, alright?"

"I was going to do that, even without you saying." Cana told herself as Macao and the others ran ahead.

"Hold, I cannot," Jeremiah was interrupted when a bolt of lightning nearly struck him and his dog where he stood if he didn't pick up his friend and jump out of the way.

"Sorry, your fight is with me." Cana smiled before she threw half a dozen cards at her opponent.

* * *

Again there was another room, and again, there was someone waiting for them.

"We were stationed here in the case someone tried to get to our boss." Gomez explained to the five mages plus a bird that entered into the room. "It wasn't fully thought out since we never expected people to get pass Mr. Rattleblade or Mr. Anhur. But in this case, I think that was for the best. Now, you all have a chance of actually reaching for our boss who is trying to continue the ceremony behind this door." Gomez mentioned as he motioned to the door behind him.

Yet the dark clothed man pulled out two intricate looking pistols and aimed them at his opponents. "However, orders are orders, I cannot let any one of you pass."

"And we've got stuff we need to do." Macao stepped forward. "You guys know this song and dance, I'll handle this guy."

"You sure, Macao?" Droy asked with some hesitance. Unlike the others, Macao wasn't exactly one of their high tier mages.

"What? You think I can't do it because I'm older than you guys?" He chuckled at them before his face turned solemn. "Just trust me like you would the others."

Levy exhaled before nodding. "Alright. Come on guys, let's go." She said to the remaining members as they started to run.

Gomez, seeing the group decided to put his pistols back into his hammer space, and summon a rocket launcher into his hands and aimed at Levy and the others. However, he quickly spun on his feet and fired right at Macao who was just about to blast him.

"Gotta be quicker at the draw than that, old sport!" Gomez cried out before he heard a boom and realized that he missed his chance to stop the others. "Oh great. Now I really hope your friends win or else my boss will be pissed at me."

"You've got to worry more about me than you do about your boss." Macao got back up as he wiped the sweat of his brow. "I challenge you to a sword fight."

A smile appeared on Gomez's face. "Well fancy that; I accept!"

* * *

Team Shadow Gear, Momon, and Kageyama were all that was left as they entered through the last door… and found themselves on the top of the volcano where below them, magma was bubbling and giving up extreme heat despite being what was supposed to be at the bottom of a mountain.

There was a large platform in front of them. In the center of the platform, there was a large pillar with a huge rainbow orb at the top.

"How!?" A voice that sounded like the bellowing winds in a dark canyon howled to the skies.

The remaining mages looked up to see a figure in heavy robes, holding an elaborate orbed staff pointing down to them.

"How did you get past my body guards!? They may have had their magic powers reduced, but they are all still acclaimed mages!" The echoing voice cried out.

Levy pointed to the man she assumed was the necromancer. "We are here to stop you!"

"Stop me!? I have waited one five hundred years for this, and you three are planning to stop me?!"

"Yes we will… wait, three?" Levy quickly turned around, as did Jet and Droy.

"Wait, there are four of us here, not three…" Momon said out loud which made him realize he wasn't counted among those who were here.

After they heard that, and somewhat ignored the small bird, they noticed that they were lacking a certain shadow mage.

Then there was a sound coming back from the pillar. The necromancer looked back to see Kage already behind him with several magical circles pointed to him.

"Gotcha!" That was all Kage said as several fists slew out and punched the Necromancer out of the pillar and into an edge of the platform away from Team Shadow Gear.

"Nice one, Kage!" Jet shouted out with joy. "Way to pull of that sneak attack!"

Kageyama looked back and was surprised to see the girl he was with earlier now tied up a tabernacle up here. There looked to be symbols written all over her body, which seemed like they were holding up whatever spell the necromancer was using that had something to do with those two other skeletons that seemed to be… growing their own flesh?

Kage instantly felt a spike in magical pressure as he instinctively looked back towards where he punched the necromancer down.

Quickly, he ran to the ledge and shouted over. "Hey! I think I can undo whatever revival ceremony this guy is putting up! But you have to hold him off while I do it!"

"NO! I will not be denied what was unfairly stolen from me!" The fully robed figure manically yelled with all the anger of a demonic shadow as his eyes glowed yellow and leapt back towards the tower in a single bound.

However, vines suddenly coiled around the legs of this necromancer before he was suddenly pulled out of the sky and crashed back down into the ground.

Kageyama looked down to see Droy who was kneeling on the ground and had a green magic circle beneath him. Levy turned to Kageyama at this time. "Hurry up and finish it!"

"Right!" With that, the De-speller quickly went up to the girl.

Momon had taken the time form before to fly up and catch up with Kage. As soon as he saw his friend, he gasped. "Is that Éclair!? Éclair, it's me! Wake up please!"

"Here, let me help." Kage said as he used his shadows to remove the chains holding the girl. "I hope this time, she'll think twice aboutKRARKC!?

Much to his surprise, no sooner than when Kage removed the shackles, Éclair's arm shot up and grabbed the shadow mage by the neck.

"Éclair!?" Momon cried out as the girl slowly sat up. "He's trying to help us, don't hurt…" The bird trailed off when he saw his friend's eyes open with bright glowing yellow eyes.

"Well… shoot…" Kage managed to say between gasps before he was slammed to the ground.

Meanwhile, back down the pillar, Team Shadow Gear got ready for their opponent behind the cloud of smoke.

"Man, we've never face a necromancer before." Droy began a little nervously as he held seeds in his hands.

"Focus, both of you! We have to at least hold him off until Kage can finish what he started!"

"You have no idea…" If possible, the voice sounded even scarier than before. "What you are stopping, do you?"

A pair of yellow lights appeared behind the smoke which made Team Shadow Gear tense for what could easily their biggest fight yet.

"We can t-ta-take…" Jet struggled to find words mid sentence.

The reason for this was rather simple, the clouds and finally departed and the trio of mages could see their opponent.

However, they noticed that all of the robes of the necromancer were ripped up in the crash.

Instantly, Levy wondered what other important details did Rattleblade skip when he was in a hurry to tell them to stop their boss?

The reason she thought this was because when his full robes were ripped, they didn't see the naked body of a necromancer…

They saw the bones of a skeleton with glowing yellow eyes and a magical skull necklace around his neck.

They weren't facing a necromancer.

They were facing a lich, an undead necromancer.

The lich moved his staff upward and many unknown symbols came to life around him as clouds started to obscure the night sky as if the heavens dare not watch at what would be unleashed by that unholy monster.

"I will make you all beg for death…"

It was a miracle that all their courage did not die the instant the lich uttered that before he attacked.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Dam! This was one of my longest chapters yet!**

 **The next chapter should be the finale of the original arc that I'm dubbing, Isle of the Undead.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed it so far, I really wanted the smaller characters to shine and now they're going to get their chance here!**

 **Also, I felt like I needed to explain some context to you guys about Kain's backstory.**

 **I will admit it, I absolutely loathed tragic back stories because they're so overdone and poorly made. But at the same time, I do recall liking tragic stories in certain characters like Professor Snape from Harry Potter.**

 **So when I crafted Kain's back story, I wanted to try something.**

 **I always noticed that most self inserts have always giant anime fans enter into their favorite world and suddenly have a life better than what they had in the real world.**

 **I have always been PISSED OFF at this.**

 **Out of all the troupes out there, this is the one that pissed me off the most.**

 **Why? Because nearly all self insert stories I've read describe the OC of having a normal or horrible life before coming to their favorite world. And then when they have powers, they suddenly become the most charismatic thing in that world when in their previous one, they were basically nothing.**

 **It's like they're saying our world sucks, which it does, but then I always feel like they're implying that life in our world couldn't be any better than it could be in a fantasy.**

 **Bullshit.**

 **Stories like these aren't supposed to make us envious about fantasy world. I believe they are supposed to help inspire us to tackle the insurmountable odds in the real world today. To face overwhelming odds like them, and win!**

 **I admit it. I'm a loser, I even have low grades in my college and I'm struggling to keep up even with help.**

 **But I'd be damned if I give up just because things are looking hard for me. That's an insult to me, my loved ones, and everyone that ever believed in me. I believe to give up would be an insult to the stories that I love that inspire the best out of me.**

 **That is why Kain's story is made to be different than almost every OC out there.**

 **I learned from one of my favorite shows, Criminal Minds, that sometimes tragedy can bring the worst… or the best of us.**

 **That's what Kain's story is supposed to represent. That tragedy can make us stronger, it's infinitely harder than the other path, but it's something everyone dreams of doing.**

 **Kain is my attempt to show there are more than just one type of person out there and those socially outstanding characters are just as interesting as someone who only loves anime when they are pushed to these kinds of worlds.**

 **I'm sorry for the rant.**

 **I just really hate it when people bash our real world so much. It does suck like hell, but it doesn't deserved to be so critically harsh when we do have the potential to change it for the better.**

 **Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy your day.**


	12. Chapter 12

He didn't quite know how, but Gray Fullbuster was sensing a pattern here.

It all started when Erza first invited him and Natsu to fight off Eisenwald. The mission was important but simple, and then it escalated into all of them including some newbies fighting against a super fast demon.

A super fast demon that still kicked their butts.

Next, he had to bring back Natsu and Lucy from reaching Galuna Island. After a sucker punch—Natsu would say he did it fair and square—the dragon slayer dragged him along the island where he had met his childhood friend doing something really stupid in releasing Deliora, the demon that ruined his life, back into the world.

If that wasn't bad enough, Lullaby had returned and fused with a dying Deliora, giving birth to a new demon that also kicked their butts.

Now, here they are in a secret underground volcano base fighting zombie mages and trying to stop a necromancer when they didn't even have a mission!

Gray was thinking this was starting to look more like causation than correlation especially since all common factors in these increasingly high stakes missions always seemed to be because of Kain.

But hey, he probably shouldn't be one to judge. He randomly strips anytime during the day so who was he to judge how impossibly stupid Kain's luck was with missions?

"Gah!"

Okay, maybe he had some validation to be hard on the boy from another world considering Gray just felt like he was punched by a fast moving truck.

Gray flipped back mid air and slid on the floor before looking back up to their opponent. They were outclassed—well that was a dirty word to go through his own mind. But yes, he and the others were getting outclassed by a powerful mage who hadn't even begun to use magic against them.

For the love of whatever being above, why was this happening a third time to them!?

Gray got back up and formed his hands together to gather magic. " **Ice Make: Bazooka!** " In one motion, a large cannon appear in front of Gray and he quickly fired a blast of ice towards the crusader.

Much to his horror and annoyance, his blast was swatted away and exploded some distance behind him.

"That was…" Their enemy began. "Young man, you're an Ice Make mage correct? Why have I not seen any dynamic styled attacks yet?"

Dynamic? Did he mean animals like Lyon made? "Those aren't really my style."

"They aren't your _style_?" The way their opponent repeated that sounded like he was surprised and shocked someone would say that. "How can you call yourself a master of Ice Make magic if you don't use both static and dynamic styles together?"

Gray paused at the question. "What do you mean use them together?"

For the first time in their 'fight', Horus raised his arm towards Gray. Instantly, everyone felt a spike of magical energy. Not once had their opponent used his magic on them until that very moment, and seeing as how he didn't seem to need it before hand, things were about to become much, much worse. "You really are missing out on Make magic's full potential if you don't use both sides. **Essence Magic: Flora, the Ice Princess**!"

To the surprise of everyone, another figure instantly appeared beside Horus, a beautiful woman wearing what looked to be a combination of a military uniform around the top and an elegant dress that flowed into the bottom. She had gorgeous flowing blue hair and had beautiful silver eyes.

She did a curtsy as she saw the crusader in front of her. "General, how may I be of service?"

"Flora, if you would be so kind to show how Dynamic and Static Ice Make magic can be used together?"

"As my general wishes." The woman looked over to the shocked gray before she slammed her palms together and instantly a dozen light blue appeared. " **Ice Make: Tyrannosaurus Rex!** "

All of the magic circles shattered and in a flash of bright light, a giant lizard appeared with a powerful roar that echoed through the room.

However, even though Gray was wondering what this creature was, he noticed the woman still performing another spell. " **Ice Make: Battle Armor!** "

More magic circles appeared over the dinosaur before slowly, the creature was being covered with some kind of armor with cannons attached to his back. After the spell died down, not only was Gray facing down a powerful beast, but now that powerful beast had enough fire power to wipe out an army.

The ice creature roared before pointing seven cannons at the direction of Gray. The ice mage's eyes widened, "Oh sh—"

He jumped out of the way as seven blasts fired past where he was and blasted through the wall. From outside, a large beam of light blue was seen and exploded from a low part of the volcano and shot out into the ocean.

As the isle stopped shaking and as the dust settled, Gray noticed the giant gaping hole that led back outside the island made by that combined blast. However, he suddenly realized that something was _right behind him_.

"ΩΩΩΩΩΩ!" The Ice T-Rex roared as it tried to swallow Gray whole. Yet the ice construct did not do so when Natsu came in a flying, flaming kick, shattering the head of the dinosaur and cracking it into pieces.

"Get your head in the game, you walking clothe violation!" Natsu snapped at the ice mage before looking back towards Horus.

"Shut it, anger prone jerk!" Gray snapped back before he got back up to his feet. "I wasn't expecting something like that!"

The helmed crusader turned over towards the woman as the ice dinosaur started to fade. "Thank you, Flora."

At the thank you, the phantom of the girl curtsied once more and started to become more transparent until she vanished. However, she at least said, "Always a pleasure to help you, general."

As she disappeared, Horus turned back to Gray's direction. "Make magic has a near infinite possibility and flexibility when combining both its dynamic and static counterparts. If you want any chance of even harming me, you're going to have to stop using conventional means and evolve further than what you already have."

Gray gritted his teeth and snarled as he heard this. As much as he hated to admit it, the man was right: this fight was different from all his other ones so far. Despite how much he wanted to deny it, he had to be stronger than what he was now if they were to actually have a fighting chance against someone on their master's level, maybe even more.

If he couldn't grow stronger mid fight… he was going to have to use his magic differently!

"Natsu, stand back!" Gray cried out as he slammed his hands together and instantly made a dozen magic circles in a row in front of him.

It was true, Gray was more used to static than dynamic like his friend Lyon… but that didn't mean he didn't know how to use it!

" **Ice Make: Wolves!** " Out of all twelve magical circles, twelve ice wolves jumped out in a stance ready to attack Horus.

Gray twitched a bit. He hadn't done dynamic ice make in years since they were fundamentally different from his usual spells and his magic hadn't acclimated to the sudden use of a high level dynamic spell. But he gritted his teeth and continued to make his move.

" **Ice Make: Blades!** " Static Make magic on the other hand…

Twelve swords of varying size and shape all fell towards each wolf. Each of the canines caught their swords by their jaws and looked towards Horus with fierce growling.

"Attack!" Gray ordered the twelve wolves to rush for their opponent. Horus wasted no time at all to try and slash the first wolf with a broad sword. However, he wasn't expecting the first wolf to suddenly jump back towards another wolf and then be lifted up into the air to avoid the blow.

Horus looked up, only to realize his mistake a second later as he used his blade to block several other wolves trying to attack him in the front. Two more wolves went past him and stabbed their swords to pin his large cape into the ground. The crusader saw this and pushed the three wolves attacking him back, only to realize the wolf that jumped earlier was now descending quickly on him and tried to cut him right down the middle.

Horus moved with uncanny speed to avoid the attack. However, even though he did avoid the attack, his cape was torn and cut from his armor as he did so, leaving him cape-less to avoid the blow. Suddenly, his blade turned into a golden staff and he quickly spun it.

In a blur, he struck all ice wolves with enough force to shatter all but one of them into glass.

"Oh? Much better. Flora never thought of something like this." Horus admitted before a shadow loomed over him. He turned back to see a giant Ice Gorilla towering over him with a giant Ice Hammer.

The Ice Gorilla roared before trying to smash the hammer down on the crusader. Horus acted quickly, his staff turning into a spear and stabbed it into the falling hammer, creating a shockwave as the two weapons connected.

Horus actually twitched from the impact, but everyone saw the Ice Hammer start to crack all over. Yet the zombie mage quickly released his spear, spun 180 degrees, and punched through the sword that was trying to stab him that was held by the last wolf. The blow shattered the smaller beast into pieces, but with him no longer holding his spear, the giant hammer fell right on top of him. The crusader had no choice but to grab his spear and punch the hammer right where his spear cracked it. The force of the knight was strong enough to not only break the hammer, but shatter the head of the giant ice gorilla holding the weapon.

As ice chunks fell down, Horus looked back to Gray who was now gasping for breath. Just a few spells seemed to have drained much of his stamina.

"That was excellently done. If you keep practicing it, you're body will be far more used to combinations like that and you'd make even Flora seem like an amateur." Horus then jumped as he avoided a large slash meant for him.

He landed gracefully even with armor as he looked to see Erza was the one who attacked him next.

"Your magic is… Re-Equipping right?" The man pointed to her as she only fixed her sword posture in response. He threw out his right arm beside him and said, "Alright then. **Essence Magic: Oberon The Arms Master!** "

This time, a dark skinned man with bulging muscles that had many scars across his body stood beside Horus. He wore nothing but large pant overalls and had energetic green eyes.

"General!" The man saluted in an excited and boisterous manner. "So what crazy fight do we have on our hands today!?"

Horus pointed to their opponent. "Please show this woman a secret in Re-Equip Magic."

Oberon whistled as he seemingly sized up the woman in front of him. "A beautiful armor and beautiful figure? General, you're too kind!"

"Careful, Oberon, you don't want me to summon your wife, Flora, because of that kind of talk." Horus casually shot to his friend.

"N-Now please, General, don't bring my wife into this…" The large man laughed nervously.

"Then if you would kindly…" Horus pointed a hand back at Erza.

"Yes, sir!" Oberon summoned a hammer out of thin air and with uncanny speed, ran up to Erza to smash her into the ground like a nail.

The S-Class mage wasn't expecting such speed from a bulky man and backed off by jumping high into the air.

As she did, she seemed to notice that everyone else on the ground except Horus started to lose balance with how hard the ground was shaking form that one blow. Erza acted fast, quickly changing into her Lightning Empress armor mid air and then firing a bolt of thunder down on the hammer wielding man.

Oberon smirked as he removed his hammer but shot a hand out in front of him to withstand the attack.

Erza and the rest looked on with surprise as the magic thunder vanished into Oberon's arm.

"That's a nice attack. Mind if I use it too?" Oberon shot out his other hand where thunder shot out of it—that was Erza's attack deflected back at her!

The S-Class mage braced herself as her own attack knocked her down back into the ground. Since she was still wearing the Lightning Empress Armor, the attack stung more than hurt. However, it secretly damaged her pride to be hit so easily with her own attack.

"H-How?" Erza gasped as she stood back up in a fighting position against her opponent.

"Well, as you know, we Re-Euip Mages have our own hammer space, right?" Oberon began as he placed his hammer down casually. He then pointed a thumb to himself. "I found out we can do more than just store cool trinkets in them. You can also reflect magic blasts right back at your opponent if you do it right."

The red head looked on with disbelief. "Our magic can't do that!"

"It can if you use it enough times. See, I found out that if we choose a part of our hammer space that is purposely empty, you can use it to contain an opponent's attack for three seconds and fire it back right at them. However, you can only keep it in your hammer space for those three seconds before our magic becomes violent at the captured energy or projectiles." He summoned a spear in his hands. "Here, let's start with physical objects, use your Hammer Space defensively!"

The phantom under the general threw that spear with enough force to create a sonic boom the moment he released it. Erza panicked as she didn't have time to move out of the way of the attack and did what her opponent told her to do.

She hurriedly opened her hammer space in which the spear flew in. Her magic practically screamed in pain at having something enter into her magic space so violently, but for some reason she could still feel it moving. Her battle instincts kicked in as she placed both hands out and opened her magic space again—only this time outward rather than towards her.

The result was the same spear flying towards Oberon who seemed a bit surprised at the speeding lance he threw until Horus had stepped in and caught the lance with one hand.

"Impressive, she mastered that in an instant." Horus said as he easily tossed the lance back at Oberon who put it back into his hammer space. "Well almost. It takes a bit for your Hammer space to adjust to having something violently enter into your hammer space, but now you know you can do that."

"W-Why?" Erza looked back at Horus. "Why are you teaching us?"

Oberon looked to his leader as the red head asked this. "… I've always found it fun when my opponents become stronger in our fight."

The phantom scoffed after hearing that. "Pfft! Yeah right, General! We all know your one of the biggest softies in the land!"

"Okay, you go back to your wife." Horus pointed to Oberon who laughed at the response.

"Sure, sure! General Softie!" And just like Flora, Oberon vanished into thin air.

" **Open Gate of the Archer: Sagittarius!** "

Horus tilted his head slightly before his golden spear turned into a tower shield he lifted to prevent a raid of arrows from striking him.

"It appears our opponent is one of high caliber, Miss Lucy!" The celestial spirit, Sagittarius said after firing a volley of arrows.

"I'm counting on you, Sagittarius!" The blonde celestial mage told her friend.

"That voice…" Horus began to say behind his tower shield until he felt another shadow descend on him.

"I've got you now! Fire Dragon's—"

"Excuse me for a second, good sir." Horus jumped and kicked Natsu in the face, sending him flying towards another part of the room before jumping back down with excellent form as if he hadn't moved from his spot previously.

He removed his shield and face down the archer. There was a slight pause in his stance, but he then spoke out out of recognition. "It is. Sagittarius, it has been a long time old friend."

Lucy seemed surprised, but she was more startled when she saw her spirit lower his bow with a frozen look on his face. "Sagittarius?!"

"Lord Horus? Is that you?!" The archer looked on with awe and confusion.

"Wait, you know him!?" Lucy cried out as she held her hands over her head at the revelation.

Horus looked over to Lucy. "He was a friend of a friend back during the siege of the Vortun Clans." He motioned out his hand again just like the first two times. "In fact… **Essence Magic: Beatrice, The Celestial Warrior!** "

In a flash of light, a woman with green hair tied into a bun and wearing armor similar to Horus appeared beside him. She held a shield and a sword with hollow holes that could fit specially designed keys in them. As she opened her cerulean eyes, the first thing she saw was Sagittarius and a small smile appeared on her lips.

"Sagi, you've grown."

"Lady Beatrice…I-Is that really you?" The archer gasped in awe.

"I'm sorry Sagi, I'm a phantom copy of your long former master. If you recall, General's magic has the ability to summon near copies of his allies and enemies as phantoms and access their magic, personality, and whatever memories they had of the time they had met. In layman's terms I am the closest possible copy of your old friend. But if I was the real thing, I'm 100 percent sure she'd be glad to see you as well as I."

The archer started to tear up, even his horse head was doing the same. "I-It's been too long… madam…"

"Dry your tears, Sagi, you are contracted to someone who seems quite nice. And circumstances means you and I must do battle."

"Ri-Right! Forgive me Miss Lucy and Madam Beatrice! That was most foolish of me!" The celestial spirit hardened himself as he faced the opponent before him.

"Sagi? Sagittarius, was she your former master?" The celestial mage asked carefully towards her contracted spirit.

"No, I had masters between you and her. But she was as kind as you, Miss Lucy, and one of my more fondly remembered users," The centaur readied his bow. "But please, Miss Lucy, I'm contracted to help you. Please do not return me back for it would be an insult to everyone if you did."

Beatrice readied her blade. "Since you are a celestial mage, you should see what you can do! **Celestial Robes: The Archer!** "

In a flash of light, Beatrice's get up changed dramatically, from armor, she turned into an archer get up with green hair now stilled into a pony tail. She drew a bow and fired several arrows at her opponent.

Sagittarius did the same. However, one arrow was different from the rest it weaved past the spirit's arrows and lodged itself into the centaur's knee.

"Sagittarius!" Lucy cried out as she ran up to the injured spirit.

"You're form is as excellent as ever, Madam Beatrice." The Celestial Spirit spoke to his opponent.

"It should be, you taught me how in the first place, old friend." Beatrice put the bow away before looking towards Lucy. "Young miss, the surprise in your face speaks volumes. We celestial mages have the ability to borrow the power of our spirits as you see before you. This allows us to bolster not only our own magic, but assist our spirits to much better degree."

"I-I didn't know we could do that…" Lucy admitted as she heard such a thing.

"Aaaahhhh!" There were two screams coming from two opposite sides of Horus, making the crusader look back to see Natsu and Gray attacking him with ice and fire respectively.

The crusader stretched out both of his hands to catch both attacks… then slam them together. The resulting clash let a pool of water fill the room along with a bunch of steam.

Lucy, seeing water, quickly returned an injured Sagittarius and brought out another key and stabbed it into the water near her feet. " **Open Gate of the Mermaid: Aquarius!** "

In a flash of light, the blue spirit had also appeared once more. Lucy, seeing her chance, pointed over towards Horus. "I need you to blast that crusader with all the water you can muster!"

"Tch! Why I otta—"

"Aqi? Is that you?"

The usually violent and mad spirit paused at the sound of the Beatrice's voice as the fog died down. "Big sis?"

"WHHHHAAAAATTT!? BIG SIS!?" Lucy hysterically yelled in a cartoonish manner.

Beatrice saw Aquarius and suddenly gave a huge smile. "Aqi, it is you! You've grown so much since I last saw you!"

"Big sis!? H-How are you alive?" Beatrice told her the same thing as she did as Sagittarius, she was just a close copy of her dead master, but she still expressed happiness at seeing her.

"Any way, Aqi, you look so beautiful now! Were you really that same shy spirit that hugged my legs like a life line every time I brought you out?"

"B-Big sis, don't say that! Y-You're embarrassing me!" Lucy's draw dropped and if it wasn't connected to her mouth it would have fallen straight into the center of the planet. Why was Aquarius acting embarrassed and cute!?

"Oh! Have you finally asked Scorpio on a date yet? You were always so flustered around him whenever I brought you both out. It was without a doubt the most adorable thing in the world and you were so precious." Beatrice gave a smile like a gentle mother and laughed fondly at the stories she was saying.

"Stop talking, Big Sis! You're still so annoying!" Unlike when she says insults to Lucy, it seemed Aquarius had actual respect for Beatrice and didn't mean any real offense unlike towards her current contractor. "Aahh I can't take you like this! I'm gone!"

"W-Wait, Aquarius! Stop!" Lucy tried to no avail as the water spirit suddenly vanished with a red face.

"It's good to see that Aquarius has a good friend like you. I'm glad." Beatrice said towards Lucy. She turned back towards Horus then saluted. "General, I have seen what I needed to see, may I please be dismissed?"

"Dismissed." Horus said as Beatrice gave one last wave to Lucy before leaving. "Now that's three… if I recall there was one more…"

"Stop looking down on me!" Horus looked back up to see Natsu unleashing a powerful breath of flame on the zombie mage.

"These flames seem oddly familiar." With a slash of his blade, the fires instantly died due to the force put behind the swing. Natsu growled at Horus even though he was injured with those few attacks he put out. But after everyone's attempts, they were finally making progress in fighting against their powerful foe.

"I heard several of your attacks, but did you say Fire Dragon Slayer?" Horus asked as he pointed towards Natsu.

"Yeah, and I'm going to use it to kick your butt!"

"I ask this because I'm curious. Who taught you that magic?"

"Igneel, my father!" Natsu cried out proudly.

The crusader in question tilted his head. " _Igneel_ taught you that? … I mean… I had been revived at a time to find out dragons were nearly extinct so who knows what…" he seemed to be mumbling about something.

Natsu seemed to be surprised at what he said. "You know Igneel?!"

Horus looked back at him and raised his hand the same way he had done so many times before this. "Actions speak louder than words in this case. **Essence Magic: Igneel, The Fire Dragon King!** "

As those words escaped his lips, everyone in the room paled at the thought their opponent's magic could even copy dragons, but not just any dragon, the very one Natsu had been searching almost all his life for!

Unlike all the other ones before, a large magic circle appeared behind and above the crusader. The magic circle fell down and as it did it revealed a powerful red dragon that took up a large majority of the room.

The dragon boomed with a mighty voice. "Horus, you midget, you summon me to fight against four nearly defeated mages? I'm insulted!"

However, Natsu stared in utter shock. His voice, his speech pattern, his scales, his personality… he had overheard several times that the undead mage can summon phantom that were near copies of his old friends, but he never thought he would see his father among the phantoms this man could use.

"D-Dad!" Natsu shouted at the dragon. Tears were starting to cloud his eyes even though a small part of him knew this dragon wasn't real. How could he? His mind knew it, but his heart seemed completely fooled because the presence was so identical he couldn't tell the difference.

"Dad?" The Igneel Phantom looked down on the boy as he repeated the word with confusion. "Horus, how hard did you hit that boy in the head… hold on."

The phantom lowered his head towards the human dragon slayer. Natsu didn't hesitate and hugged the huge dragon's mouth much to the surprise of the big lizard.

"A lot can happen in seven hundred years, Igneel, it appears you adopted a human child since we last met." Horus mused.

"I… uhh…" Igneel nervously looked back to Horus before he froze. "Young man, open your eyes." He then slowly moved out of the grasp of the young man that suddenly hugged him.

"I missed you, you horrible jerk!" He yelled with tears in his eyes as he suddenly jumped on his face and unleashed a heavy punch that made the dragon flinch downward. After the blow, Natsu jumped back down to the ground.

Phantom Igneel didn't really seem bothered by the hit, but as he looked down on the still crying Natsu, he sighed. "Dry your tears child, if you really are my future son, you should save your tears for your true father, not a phantom like me."

"Well!? Then why the heck did you leave me in the first place!? I looked all over for you, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find you!" Natsu yelled back to the near imitation of his missing father.

Igneel lowered himself to Natsu's level to look him in the eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm a younger memory of your father. I don't know what caused my future self to leave you, but I'm positive he didn't do that because he didn't love you otherwise he wouldn't…." Igneel shook his head. "I am unsure of my other self's intentions, but I know that much at least."

"Damn it, you jerk! Even when I find you, I still can't find you!" Natsu wiped his tears as he said this. Normally, something like that would make no sense, but for the dragon slayer, it was getting frustrating that even a past version of his father did not have any idea where his current father was.

Phantom Igneel sighed. "Come now, young man, dry your tears once more. In return for my future self's actions, I will give you a gift."

The dragon slayer looked up to the memory of his father as he spread out his wings. "I can sense your magic… I feel as if your Fire Dragon training wasn't fully completed, was it?"

"… I think there were things you had not taught me yet." Natsu admitted.

"Do you know about the blue flames?" The dragon slayer looked back up to Igneel and titled his head. "Oh dear, he did rush your training. Or I did—bah semantics fail me. Regardless, I am now here to teach you the second stage of Fire Dragon Slaying magic: Flame Temperatures and Colors. I learned how to increase the temperature of my magic from red and orange flames to white and finally blue flames. As the temperature grows, so does the ferocity of your spells and other abilities, but it drains one's magic power faster: a high risk and high reward state."

Phantom Igneel gave a toothy grin that made Natsu instinctively shiver. He had almost forgotten that evil glint in the dragon's eyes when his father was about to up his training. "Now then, the first step is for you to master White Flames. Focus your fire into stronger intensities… while avoiding me!"

That was Natsu's only warning as the memory of his father started swiping for him with incredible speed. After one duck, Natsu attacked with a fire dragon roar at the Phantom who just promptly ate it.

"You're going to have to do better than that!" Phantom Igneel cried out as he chased Natsu out of the room where Flora had made a giant hole earlier. Horus went after them, which made Erza and the others do so as well.

As they went outside, they continued their mock battle. However, Natsu was… well he was smiling. How long had it been since he last trained with his father? There was still that little part of him that still knew this wasn't the real one, but every other part of him felt relieved, nostalgic. It really was like the good old days where Igneel was pushing him further than he believed.

The phantom was right though, Igneel really did care for him. Natsu promised to get strong enough to punch him so hard in the nose he would definitely feel it for months for leaving him all alone without a goodbye. Since his own regular punch didn't do much to the phantom, he knew he had to tap into the white flames.

So he did something he didn't usually do. He concentrated. He focused on his magic. Even while avoiding Phantom Igneel, he focused more on his magical power. There was a small part of him he could feel deep inside him about his flames and then…

Natsu grinned.

"Got it! **Advance Dragon Slayer Art: White Flame Mode!** " In a burst of magic, flames covered around Natsu however, the orange flames around him no longer started to fluctuate like wild fire. It became more intense, which meant that it was more solid instead of swaying around to whatever wind was around it.

Phantom Igneel blinked, but as he did so Natsu had somehow closed the distance between them and was already right in front of him with his fist reclined.

"HAAAA!" The Dragon Slayer cried out as he punched the phantom with enough force to make the larger dragon slide back a good distance away from him.

Natsu landed down with the white flames still surrounding him. "Aww yeah! I did it!" He suddenly gasped and dropped the flames around him. No sooner than he did, he also dropped to his knee and started gasping for breath.

The memory of the dragon gave a soft laugh as he walked towards Natsu. "Did I not just say that it drains magic faster in that mode? There are still blue flames after the white ones and if you felt that much power with white, then imagine what you could do with blue. But be warned again, since I think you have a thick skull—"

"The Pot is calling the Kettle black!" Horus shouted quickly.

Phantom Igneel snorted and rolled his eyes before continuing. "Each mode drains your magic rapidly. Now that you've started to open the use of white flames, a new branch of fire spells have been opened up to you. Use them well."

Then the ghost looked over to Horus. "You really are a softie."

"I beat you didn't I?"

"After _I_ beat _you_ , don't you recall?" Igneel leered at the crusader.

"You only won the first time we met because I just came back from fighting three other dragons before you!"

"That's bullshit, you midget, and you know it!" Surprisingly, the two butted heads with each other as they started snarling at one another.

"Oh my," Lucy stared in shock at the sight before them. "They're like Natsu and Gray."

Horus snapped his fingers, making the dragon disappear. Afterward, he turned towards all four of his opponents.

"I have taught you all about the potential each of you can wield. You are now stronger than you were before you faced me as of this moment. Because of this, I can no longer hold back…" He raised his blade and suddenly, electricity started to dance around it. "I must now obey milord's order to the fullest. Do your best to fend me off until my lord is defeated or you shatter my orb; do not let me kill you."

Erza prepared a blade of her own. Now that they were much better rested, they were all ready to see if they could use their new tools to fight against Horus.

They were going to need them. Horus felt his order trying to override what was left of his free will.

He could only hope the others were doing better than him.

* * *

Cana dodged another laser of black light.

" _These words of power shall make you fail, go my power! Unleash Blast Hail!_ " Over hundreds of small black orbs appeared behind Jeremiah before launching themselves like bullets at the running card mage.

At the large quantity of blasts, Cana believed she couldn't out run that if she tried, instead she used her card magic to form a shield to protect her from the attacks. However, instead of fading when making contact, the bolts of black energy seemed to be sticking and stacking on to her shield. Their power seemed to combining until she realized the spells were stacking up on each other.

With a crushing motion of his fist, all the attacks gathered around Cana's force field and exploded, creating a hole in the wall the card mage was in front of when she made the shield.

However, to Jeremiah's surprise, something started rolling out of the smoke… a wine bottle!?

As the smoke died down, Jeremiah dropped his jaw at the sight before him. Cana was slowly getting back up, putting a lot of power into her shield, but as she looked back at her opponent, she was confused at the look he was giving her and turned around.

To her surprise, the wall behind her collapsed, revealing a stash of wine and other alcoholic beverages.

"THIS IS WHERE GOMEZ KEEPS THOSE DRINKS!? BUT IT'S IN MY ROOM!?" Jeremiah yelled as he clamped his hands on his head. "Gomez, you asshole, leave this stuff in your place dammit!" He shouted to the ceiling above him as he shook his fist.

"Arf!"

The celestial knight looked to his companion before looking towards Cana who had already finished over a dozen of Gomez's drinks.

"Miss, are you… drinking?"

"Shut it, will you!? I haven't had a good drink for a day!" Cana snapped before she picked up a barrel and started drinking it's contents.

"Arf?"

Jeremiah looked down to his dog, Audolf. "No, I'm not attacking her right now. It's rude. Also, screw Gomez, she can have it all."

However, as more second passed, Jeremiah noticed something… off… with his opponent. "Miss?"

He went ignored as Cana continued drinking.

"… Are you… alright?" He began but he soon found out he was ignored again. Sensing something off, he whispered an incantation before firing a bolt of black light at a wine bottle Cana was about to drink.

"I'm going to assume that you have a high tolerance for alcohol considering the amount you drank in such little time. With that in mind, why are you trying to get drunk in the middle of our fight?" Jeremiah asked. "That's very rude, isn't it?"

"… Shut up. I haven't had a drink in a day. I need this."

Jeremiah looked to Audolf before back to Cana. "No matter how much time passes… I've always noticed there are two types of drinkers. The ones who drink to enjoy… and the ones who drink to forget."

Unlike his previous attempt, those last words made Cana flinch just as she took another bottle.

"Is there something you want to forget—"

Jeremiah jumped out of the way a bolt of energy fired where he once was.

"Don't try and psycho analyze me. I just find it's better to fight drunk than sober."

"Is it because you don't think of some depressing thoughts when you're wasted?"

A traitorous part of Cana's mind flashed back to Kain's memories. When everyone was feeling proud of the scholar at the triumph of his past, she was feeling… conflicted. On one hand, what he did was amazing by his standards, to fight against the unfairness of his world in a positive manner and win. However, the other, crueler part of her mind she tried to tie up…

It was the side of her that was horribly jealous. She hated how when she should be proud of him, she felt bitter towards him for doing something she couldn't do. He had a potentially worse background, but he did better than her in her issues. It was only making her feel worse if someone can overcome such odds, then why was she struggling so hard with something with less stakes?!

Jeremiah tilted his head to avoid a thrown card that exploded a bit after he dodged it.

"Shut up!" Cana cried out before throwing more cards, creating a powerful thunderbolt to be thrown Jeremiah's way.

Aduolf stepped in, and as soon as the blast was aimed at him and his friend, the attack was reflected back at Cana—or where Cana previously was.

"Ha! You activated my trap card!" Cana's voice echoed around the room but she was still nowhere to be seen because of the smoke.

However, the term 'trap card' made Jeremiah glance down towards his friend's feet where the sheep dog was indeed stepping on top of a glowing card. No sooner than he saw it, the dog yelped as he was sucked right into the glowing card and trapped with no way out.

"Audolf!" Jeremiah tried to reach for his friend, but then backed off as a blast of fire nearly hit him.

Cana picked up the card holding the celestial spirit captive. "Not so tough without your doggie friend, are ya?"

Jeremiah gave an unreadable stare towards Cana before he stood back up. "… Actually, you're right."

"Huh?" Cana momentarily let her guard down at the admittance.

"Audolf has been my best friend for as long as I could remember, he keeps me straight. In all honesty?" Jeremiah bent down and picked up a wine bottle that was nearby him. "I am so much like you it hurts."

"We are nothing alike!" Cana quickly shouted before drawing another card.

However, instead of getting back into fighting position, Jeremiah just laughed. "Hahaha! Alright then, I suppose honesty it my best option: … I, Jeremiah Archibald, a man who has helped hundreds of people throughout his first life… am a fraud." The surprisingly fresh looking corpse admitted.

Cana blinked in surprise at the declaration. "What-What do you mean?"

Jeremiah looked at the bottle, rather than the contents, it seemed like he was staring back at his shameful reflection. "By any chance have you heard stories of my exploits?" The red head asked for a second before continuing. "They're all lies."

That… Cana wasn't expecting that. "Wait, so… you didn't do heroic things?"

Jeremiah rubbed the back of his head. "I did, but why I did them wasn't really heroic. My fans describe me as some kind of chivalrous knight who fought for the weak and defended the poor… they… well I'm faltered, but in actuality I am a damn coward."

The heavy drinker of Fairy Tail raised her brow. What did he mean by that?

As if reading her mind, Jeremiah continued in a very honest voice. "There was a woman in my time that I was head over heels in love with. Her name was Anna Heartifilia and she was the most beautiful, kindest, and smartest woman I had ever met. Before I became a hero to the people, I was an absolute nobody until we met by chance… while I was delivering her milk as the town milkman."

"Wait, Anna… Heartifilia?" Cana asked in shock. Was this guy in love with Lucy's ancestor?

"Okay, at least you don't look down on the milkman job. That's both a first and something weird, but then again I always complained when the others kept focusing on that…" Jeremiah commented to himself before walking over towards another wine bottle scattered on the floor that wasn't hit by a stray magic blast and picking it up.

"So, here I was wanting to do anything to impress her if I could just get past my irrational sickness of not being able to string coherent words whenever she tried to talk to me." He smiled as he seemingly remembered something fond. "I had soon found out she was a celestial mage, and figured that I could finally talk to her if I had one of them myself. And then I was scammed by a con artist who gave me a spirit no one liked."

The black light mage pointed over to the dog Cana had captured.

"Joke's on him though, he became an irreplaceable friend to me." Jeremiah gave a goofy grin that didn't fit a knight's image at all… but strangely it seemed like it suited him better. "Even after finally getting on at least acceptable terms with the shaggy monster in disguise, I still couldn't utter a single proper word in any language to Anna. It was actually worse. I made a fool of myself so many times that when it came to trying to meet with her from then onwards… I ran away." He sadly admitted. "I ran and ran to go to different places, and accidentally ended up helping people when I was running from a woman I fell madly in love with. All those adventures people praise me for… hahahaha… they only happened because I was too afraid to face Anna each of those times."

He sighed as he sat down and opened a bottle. "So yeah. I'm a fraud. All these people calling me a heroic knight when in actuality, I was just running away from my problems. … And the thing was? I sorta gave in to it when one day, she disappeared off the face of the earth without a trace. So yeah, I act and pretend like a chivalrous knight, but only because I really am nothing without it. Adventuring was all I had left after Anna vanished. Most of those times, I was desperately trying to look for her and where she left, but people have always misunderstood my selfish actions as something noble."

Cana… was not expecting that. She also wasn't expecting for Jeremiah to toss her the other wine bottle.

After she caught it, Jeremiah continued on. "The reason why I could tell something was bothering you was because it was the same look I had every night before I went to sleep after she vanished. If it wasn't for my friend, and the 'reputation' I had built for myself, I probably would have ended up drinking as much as you in my life." He removed the cork of his bottle as he said this. "So I propose a toast: to us cowards among brave heroes. Maybe one day being around real paragons might finally rub off on us."

And with that Jeremiah started chugging the drink.

Cana Alberona couldn't help but smile before opening the wine and doing the same thing as well. Who would have thought she would be having a really good drink with her enemy? They both finished drinking at the same time and Jeremiah stood back up. "Now? Are you ready to fight with a clear conscious?"

The card mage blinked before realization hit her. "Wait a second… did you tell me your life story just so I could fight better?"

"Oooohhh—yeah. I don't know how to tell you this? But you suck at fighting. … Oh hey that was easier than I thought!" Jeremiah chuckled as he said that. "So yeah it doesn't matter."

The heavy drinker of Fairy Tail narrowed her eyes, but not out of anger this time. "Oh you're going to get it now!"

"Bold words from a half naked lady!" Jeremiah shouted before he chanted, creating a shield and a sword from his magic.

Cana held out three cards that when combined summoned a tornado towards her opponent. Jeremiah spun his blade in his hand. In one powerful vertical slash, the gales instantly died down. However, no sooner than it did, the zombie was surprised to see Cana behind the gales with a glowing hand of cards.

In a flash, Cana threw a card instantly at Jeremiah's feet that instantly captured his body and sucked it into the card. Cana smiled as she saw Jeremiah's figure disappear in front of her and looked at the card where Jeremiah's body should have been. However, to her surprise, she only saw the card as full black.

" _With this magic, I'm never alone._ " Again, Cana realized that voice was behind her. " _Come forth, Twilight Clones!_ " Eleven other clones of Jeremiah surrounded the card mage in a clock formation before they all brought their swords down and made the area inside them explode with black light.

The first Jeremiah suddenly ducked just before the attack finished, and then a slash appeared on every other clone that looked like they were cut from their torso. In a puff of light, all the other clones vanished as Jeremiah turned behind him to see Cana beside a card with a blade etched to it.

"Did you think I'd fall for the second trick again?" Cana smiled before she held twelve cards in her hand and threw all towards Jeremiah. The red heeded warrior readied his weapons, but to his surprise, all the cards missed him and hit around him—

"Shit!" The zombie cried out as he saw all cards start to glow with different colors.

" **Card Magic: Full House!** " The Fairy Tail mage cried out as electricity, wind, fire, ice, light, and water all gathered and trapped the zombie before he could get out. Cana made a crushing motion with her fist, causing one last card beneath him to explode, causing a chain reaction of elemental explosions.

Jeremiah's body was seen flying in the air. Cana quickly took out a card and threw it at him. the light enveloping around the mage before he was absorbed into the card. After it was done, the card flew back to Cana, who caught it and looked at it with a smile.

"I lose fairly." Jeremiah said inside the card. "I recommend keeping me here; milord's order still stands even now, so be careful."

Cana scoffed before she looked at Jeremiah with a small frown. She sighed deeply before saying something, "… My dad."

"Excuse me?" The card asked.

"I have… issues with my dad. It's not that he's mean to me it's just—well it's complicated. But long story short, I was feeling jealous of a friend who had it much worse than me but was able to make amends with his family while I still hadn't done anything." Cana laughed almost pathetically next. "But it's like you damned said. I didn't have a noble reputation to hold and I ended up drinking early in my life to kind of… forget about how bad things were for me. I ended up doing it even when I guy I crushed on started dating a girl he liked too and I was around 13 dammit."

"So how do you do it?" Jeremiah sat down in his trapped space and asked honestly and with patience. "How do you deal with everyday?"

"I guess being drunk was a lot easier than feeling sober and like a piece of shit." Cana scoffed. "But… thanks to you, for once I feel less like one and I'm not even fully drunk yet."

"Ha. Glad to know that when I'm trying to help someone on purpose, it still goes well." Jeremiah said before he seemed to look at something in the distance. "You must go ahead. Milord is more powerful than you can imagine as a Lich."

"Yeah—wait Lich!? I thought he was a Necroman—shit!" Cana had realized that she let the others ahead to face something even worse than they expected. She quickly ran towards the door after thinking this, hoping her friends were still alright.

"Wait!" Jeremiah cried out, making the brunette woman slid to a stop.

"What!?" Cana asked with fear.

Jeremiah pointed towards what was left of the hidden drink chamber. "Take all those drinks. I wanna get back at Gomez."

What? Jeremiah wanted Cana to stop rushing for her friend's safety for a bunch of free, awesome tasting booze and wine?! Especially since she was in debt and couldn't afford more drinks even after this stupid quest was over!?

Why wou-Cana was already back tracking, wasn't she?

"I'm sure the others could handle it just a little longer."

* * *

"Well this was the worst decision I've made in a while!" Macao parried Gomez's blade before backing up.

Oh sure, challenge the obviously better swordsman to a sword duel—that was sure to work! Then again Macao didn't want to be overwhelmed by the other man's other weaponry which had more variety and fire power.

"Come now, you magnificent bastard! Nothing quite speaks to the souls of men than a good ol' fashion sword fight!" As soon as he finished, Gomez side stepped before stabbing where Macao's heart would have been had the older mage not jumped off.

"Easy for you to say, you're winning!"

"I call it having an advantage." That response was followed up by several thrusts by Gomez. All of which were aimed at pressure points had Macao not backed up again and blocked a few of them. "You can't win by just playing defensively! I mean you can, but usually the circumstances behind that are—" Gomez parried a slash by Macao. "They're usually very specific."

Macao knew this was getting him nowhere. He hadn't even used a blade until today and the only reason why he wasn't defeated yet was because of his years of fighting experience.

"Huh," A small sound escaped Gomez as he fixed his fencing stance. "Are you by any chance married?"

The fire mage gaped at the sudden question. "W-What!?"

"… Oh, are you divorced? My condolences."

"How the hell did you know that?" The purple fire mage asked in shock.

"Would you believe through your swordplay?" Gomez asked innocently before tilting his head slightly. "No? Then just tell others I can read people sometimes."

However, at this point, Gomez sheathed his blade after another clash. "Now, as fun as this was, I'm going to have to end this and go after your friends."

Macao was about to speak up until he saw Gomez's eyes turn purple.

" **Psycho Magic: Mind Lock.** " In one instant, Macao's entire body froze solid against his wishes. Even as he tried to move, he couldn't.

"Now I couldn't use this earlier because there was a lot more of you, but in one on one, it pretty much locks my opponent frozen still. Usually they are human though. I can't quite get this to activate on Audolf sometimes when he's pestering me about." Gomez with glowing eyes walked up to Macao and took his blade back. "I still had fun with this, but now I better go after your friends, toodle-loo!"

With that, Gomez started to walk towards the door. As he did, Macao desperately tried anything to move, his fire magic didn't seem to be starting up and his body was still stiff as a statue. How could he even get out of this—wait. He said that the lock didn't work on animals.

"Dammit." Macao gritted his teeth as he found out there was something he could do, he just needed to throw away what was left of his pride.

Gomez was about to reach the door when he felt a presence behind him. As he turned around, he felt a large hand grab him by the head and throw him back into the room like a spear. He landed like a skipped stone before trying to balance himself and slid on the floor. As Gomez looked up, he was surprised to see a white and black Vulcan had just tossed him back into the room with Macao nowhere to be seen.

"Ahh, I didn't know you knew Take Over magic!" His facial expression lowered as he put a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "I do suppose that does get around my psycho lock."

"Actually," The Vulcan began speaking. "I don't know Take Over Magic. There was a Vulcan that possessed me and forced me to change into him… the thing was though, after my friend defeated him, I found out I could still change into the guy's body, but I promised myself that I'd never use it because it would only remind me of my failure."

"Yet… you're using it now?"

"Hey, I'm the oldest mage among all my friends here. Someone has to be the responsible one when Erza's not here." The Vulcan lowered his stance into a running position. "As an adult, I've gotta learn to admit my faults and protect the younger generation!"

With that, Macao Vulcan ran off with amazing speed, causing Gomez to summons dual pistols that fired a barrage of bullets. Macao was using the advance agility of the Vulcan to increase his physical prowess and avoid a hail of bullets coming his way while still advancing on to the dark clothed man. Seeing him avoid all his bullets, Gomez switched back into a fencing sword and tried to stab Macao as he got close. However, the Vulcan jumped right above him and while mid air, performed a large right hook on to the mage that made him fly again like a thrown baseball.

Macao Vulcan landed on his feet as he landed on the ground after. He looked back to his opponent also jumping back to his feet who seemed more excited than hurt.

However, while there was a small lull in their fight, a question that had been eating at Macao's subconscious finally surfaced. "I gotta ask: why is it that you and that red haired guy look like you're actual humans and not zombies?"

Gomez blinked at the question before realizing what he meant. "Oh! You see, Archibald and I are later experiments. We were brought back to unlife while our boss was trying to find a way to fully bring back his dead loved ones. The earlier two, Mr. Anhur and Mr. Rattleblade were from his earlier and less refined experiments, and look far more zombie like as described in mythology."

"Wait, but you already look good enough to pass on as a normal person!" Macao cried out.

Gomez sighed dejectedly before lifting up his shirt to reveal an orb where his heart once was, the same one Rattleblade told Fairy Tail to aim for to kill him. "Wrong, we're very well made zombies, but still zombies. Our boss wants his family full back, absolutely no living on another's magic to live—as he believes."

"And he has to kill hundreds of people to get what he wants?! Rattleblade said there was nothing you all could do, but wasn't there something!?"

Gomez, for the first time frowned solemnly. "We have free will, but it can be taken from us in an instant. As of right now, we're all battling our best to get around the 'kill you all' order. Mine? He never said when I had to do it."

The Vulcan relaxed as he heard this. "So that's why you tried to leave me, you thought you would kill me later."

Gomez nodded while closing his eyes. "Unfortunately, you proved stronger than you let on. Which means now I have to be more serious." Gomez's eyes snapped open, revealing them to be glowing purple.

Macao's new animal instincts practically shrieked at him to run at that very instinct. It took a lot of will power to not give into to it, and even more will power to remain in control of his new body.

However, before the Vulcan could even blink, Gomez vanished. Macao Vulcan suddenly had the urge to look down—and saw Gomez right in front of his stomach with his fist reclined. " **Psycho Punch!** "

It wasn't a stretch to say that the amount of pain Macao felt as he started flying through the room this time was strong enough to put him into the brink of unconsciousness. He was even in a much more bulkier and sturdier Vulcan body and it still hurt him so much.

As he landed, he instantly coughed and hacked up spit and some blood because of that one blow. He didn't quite know Vulcan physiology, but it looked like the pain was lessened at how bad it could have been if he was human.

" **Psycho Magic—** " That was all Macao needed to get the hell out of where he was. " **Wave Blast!** "

As he did, a large wave of purple energy exploded where Macao was previously in. As he got back up to see where Gomez was, he found out that he couldn't see Gomez any more. However, his Vulcan senses did know where he was.

Macao rolled to avoid another powerful punch by Gomez who had teleported behind him. As he got back up, a bright light shined over the Vulcan as he turned back into his human form and pointed a fist—and a magic circle right at Gomez.

A torrent of purple fire blasted from the circle. However, as it died down, it revealed that Gomez was in a force field of purple energy. The dark clothed zombie summoned his blade and once more made an attempt to stab Macao as he dove in close. Yet this time, Macao had a much better time dodging his opponent due to the fact he was fighting without a weapon he was unfamiliar with. In one motion, Macao kicked Gomez's forward leg as he tried to stab him and swatted the blade out of his hands before following that motion with a round house kick to knock Gomez away.

"Got ya!" Gomez cried out as his eyes were glowing purple again even after he was sent flying back this time. Since Macao was back to being human, he instantly locked Macao into stasis again. Gomez didn't hesitate as he fired a large volley of energy blasts around Macao no sooner than he did that.

" **Psycho Cage!** " Gomez cried out his spell as soon as Macao transformed back into a Vulcan, he found himself trapped by hundreds of purple orbs surrounding him in every direction. Gomez was about to bring all the energy orbs down on the fire mage until Macao noticed something on the floor beside him.

"You fought well, but not good enough! **Psycho Grenade Zo** —"

And then there was a sound of glass shattering.

Macao as a Vulcan realized that beside his tail was Gomez's blade that he dropped. Seeing no other way left to avoid this attack, and with how weak he was from the previous direct hit, Macao picked up the blade and threw it with what was left of his strength right at where Gomez's orb was. The blade flew straight through and stabbed past the orb.

Instantly, the attack died down and Gomez fell, pushing out the blade as he landed on his back.

Macao gasped for breath as he turned back into his human form and fell to his knees, coughing up more spit and a few blood from the fight.

"W-Well done…" Gomez started to say. "You beat me."

"Don't," Macao gasped for air. "Don't sell yourself short… you… you were one tough bastard."

"Still though…" Gomez's voice sounded weaker. "I have to thank you. I can no finally go back to my wife, a lovely person she is. Haha… I'm glad I met some nice people in my second life, but it was such a sausage feast in here!" Gomez laughed again, but started coughing out body parts and his skin as he did. "Bollocks this hurts. Even my first death didn't hurt this much…"

"Sorry about that, it was either you or me." Macao said as he started walking over to his opponent.

"… Hey? Do you want to know something about me?" Gomez started. "Bah, I'll say it anyway. How many people do you know get to have a _second_ chance at last words?"

"That would be a first, yeah."

"Well here they are then: I can tell you're a good man by how you use your blade. Yet, at the same time I can tell you have your own troubles and doubts… I'm assuming family troubles?" Macao's flinch was more than enough reason for Gomez to continue his rant. "I never had those, thankfully. My wife was perfection in everything she did, how she concocted potions to drive the will out of any other foolish man, or how she created the darkest of rooms to torture her enemies, she was sexy as hell!"

Macao wanted to say something about that but choose not to.

"But, I can understand there are people who aren't as fortunate to find that one person who will love them beyond the end of time. So as I lay here dying, I say treat your next love like she is your universe. Every time you meet, feel as if you are meeting her the very first time with all of her glory. And if she treats you the very same way you treat her, she is the one."

The fire mage stayed oddly silent as he heard that. After a second he asked, "Are you saying, to really give it my all?"

"My good man, I can tell that you did in your previous one, but the thing about a good marriage? You have to do even better than that." Gomez smiled as he looked up. His legs were starting to collapse into dust and it looked like he was going to go soon. "Give everything you have and more, but if your loved one doesn't return anything like that, then there's no point."

More of Gomez's body started to fade into dust, leaving only his clothes until he was nothing but a head.

"Oh, and one last thing before I go back: you can keep my blade. I don't need it anymore, and I'm sure it'll have more adventures in your hands then. I call it, the Corazon. A fine fencing blade that can be used for others if you fancy those styles…"

"You're giving me your blade?" Macao asked in shocked.

"Why not? What purpose is a blade to a dead man?" The color in Gomez's eyes faded as he said this. "Drat, I'm blind and my magic is running low. Do me one last favor though and snap my boss out of his senses? Believe me when I say he's still a good man."

"…I'm sure my friends have that covered, but yeah. I'll make sure of it."

"Splendid…" And with that, Gomez faded into dust with a smile.

Macao sighed as he picked up Gomez's bejeweled blade. However, as he did, he noticed something etched into the metal he didn't notice before.

"Dedicated to my wife: she is always my quest." Macao read out loud before scoffing and walking up to pick up the thrown scabbard. "Dammit, even a zombie has a better love life than I do."

He gave a proud, fake scoff before sheathing the bejeweled fencing blade in. As he carried it for a second, something felt different about it, but also it felt right having a blade with him now.

Macao then heard something in the distance and turned to see Cana coming in to the room.

"Hey Cana!" Macao called out.

"Macao?" The card mage looked around the battlefield. "Wait, did you fight one of these guys by yourself?"

"Yep, and I won and got this sword as a reward, pretty cool huh!?"

"Wait, you actually won!?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Macao shouted out in a hurt manner after seeing the look of surprise on her face.

However, before the two continued, there was a loud sound that caught their attention up ahead.

Macao gripped the blade tightly before looking to Cana. "We gotta help the others."

The heavy drinker agreed before the two ran for the stairs.

* * *

Levy Mcgarden would be the first to admit that she and the rest of Team Shadow Gear don't take a lot of high level quests. So taking on something like a Lich was definitely an unfair difficulty spike from easy to hardcore mode.

A small part of her actually didn't want to ride on Ignis' back to save the others, and that part only grew when the situation started escalating to how out of their league they were with the likes of Horus.

Yet here she was with Jet and Droy facing down a Lich that was firing completely unknown lost magic at them like the tables that are thrown a lot in the Fairy Tail guild during a brawl. Please forgive her if she was having doubts about this.

"∑⌡ⱢⱺΦⱴꙓꙈꙊ!" The lich uttered sounds that she wasn't even sure were words before the lava beneath them shot up like a geyser and started to form into a large alligator-like creature with wings.

"Holy crap!" Jet yelled before the three of them scattered from being slammed by a giant lava gator.

With Team Shadow Gear distracted by the lava monster, the Lich looked up at the tower and over heard a talking bird begging his friend to stop choking another person. With a single bound, the Lich leapt for the top of the tower once more.

However, a word was thrown in his path between there and his destination. The word was, "Explosion".

"ШФ!" A barrier appeared around the lich as the word exploded and sent him flying back down. He quickly looked back to see Team Shadow Gear, while avoiding his lava golem, still seemed coordinated to stop him from getting on top of his tower.

The walking, magical skeleton placed a hand on the tower's body where instantly, unknown runes started to spread out around it like ants with super speed. With that done, he threw out his staff as it started to glow blue and stalked towards team Shadow Gear.

The runes all trailed up the tower, suddenly shooting out bits of the tower itself like tentacles all sharpened and aimed at Kageyama who was still trying to break free out of the possessed Éclair. "Dammit!"

He chocked before he activated his shadow magic and vanished into his own shadows before the spikes could stab him like Swiss cheese.

Back down, Droy and Jet backed off before the magma gator snapped at them.

"We gotta stop this thing!" Jet said.

"Don't look at me, I may have some fire proof plants, but none of them can handle magma's heat!" Droy shouted back.

Levy heard this and was about to use a water based script to help. However, she froze mid cast as she felt a shadow cast over her.

"ꙓⱴ" The script mage jumped out of the way before the Lich slammed down his staff at where she stood. No sooner than he did, he pointed his staff at her as it glowed purple and a slow moving orb was making its way towards Levy. Confused, Levy jumped back only to notice the Lich firing more spells that shot beams into the sky… then landed right behind her, trapping her in a cage. Seeing the slow moving orb, Levy blasted it with several magical elements.

However, no matter what she did the slow moving orb was still making its way towards her. That's why it was so slow, it was nigh impossible to stop!

"Levy!" Droy and Jet cried out as they saw their friend in that state.

"Droy, seeds!" Jet cried out before his friend quickly gave him a dozen from his person and the speed mage blasted off to avoid being pinned by the magma gator. The lich acted fast, chanting another unheard spell and sending the same white pillars to bar Jet's path. No matter how the speed mage tried, a pillar always blocked his path.

Seeing his window closing, Jet used one more burst of speed, faster than he ever moved before… but it still wasn't fast enough to get past the pillars blocking his way. Desperate, he had to resort to plan B and ran around one pillar one more time and threw the seeds as hard as he could so they ended up scattering right in front of Levy.

Jet yelled as a pillar landed in front of him, "Now Droy!" And then he crashed into it like he had fallen from a two story building.

Droy activated his magic, instantly making wild vines grow on metal that lifted Levy up and out of that area while also trying to wrap around the slow moving attack. However, as the plant mage did this, he failed to recall that there was a fire monster barreling down on him.

Yet, it was Levy's turn as she jumped on the pillars and fired the word, 'Tsunami' pointed at the lava gator and a rapid torrent of water blasted right for the fire monster before it could hurt her teammate.

As the water and lava made contact, a large cloud of steam filled the area beneath the tower. Up on above, Momon watched with worry, but he didn't notice the spikes in the tower now slowly inching towards him.

"Duck, you duck!" Kageyama jumped out of the bird's shadow and caught the small bird before it was attacked.

"Hey, I'm not a duck!" The small bird squawked.

"You're not?" The shadow mage seemed genuinely confused. "Really?"

His question would remain unanswered when he heard a growl come right for him and turned to see a maddened Éclair rushing right for them. Kageyama jumped back, still holding on to Momon before noticing the tower's defenses now aiming for him. "Dammit! I can't undo the seal under these conditions!"

An idea came to him at that moment. "Duck-bird thing! Head into my shadows!"

"What? But it's scary in there!"

Kageyama weaved through several spikes attempting to stab him and pointed to the possessed and angry looking Éclair and the spikes all drawn to them. "Scarier than this?!"

"Okay, I see your point." The Shadow Mage then used his own shadow tendrils to stop a dozen or so spikes from trying to stab him while jumping again away from Éclair and her inhuman strength while under the influence. "What do I do?"

"Get in there, and wake up sleeping beauty!" That was all Kage said as he dunked the bird into his shadow and now better prepared himself against the situation around him.

Back down in the fog, Team Shadow Gear had regrouped thanks to Droy's plants and had hidden behind a pillar.

"Okay, Levy, what's the plan to defeat this guy, because he is in a completely different class!" Droy whispered as team Shadow Gear hid behind one of the Pillars that the Lich summoned.

"W-Wait, I had to come up with a plan?" Levy whispered in shock as she pointed to herself.

"Levy, everyone knows you are the brains of our group. Heck, you've even been doing it when we were kids!" Jet whispered in a somewhat harsh tone.

"That doesn't mean I can come up with a way to beat a Lich spamming magic I doubt even our master has ever seen before! I don't know how to deal with this!" Levy half shrieked before realizing she was trying to be quiet.

The three all looked around the area, but as soon as they saw glowing yellow eyes they instantly hid behind the pillar again.

Their leader started to pant for air rapidly. "W-We have to leave! We can't handle this! J-Jet, you gotta get Kage out of there so we can all go back down and get the others, maybe they won and are on their way back here!"

The speed mage grabbed his friend by the shoulders. "W-Whoa whoa! Breathe, Levy, breathe!" He made motions to breathe in slowly and exhale slowly which Levy eventually did as Droy kept watch for the glowing yellow eyes among the fog.

"Levy, the guys are having their own fights right now, and if I make a dash for the tower, I will be spotted immediately. For now, we're on our own."

"W-We can't handle this! It's way out of our league!"

Jet shushed his friend before exhaling. "Levi, do you remember the days after you rejected my love confession?"

"W-What? Jet, why are you bringing that up—"

The speed mage elaborated. "Levy, those were the most awkward and horrible days of my life yet. But you made me realize that even though I had made things awkward as hell you still held the team together. I appreciate that even though I screwed up, you were willing to still be friends with me, so believe me when I say you are capable of just as being a great leader as maybe Erza! But we need you to calm down if we have any chance of beating fighting this guy long enough for the others to get here."

Levy was surprised to say the least. She never expected Jet of all people to say something so profound. "Did… did you hit your head harder than I thought when Kain tied your shoelaces?"

"Oh haha. See? There's the brave Levy I know! Now, let's show this walking skeleton decoration who he's messing with!"

No sooner than Jet said this, the fog was quickly sucked into a vacuum into a ball that floated right next to the Lich as he seemed to be chanting. The orb was condensed until it turned back to water and the cooled off magma gator returned, only to also be condensed into an orb of fire.

Rocks from all around them started to gather in the sky until they were all crushed into the size of pebbles and shot down to form a floating ring of rocks circling the lich. And lastly, strong winds gravitated towards the lich as a secondary outer ring spun outside the floating boulders.

"You like to fight with elements?" The cold voice of the lich began as it echoed through the area. "How pitiful. Allow me to show you _true_ elemental magic!"

Droy looked back to Jet with a deadpan. "Jet, I think _we_ 're the ones who don't know what we're messing with."

"Dammit, Droy, I'm trying to—"

"You idiots, move!" Levy cried out to the two as the Lich pointed towards the area they were in. One rock flew, but suddenly burst into a hundred smaller rocks that pierced through his pillars like tissue, creating holes and causing a row of them to start falling down on Team Shadow Gear.

When dust filled the area, the Lich pointed his hand forward, creating a gust of wind that blew the dust away, revealing Team Shadow Gear right in front of him with nowhere to hide this time.

As the lich lifted his staff once more, Levy looked to her teammates. "Guys, Equilateral Formation!"

"Right!" With that, all three of them broke off with Jet running right for the Lich. The skeleton magician fired a piece of flame right in front of him, but Jet circled around him and kicked him at the back before retreating again. The lich slammed his staff on the ground, creating a circle around him that caught Jet. As the speed mage tried to move, he noticed that he wasn't moving fast at all!

A blast of pressurized water forced Jet to duck normally and run with normal speed away. It was a good thing too because the debris behind him was cut like paper with the water being shot out of the orb. The lich suddenly froze before he placed a barrier to one of his sides as a bunch of plants attempted to punch him.

" **Plant Magic: Wild Armaments!** " Droy cried out as all the plants he threw started to get sucked into his magic circle then wrap and dense around his arms until they were fully cloaked in leaves. He threw a punch and then his right punch quickly extended into a giant plant fist rushing right for the lich. In retaliation, the Lich laced his staff with wind and cut through the giant fist in half.

The plant mage himself sidestepped the attack and his ripped up arm was forming back together despite the attack.

The lich felt something off and then looked down to see his spell circle he planted vanish. His skeletal neck turned to one last area where Levy was seen kneeling on the ground de-spelling the magic circle they were all under.

"Jet, it's gone, your magic should be up again!" Levy cried out as she also stood up and started making hand signs.

"Right, thanks!" Jet's legs started glowing as well.

"Here we go guys!" Droy cried out as a large green circle appeared in front of him.

Their enemy suddenly realized he was surrounded by the three mages and with the sudden spike in their magic power they were about to use their best attacks.

" **Wild Assault!** " Droy reclined his two fists and threw them. The two vines stretched into two giants fists which then started to branch out smaller and many other plant fists.

" **Sonic Blast!** " Jet started condensing a lot of speed magic in his right leg before kicking in the air, launching a missile-speeding shockwave right towards the lich.

" **Verba Infinitum!** " Levy cried out as out of her hands shot out a thousand words that all were attacked based and aimed right for the trapped Necromancer.

Each powerful spell raced towards the skeleton sorcerer before he slammed his staff into the ground to form a powerful barrier around him while firing all elements to each of the attacks: wind to Jet's, fire to Droy's, and water and earth to Levy's attack. The attacks clashed, but Team Shadow Gear's attack were pushing him back despite the Lich's best attempts. The attacks not only pushed back the Lich's advance, but seemed to break through the barrier and made it explode with a boom that even Kageyama felt from the tower.

"Yeesh, everyone in this guild really is a monster!" Kage commented as he felt the magical powers clash and cause the tower to rumble and make him and Éclair lose his balance. However, because of that, he tripped over when the spikes were still trying to attack him.

His eyes widened as he noticed the spikes of the tower all race for him.

Then he saw a flash of red light—

Several loud cracks echoed along with a yelling bird as Momon was seen holding tightly to a red knight's cape.

"Kage!" A filtered but familiar voice came from the knight. "Where am I?!"

"Kain?" Kage asked in a bit of awe. He didn't use that when they had first met; did it have something to do with that armlet that was on his arm?

A loud yelling made the three look back to see Éclair running right for them. Kain grabbed Momon and tossed him to Kage before charging towards the possessed woman, ducking under her attempt to grab him and sliding to put her into an arm hold. The red knight struggled to keep the flailing berserker at bay. "Kage, I know you can de-spell things, do it on her dang it!"

"R-Right!" Kage wasted no time as a dozen or so shadow hands reached and touched all the written runes on Éclair. As they started glowing, Éclair's trashing became worse, but Kain held on tightly until her trashing slowly but surely slowed down. Kage gasped for breath as he retracted his shadows, revealing that the girl was now free from the influence and unconscious in Kain's arms.

"Finally!" The shadow mage gasped. What should have been simple was turned much harder than it should have.

"Seriously though, where am I? The first thing I wake up to see was Momon begging me to wake up in some dark place which apparently was your shadow."

"That…" Before Kage could begin trying to figure out how to explain something so elaborate, they all heard something below and the three looked down.

The dust was settling and they saw Team Shadow Gear looking around relentlessly.

"What the? Levy, Droy, Jet! What are you guys doing here!?" Kain asked as he carefully handed the woman over to Kage before jumping off the tower. He used his hand to grab on to the tower to slow his descent before landing in front of the other Fairy Tail team.

All three were happy to see the red knight and Kage appear soon after with Momon and the captured girl. Levy was the first to run up to him. "Kain! Thank goodness you're awake! We need your help to defeat the lich! We just spent all our magic trying to injure him!"

"Lich?" Kain repeated before they all heard another sound coming from the entrance they came from.

Macao and Cana had arrived and spotted the group among the rubble.

"Hey, guys!" The purple fire mage cried out before spotting the red knight. "Kain! Glad to see you're finally awake!"

"What the heck happened? How are Levy and the others here!?" Kain motioned over to Team Shadow Gear who was still looking around frantically.

"Yeah, you missed a lot." Cana admitted but patted the knight on the shoulder.

"Guys," Jet yelled. "The Lich is still around here! He must have evaded our attacks at the last second!"

"Wait Lich!?" "A Freaking Lich!? The hell did I miss!?" Macao yelled out in horror while Kain yelled out in confusion. Cana had a look on her face that looked like she had forgotten to tell Macao about that important info a while ago.

"I thought we were fighting a Necromancer, not a Lich!" Macao said before he and Cana also started looking around. The crimson knight among them just gave up and went along since he was being ignored.

There was another loud explosion, followed by screaming as several figures shot up from below the volcano. Instinctively, Kage fired out large shadow hands that caught the flying objects and brought them down to reveal…

"Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Lucy!?" Kain yelled as the four of them were brought down gently. "You're here too!?"

"Oh good, Kain's awake," Gray, looking like someone had made him a very well used door mat on a well-visited porch, said this to the red knight with relief in his voice. "We could use one of your plans right about now."

Before the red knight could ask, something else followed the four, a large crusader with smudge and dents on his armor with his cape torn landed on the platform with a boom. Kain was surprised at the appearance and made the conclusion this was who his friends were previously fighting, especially with how everyone but him took a step back at his presence.

The Crusader pointed, stiffening everyone back into a fighting stance despite how injured and tired they all were—

"You stopped it."

They all paused for a second.

"You stopped the ceremony." Horus explained as he pointed to the tower which was now losing its color with Éclair no longer in it.

"Holy shit, how much did I miss!?" Despite Kain's complaint, he moved a hand to his head as the word, 'ceremony' hit his mind.

A blue light started to appear near the tower as the lich, Gomorah, appeared behind Fairy Tail while in a state of cracked bones. He fell to one knee and dipped his head down.

"Horus," the ancient sorcerer ignored the group in front of him and addressed the servant while his head was still down. "Where are the others?"

The crusader in question was silent until after a few seconds, he answered, "I don't know sir."

"The ceremony… I've come too far… too far…" The lich's magic voice seemed weaker than usual, instead of scary like it was a few minutes ago, it almost sounded pitiful.

"Surrender, it's over." Erza said as she stepped forward. "Cease this foolishness, at once."

Unfortunately, while her intentions were noble, they all saw the skeleton freeze his entire body in an uncanny manner.

"Foolishness?" His voice was eerily calm by just repeating that word.

"Oh no…" The zombie crusader gasped with a whisper full of horror.

There was a sudden burst of light in his eyes as he snapped his head up, only instead of yellow, it was glowing a deep black. " **ḞṌṎḺḹṦḦṊḜṠṢ!?** "

All of the island's runes started glowing again, this time it was all black and the island trembled horribly while the lava below turned black as tar.

"M-My lord," The crusader tried to say over the rising magic power. "Pl—"

The lich pointed towards Fairy Tail, no longer seeming to acknowledge his own subordinate. As soon as he did, the winds surrounding him started to increase in velocity with thunder and lightning dancing in out the clouds like a bolero. " **Ḟṓṍḻḭṡḩṉḙṣṡ ḭṡ ḩḁṿḭṉḡ ṯḩḝ ṗḛṓṕḽḙ ẏṓṳ ḽṏṽḗ ẃḭṱḩ ḙṽḝṝẏ ṧḭṉḡḷḕ ṫḯṉẏ ḟḯḃḗṝ ṍḟ ẏṓṳṝ ḃḕḭṉḡ ṜḮṖṖḜḎ ḁẁḁẏ ḻḭḱḕ ả ẅḙṫ ṩḣḙḗṭ ṓḟ ṕḁṕḛṟ!** "

A single utterance of his mad, god like voice was enough to put everyone back into fighting positions even though a small and cowardly part of their minds were begging them to flee, even the bravest of them had doubts in their minds. Everyone, but Kain who only seemed to have a bigger headache along with flashes of a man in front of a burned home and holding two dead bodies while crying out desperately.

The lich stepped forward again, causing another burst of magic as even his staff started to crack. " **Ḟṓṍḻḭṡḩṉḙṣṡ ḭṡ ḩḁṿḭṉḡ ḿầḡḭḉ ṱḧḁṯ ḫậṧ ṃḭḻḷḭṓṅṡ ỏḟ ẃẵỹṣ ṭồ ḫẳṟṁ ậṅṑṱḣḙṛ, ẏḝṫ ḥậṣ ṅṑ ḁṟṱ ṭṍ ṣṑṫḥḝ ṑṫḥḙṛṣ!** "

Kain held his head harder, seeing a flash of a hurt man desperately holding on to books while thuggish figures with glowing fists kept beating up on him.

" **ḞḮṄḖ‼ ẎṒṲ ṤḨẦḺḸ ẀḬṪṈḜṤṨ ḨṌẈ ḞṌṎḺḹṦḦ Ḯ ḈẶṈ ḄḘ‼!** " The spike of magic that burst out was more than enough to sink the island they were all on to the ground.

Erza was sweating as she tried to put her blade out. "Everyone!" She tried to yell over the howling winds and the frequent lightning and thunder, "We must stop him!"

"No!" Kain of all people stood in front of her and with his back facing the howling sorcerer.

"Kain!?"

"Please, let me try something first!" Kain yelled before he turned back and ran towards the Lich.

The Lich, eyes glowing a black light, pointed his cackling staff towards the red knight…

Who instantly powered down in front of him.

Despite everyone crying out his name, Kain stepped forward again. "Gomorah."

The lich froze at the sight of the child. The gales died down, the runes light got snuffed, and the clouds were silenced as soon as he saw the young man.

"Zibbs?" The lich dropped his staff as he stepped forward, carefully touching the face of the brunette. "H-How!? The ceremony wasn't…"

To nearly everyone surprise, Kain' didn't flinch when the lich's cold bones touched his cheeks. Instead he raised his hand to hold on to it as he then said, "I'm not your son, Gomorah. My name is Kain Reynolds. I just… look like your son."

"Zi-Zibbs, what are you…" The lich trailed off when Kain placed a hand on his head then started rubbing it with care.

"Your son and wife are dead, Gomorah Volan. They have been for the past six hundred years." Kain said clearly to the lich. "Please stop this. Neither of them would want to come back to you at the price of so many innocent lives."

The glowing yellow eyes of the lich seemed to flicker. "N-No!" He stood back up frantically and away from the brunette young man. "Y-You're trying to confuse me! It's a magic attack!"

"I'm not a—"

"Shut up! The lich cried as he raised his staff that suddenly released an energy blade surrounding it. In a fit of confused rage, the lich swung his axe right for the boy.

Kain was too stunned to reach for his morpher, everyone in Fairy Tail was too far from the boy. Even Jet wouldn't make it in time at his top speed.

Yet among them, there was one faster than Jet with enough precision to save the boy.

*Slash!*

Kain landed with a thud as he looked back up to see Horus had pushed him out of the way and let the energy blade of the staff almost cut right through him.

"Horus!?" The lich was not only shocked, but horrified to see his own weapon nearly splitting his comrade in half and crushing his orb that kept him animated.

"Forgive me my lord," The voice of the crusader sounded weaker than the usual calm but confident voice it always was. "It seemed my order to stop these trespassers was still active, and it got in the way of your actions." Even in his state, he gave a small laugh. "But please, listen to the boy. With me dying a second time, I need to tell you that this isn't the way to bring your family back. Take it from a man who was apparently lauded in history for killing hundreds of soldiers and orphaned thousands of children…." As he gasped that last sentence, the mighty crusader fell into Kain's arms.

"N-No! Horus, no! What have I done!?" The Lich yelled as he stood back up and yelled out in an inhuman screech.

There was another burst of energy that pushed everyone away. Kain saw Horus' body being blown away and quickly activated his armor to catch him.

"Well damn," The zombie said even after the red knight caught him. "Milord really can't handle death of loved ones, even second deaths…"

The isle started to glow black again and the island started to rumble violently like before.

"We need to stop him!" Erza acted quickly as she pointed to the crying Lich. "Blast him before he takes everyone in the island with him!"

The red knight heard this and shouted out to his friends, "Wait! No!"

However, unlike him, they couldn't hear him over the sad yelling of the Lich. Natsu did actually, but he begrudgingly agreed with Erza, the Lich needed to be stopped before they killed everyone on the island.

They all opened fire on the vulnerable Lich with a rainbow of magical blasts, much to the horror of Kain.

No sooner than they did, the shaking and the isle's runes stopped and there was only a large smoke of dust, smoke, and lava that remained.

"I will…" A bony arm stretched out of the cloud as the Lich was seen with his legs blown off and now crawling on the ground. "I will! … I will… damn… **ḎẲṀṈ ẎṌṺ ẢḺḸ** ‼"

His eyes shinned black once more, only with more ferocity than before. Fairy Tail tried to act again, but suddenly a large flock of the runic and alive symbols from the cocoon room had burst through the remains of the last door entrance and swarmed Fairy Tail, making them busy as the isle stared to actually crumble this time at the second attempt to destroy itself.

" **ẎṎṴ ṨḜḚḰ ḌḜẬṰḢ ṮḪẬṰ ṖṚṐḞṲṦḔḼẎ!? Ḭ ṠḢẠḺḸ ḈṒḾṔḸẎ‼** " The skeleton wailed like a demon.

Kain was nowhere near his friends when the symbols swarmed his friends. Yet he placed down Horus carefully and bolted right for the lich.

The skeleton, seeing this, yelled out, " **ῩỌỦ** —"

However, he was surprised when the man from another dimension deactivated his armor once more and quickly kneeled to the fallen skeleton…

Then hugged him close to his chest.

"W-What? U-Un hand—" The skeleton was so shocked at the act, his anger had mostly fallen. Yet some still remained as he tried to push the boy away until…

"Please," Kain begged as he held the skeleton's face closer to him. "Please stop this. Don't let anyone else suffer like you did."

The lich was mustering magic in his arms, he was about to strike this fool right then and right—

* **Lub-DUB***

The Lich froze at the sound.

 ***Lub-DUB** *

What was that sound coming from this man's chest?

* **Lub-DUB** *

… It… it was a… heart…beat…?

* * *

"Aisha, are you sure about this?" So long ago—so very, very long ago; to the point where it even seemed like a completely alien world… there was a man. Time had long since forgotten his face, skin, hair, physicality, but it had never given up the nervousness and hesitation in the man's voice as he spoke.

"Gomorah, come on. You're being a bigger baby than the one in my stomach," Time had also forgotten her face, her other physical attributes, but time be damned if the man had ever chosen to forget the love in her voice, the character that was as bright as the sun, and beauty that could shame the universe. "Just put your ears and listen."

The man recalled doing so. With some hesitation, he placed his ear into the stomach.

* **Lub-DUB** *

There was a sound of a yelp as the man stood back up. "I-I heard it! I heard our Child! … Or you ate our poor puppy whole! HAhaha—wait. You're eating habits have been scaring me lately…. Did you!?"

Oh. A sense of humor. He had that also didn't he? Why did he… get rid of that?

It died with them didn't they? No. It burned with them, it was eaten up by flames so much that it shrunk to ashes and scattered into the wind to never be whole again… just like them.

"Yes, I ate our puppy. That little dog you see in the next room is a clone from my magic that I am incapable of using." Ah yes, his wife's trade mark sarcasm. Gods, how long was it since he last recalled that? How many suns and moons have passed since he last loved it?

Too much. Far too much.

The memory of the man fell to his knees and screamed to the ceiling of their humble house. "NOOO! YOU MONSTER THAT I HAD HOT SEX WITH! I LOVED HIM!" What? Oh right, he was sometimes overly dramatic. Did… did he [the lich] forget that too?

"Forget the couch, you're sleeping on the floor!" The woman barked back before placing a hand on her head. "Our child is going to mature quickly with an irresponsible father like you."

He remembered… smiling as he got back up and listen to their child's heartbeat. "I'm strangely Okay with that."

* * *

"Aisha…" The word that came out from his voice, it was like a piece of gold found in a polluted river. "Ooooh! OOOh!" The Lich relaxed as he suddenly returned the hug with Kain.

He didn't have eyes, he didn't have a nose, but his emotions that were buried so long… had finally resurfaced. Sorrow flowed out his voice as he cried out in only voice, but it was enough to make everyone feel the weight of it all.

The symbols have long stopped swarming, and the runes… instead of stopping, they cracked and vanished all across the island. As they did, even the dying trees among the jungle soon came back to life with their life force returned to them.

"A heartbeat… it has been so long… since I heard it." The lich weakly said.

Kain caringly rubbed the lic—the man's skull.

It was then that the remainder of his bones… they all started to crack.

The brunette found the skeleton hugging even tighter than before.

"I-I don't want to die." Those were the most honest and innocent words Kain heard uttered from a Lich of all things.

Pity filled everyone's heart after hearing that. Even though he had captured hundreds against their will, had sent his own men to kill them, tortured even one of their own, and battled with the intent to kill…

No one in Fairy Tail could hate a scared and lonely man.

Kain saw something in the night sky and looked back to the Lich. "Would you like to come with me for a second?"

The lich only nodded once with his skull. The non-magician carried the torso of the skeleton, which was surprisingly light, and walked towards the edge of the volcano where everyone followed him. Kain held the skeleton's hand and placed him gently near a rock before he sat down beside him.

They all watched as the night had finally set… and the sunrise was rising in the distance.

Kain sighed as he looked to the horizon. "It's nice to know that no matter where you are, Sunrises are still just beautiful to watch."

There was silence, but everyone seemed to agree with him.

The brunette felt the skeleton's hand squeeze tighter as more cracks appeared on his body.

"I'm scared."

That was all the Lich—Gomorah said. No longer was he some scary lich, but just a scared and flawed human trying to make his own sense in a cruel world.

The young man held up his hand and said, "I promise to be here with you… until the end."

"W-Will I meet my family again?" He asked as his other hand started to fade into dust. The fear in his tone was far more vivid than his own fading voice.

The dimensionaly displaced man hesitated for a second. "Are you sorry for all the bad things you did?"

"… Yes…"

"You'll meet them then. I'm sure." That was all the young man could say. But he believed it with his heart, he had to have faith that the man would. "Come on, look back at the sunrise, it really is beautiful, isn't it?"

Gomorah turned back to the sunrise, as he did, his spine cracked and his torso started to turn to dust quickly from the bottom up.

"It is." With even his neck starting to turn to dust, Gomorah turned to Kain. "Thank you."

With that, his skull faded into the gentle wind, hopefully carrying that fool to where he belonged.

All was left of the skeleton was the hand holding onto Kain's… but after a few seconds… it also turned to dust.

Kain let the dust fall out of his palm as the wind scooped it up and flew high into the sky.

They all stayed there, watching the sunset.

"It really is beautiful, isn't it?" The non mage asked to no one in particular.

...

"It sure is." Natsu was the only one to vocally respond as most of Fairy Tail watched the rising sun of a new day.

* * *

"I wished I could have enjoyed that sunrise." Horus smiled at Fairy Tail as they all finished watching the sun rise.

"Sorry about that, we forgot about you." Kain sheepishly admitted first before bowing his head. "Thank you for saving me."

"Don't mention it. … I'm assuming you all defeated Gomez and Jeremiah?" Horus began.

"Aww shit," Everyone turned to Cana after she said this and quickly took out two cards. In a flash of light, both Jeremiah and Audolf were freed.

"Sir Horus!" Jeremiah and Audolf ran to the injured zombie. "What happened!?"

"Long story short, boy, we won. The people have been saved and our leader finally got the peace he deserved… all thanks to these young ones." Horus looked over to Fairy Tail.

"Don't look at us: Kain was the one who was able to talk your boss out of it." Macao was the first to say.

The young man in question shook his head. "Heck no. Rattleblade did try to rewrite my memories, but when he saw my memories, he tried to give me enough of your boss' so I could empathize with him. He also told me that was your plan from the start. In actuality, we just gave you guys the push to free yourselves."

"Let us not undermine what we all have achieved this day." Horus said as he tried to stand back up by himself. Despite some trying to help, he politely refused. "Now, it is time for my last good byes."

"Sir?" Jeremiah asked before Horus gave him a small nod.

Jeremiah sighed deeply before he stood up straight and saluted with all of his strength, even Audolf became stiff to show his respect. "It's been an honor and a privilege, sir."

"And you too, Knight of the People." Horus raised his free hand and his golden sword came to him. The zombie's helm turned towards Erza's direction. "Miss?"

"Yes?" The red head was surprised as Horus walked over to her.

"Put your hands out," Horus waited as Erza did so with a confused face and he placed the broad sword in her hands. "This was my trusted weapon, The Omni Tool. A magically crafted gift by an alchemist that can transform into any weapon you wish. I give it to you."

"I-I don't deserve—" Erza was silenced as Horus raised out his hand.

"The weapon was buried with me the first time, and all it did was collect dust. I think a blade that once killed many people, can now be used by someone willing to protect them." Horus removed his helm as he did, revealing an ugly, rotting face… with a bright and kind smile. "Please honor this weapon by using it justly."

At that, Erza could only bow her head to history's first Wizard Saint. "I am not worthy of this honor, but thank you."

Horus nodded. "It's time to go back to my family and friends. I wish you all well in this life." He turned around and started to walk, as he did his body fell down instantly and turned to dust with his magic no longer trying to support him.

However, where his body fell, a phantom appeared where he was walking. He turned back towards the group, revealing a handsome man with raven colored hair swept back and bright green eyes. Horus stood tall and saluted them all. Jeremiah and Audolf returned the salute, prompting everyone else to do the same.

With a smile, Horus dismissed himself and turned back around to walk, fading into light as he did so.

Jeremiah sighed as dropped his salute. "And of course, even when it's all over, I've got to clean everything up." He gave a somewhat somber chuckle before looking to Fairy Tail. "I know the spell that brought you and the civilians here. I can still reverse it from here and it should bring you all back, but before that… I need you all to come with me."

* * *

They were all led into a large intricate room with a lot of papers, strange gadgets, elixirs, glass tubes of all shapes and sizes, and anything that seemed science related.

"This was my lord's chambers." Jeremiah began as he walked past all the strange things as if they were nothing.

"Why are we here?" Lucy asked out loud while looking around the place.

Everyone turned back to Jeremiah as he looked for a second before taking a green crystal orb. "Here it is."

The twilight caster turned towards everyone. "This orb contains a hammer space of all of milord's spell books there is a small collection of them in here. He nor I will be using them, so consider it another gift."

"Wait, you won't be using it?" Cana looked at the modern looking zombie in confusion.

"No, after sending you all home, I'm going back to journeying. Without my lord supplying magic as he usually does, I now have I'd say… ten years before I fade? Until then, I would like to continue back into my main quest: finding the love of my life."

The card mage then recalled a certain name being dropped, but before she could speak it out, Droy said, "Wait, but aren't you three hundred year old? Wouldn't she be long dead?"

Levy elbowed Droy in the rib for that. "What? It's an honest question!" The plant mage rubbed his ribcage.

"No, she is. … But I would like to find her body at least." Jeremiah wistfully stared in the distance. "I'd like to bring her home if possible. She deserves to be buried with her family: it's the least I could do."

Cana lost her chance to speak up again when Lucy was the one to speak up. "What's her name?"

"Anna Heartifilia." The knight spoke up. No sooner than he said that, everyone but Cana looked on with shock.

"H-Heartifilia!? T-That's _my_ last name!" Lucy cried out as she pointed to herself.

"Oh? You do look like her somewhat." Jeremiah said as he leaned in close for a second. "You must be Lana's descendant then! She was Anna's little sister."

He then dipped his entire arm into the green orb, much to the surprise of nearly everyone. As be brought his hand out, he was carrying three books.

The twilight mage handed the first one to Natsu. "This is a Pyromancy Book filled with lost fire spells. I think it would suit you in the long run."

"Whoa sweet!" Natsu said as he opened up the book.

Macao looked over the dragon slayer's shoulder. "Hey, I'm a fire mage too! Let me see—oh great it's in a language I don't know." He said quickly as he saw the foreign symbols written on the book.

"Really?" Jeremiah asked as he opened the other books. "Huh, I had not taken into the possibility of you all updating your literature."

"You mean we've got a library filled with awesome lost spells, and we can't read it!? That sucks." Gray complained.

Everyone paused for a second. "Gray… you lost your pants." Cana said, causing the ice mage to panic and run back to where ever he dropped it.

"What are you on about, pervert?" Natsu cried out before looking back at the book. "This stuff makes perfect sense!"

"Wait! Natsu, you can read it!?" Lucy cried out to the salmon haired mage.

"Duh! If anything, this is the language and writing Igneel taught me before I came to Fairy Tail!" Natsu said.

"Oh, I get it." Kain spoke up. "That means that Igneel didn't teach you modern language, he taught you ancient human language thinking that it hadn't changed when he last saw human civilization."The young man theorized.

Erza seemed to think. "That does explain why you said you couldn't read anything in the guild despite calming you could. Igneel taught you the wrong thing."

"What!? Dang it, you bastard! I went through hell because of that mistake!" Natsu cried out as if his father was somewhere there.

"But doesn't that mean you can actually learn those lost spells now?" Jet asked, instantly snapping Natsu out of his anger.

"Oh yeah! Never mind that! Thanks, pops!" Natsu said as he went back to reading. "No way! I didn't know we could do that with fire!"

"That's not fair, how come Natsu's the only one who gets to read this stuff!?" Droy whined. He risked his life in this adventure too and he wasn't getting any of the cool things the others were getting. Heck, Macao had a fancy blade now!

"Actually," Levy spoke up, "With Natsu's help, I can transcribe all the books into our language. It will take time though."

"Ahh so then that's settled then." Jeremiah placed the other two books back into the orb and handed the green orb to Levy. "I just wanted to give you that. Now I can send you all home."

* * *

Happy was waiting silently next to Ignis.

"You think they're all right? It's already morning." Happy said as he looked out to see the sun rising.

Ignis gave a low growl.

"Aye, you're right. Natsu's with them so they're sure to win!" The blue cat admitted.

There was a large hum coming from the pillar. Ignis stood back up and quickly took a position to protect Happy.

The large pillar had died down, revealing Telo City once more. Everyone seemed surprised at where they last were but Happy and Ignis noticed a large group of people walking over to them.

"Yo, Happy! Sorry to keep ya waiting!" Natsu cried out as he waved with a goofy smile.

"Y-You guys took too long!" Happy instantly yelled as tears came to his face and flew right to Natsu.

Everyone laughed as Happy practically tackled down Natsu.

It was at last the end of their adventure of the Isle of Undead.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Oh god. These were my longest chapters yet!**

 **I didn't want the Arc to drag out too long over the course of time, which is why these chapters are so long.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed it. I for one enjoyed having the side characters have better fights than usual instead of being left off in the background.**

 **I also changed their magic somewhat and gave them buffs, but all in all I believe it's still within their power to do the following: example with Team Shadow Gear. I basically buffed all of them since we barely seem them fight in the main story. They'll have definitely more character and opportunities in the future, and not just them, I'm talking about the others as well.**

 **I'm really excited for the side characters, because there is so little known about them, they can basically be seen as OCs that exist in the main story. (My next original Arc really focuses on one of them but it'll happen after a REALLY DIFFERENT Phantom Lord Arc.)**

 **I hope you all enjoyed the Mages V.S. Undead Arc! See you all soon!**

* * *

Extra: A heart to heart.

"Hey Kage, a word?" Kain asked the Shadow Mage while he was standing at the corner, watching Momon talk to Éclair and introduce them to the mages that saved her and what had happened on the island.

"Huh? Oh yeah." Suddenly, he remembered seeing the young man's memories and what he had gone through… and what he achieved through it.

"I… I never did tell you why I helped you, did I? You were in the middle of asking me until we saw the rain go upside down."

Kage already knew why. He saw what had happened.

"You don't need to."

Kain shook his head. "It's fine. The reason why I decided to help you was because back where I'm from, I lost a really great friend because the legal system in my world was horribly unfair. Bad things happened to him and they probably wouldn't have if their lawyer was even remotely decent." He frowned as he said this. "I helped you out because you remind me of him."

Now that caught the shadow mage in surprise. He had seen, Rico, the friend was talking about, but Kageyama was nothing like that kid.

"How?" Kage asked.

"Well… I believed that you two were both good people trapped in bad circumstances. It's why I wanted to help you so much. … Not everyone can get pass those."

The shadow mage hadn't thought about that. He really didn't see anything he had common with Kain's old friend, but hearing that…

Kain really cared, didn't he?

"Thanks."

"Huh?" Kain looked back to Kageyama.

"I said thanks… and sorry. I… don't really deal well with others, even in back at my own guild. I'll… try to be nicer to everyone." He said as he looked away from Kain.

The young man smiled at that. "It's alright." He turned back to see Erza punching Gray and Natsu to the ground. "Just be you: that's the best anyone can really be."


	13. Chapter 13

"Nothing? Was there really nothing?" It was hard not to frown after I said that.

Natsu tried to look back at the book again, he was apprehensive as he did so, but he seemed to try to push his own feelings back for mine. "I-I think there are other books, right Levy?"

The blue haired girl frowned and shook her head. "I'm sorry Natsu that was the last book. There are no more of them in the orb." As she said this, she brought up the green orb that was gifted to us by Jeremiah. It was indeed empty with how dull its color had gotten after we emptied as many books on lost magic as we could.

Figures, around 80 books worth of lost spells and none of them have anything to do with traveling to other worlds.

"These books are useless! What's the point of having them, if they can't do crap!" Natsu yelled angrily.

"We only read the titles, so maybe there is an excerpt somewhere in one of them! We just have to look again more thoroughly!" Levy tried to say, which only made Natsu blanch considering reading around eighty dictionary sized books with small texts didn't quite appeal to him.

It was such a shame he was the only one who could read the books.

"Guys, it's alright. Thanks for trying. We don't need to continue this for now." I told them.

"H-Hey! Don't talk like that! One of these…" Natsu paled as he reopened the spell book about Lost Golem Magic again. "This passage looks interesting!"

"Well, I won't deny golems made of pure light energy are interesting, but really Natsu, I know you're getting a head ache just after trying to read one of these that isn't the pyromancy book. You don't need to push yourself." I told him with a smile.

Natsu slumped into the chair. "Ugh, I haven't read so many words since Erza had to re-teach me the entire alphabet again."

"Thank you for trying. I know reading isn't your strong suit in the first place. How about you try out one of your new fire spells?" I offered to him.

Before he could answer, the three of us had our attention caught to Macao who had stood up on his table and pointed the blade he got from Gomez into the sky.

"It was a hard fought battle, but in the end, I won!" Macao cried out while laughing with excitement. "As he faded, he gave me his blade as a sign of respect!"

"Really dad!? You beat Gomez Bison, the famed exploration mage!?" If the light in Romeo's eyes were any brighter, they'd have to replaced the sun with them to power the planet.

"Yep! But he was one tough cookie, didn't go down easily!" The proud father sheathed the blade and rubbed his son's head before he turned to me. "Isn't that right, Kain?"

"I was unconscious at that time." I smiled as I walked towards them to pick up some of Macao's empty jugs. There really needs to be a official Happy Hour in this guild.

"Oh, right." The purple fire mage rubbed his head as he recalled that I was knocked out and in a different area when that happened.

"Here are your drinks." Éclair had walked in with an obvious frown on her face.

Seeing that, and how quickly Macao, Wakaba, and Romeo's mood fell, I stepped in. "Éclair, what did Mirajane and I tell you when working this job?"

The dark brown haired girl sighed. "I should serve with a smile."

Man, she is just like Kageyama when he first arrived here. It was bad enough that she apparently lost her money during the event, but apparently she disliked mages in general and didn't really have much a choice when I offered she could temporarily work here. "You know, come to think of it, I haven't really seen you smile yet, but Momon tells us you've got a nice one. There's no harm in showing it."

Éclair's lips twitched upward as she smiled with all the beauty of a deranged, mentally challenged serial killer.

"I-I gotta go home and do homework, bye dad!" Romeo Conbolt bolted out the door.

"Wait, let me come with you!" The dad was quick to follow before I saw Éclair try to smile to Wakaba.

"…" The smoke mage didn't even try to make an excuse and just ran.

After a few seconds, I turned to our new waitress. "You're going to be here a while."

Much to the relief of everyone else around us, Éclair dropped her bastardization of a smile and sighed tiredly. "Why was my wallet accidentally dropped to the lava?"

"We were in an active volcano." Volcanoes are going to be a thing with me, aren't they? "But come on, mages aren't _that_ bad."

As if to prove me wrong, Kageyama was about to walk up to us until Éclair saw him and scowled with all the intensity of Batman. The shadow mage stopped mid step and promptly retreated from both of us, or mostly Éclair.

It was kind of pitiable since I think Kage fancied Éclair, but she saw him as some kind of criminal—wait that was the wrong word to use. Uhhh not reformed criminal?

"Okay, in Kage's defense, he is trying to be good now. Could you please tone down the death stares to him?"

The newcomer sighed before heading back to Mirajane. "I wish Momon didn't like this place so much." Even though she tried to whisper that as she left, I had mostly caught on to what she was implying and turned towards a different corner of the guild where a large majority of female mages were gathered around.

"Aww! You're so cute!" "Can I get a hug?" "I wanna pet you!" Those were just a few of the words I heard as Momon seemed to enjoy the attention coming over to him.

Over all, despite Éclair's partial reluctance to let us help her, both she and Momon were welcomed into the guild like me.

"Grrrr…"

Huh? Oh right. That.

I looked down towards a rather unhappy Happy, the flying cat. He was currently chewing angrily on a fish like an angry dog… huh.

"You know Happy, there's a saying in my world that goes like this: 'Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die'."

"… Hmm… Poison…" The cat mewled over the idea carefully.

Well that figures. The first time I try to be sagely and I only ended up giving him bad ideas. "Happy, you aren't jealous of Momon, are you?"

"I'm not jealous! That fowl is coaching in on my territory!" Happy, that sounds like you are jealous.

"Happy, you're still the mascot of Fairy Tail, just because there's another cute animal sidekick here doesn't mean you'll be replaced."

"Hey, Momon! Do you want some fish?!" Godammit Natsu, why are you offering fish to Momon!?

"Fish! I wuv fish!" The bird flew over to Natsu with his tiny wings. The manner he did so looked cute to even me, but to the girls around him….

"Did you hear that!? He said 'wuv'!" "He's so adorable!" "He should be the mascot of Fairy Tail!" Several other female mages said.

Against my better judgment, I looked back at Happy and noticed the dark and suspicious-as-all-heck aura around him.

"Don't." I said.

"I didn't say anything." Happy eerily returned.

"You were thinking it."

"You're not Warren, you can't prove it."

"Uhhh…" We both happened to look over to the sound to see Warren Rocko, the telepathic mage of Fairy Tail walking right by us at that very moment.

The raven haired mage looked down at Happy and began to sweat. He turned to me with the expression of a man held at gunpoint and made to say things he didn't want to. "K-Kain, you're over thinking things! There-There is no way Happy would harm… wha?" He paused as he looked back to Happy before his eyes widened in horror and his face lost color. "I-I mean there's no way Happy would harm a horrible and miserable creature like Momon!"

I noticed the sweat pouring down the telekinetic's face then I sighed. "You can go now Warren."

He whispered a thank you before bolting away from me and Happy.

"Tch! I need to get rid of Kain before I can begin my plans." I don't know if my hearing has become sharper because of The Morpher, or if everyone is just bad at whispering today, but I totally heard what Happy just said.

Now I'm on a hit list of a flying cat trying to potentially kill a talking bird… wait a second. Why does this feel familiar?

I ended up doing a face palm as I realized something: this is shaping up to be Tweety Bird and Sylvester from Looney Tunes only with magic instead of carton physics which may or may not be worse.

"I don't get paid enough to deal with this crap."

* * *

"W-What are we doing here?" Bora, excommunicated mage of Titan Nose asked as he looked up to the guild doors in front of him.

"Hmm? Were you misinformed somewhere? I do recall briefing you that we were to follow our boss as he went to do business with a client." Fero, the white haired, gray-eyed mage assassin dressed as a navy commander said to the excommunicated mage.

"N-No, I remember you saying that, it's just…"

A new, smoother yet confident voice spoke up. "What our friend is trying to say, Fero, is that you must have neglected to specifically say where we were going to meet our client. Our new employee obviously didn't realize we were going to one of the Phantom Lord guilds."

"Ah," The navy captain looked back to Bora. "In that case, my apologizes. I thought it wasn't necessarily important to mention that detail."

Not important!? Weren't they all wanted criminals? Why were they just practically waltzing into one of the top legal guilds?!

Before Bora could start to express his worry, the owner of the third voice spoke up. "It's nothing worth apologizing over considering he was just surprised rather than alarmed. Not to worry, Bora, Fero here is capable of being a bodyguard for the both of us when we enter." The third voice then knocked hard on the wood of the massive door.

The trio watched as the large wooden doors slowly opened, revealing dark room dimly lit by candles.

The third man practically walked in as if nothing had phased him in the slightest. Fero followed after him with Bora being the only one to show actual worry at where they were going.

"Attention all those that hear my voice! I come to make the transaction of jewels and materials known as consumerism!" The third voice made a grandiose and superfluous movement as he strode into the darkly lit guild, much to the horror of Bora.

Fero cleared his throat. "Erhm! Bora, please close your mouth. You'll catch a fly."

Instead of doing so, Bora stared at his potential acquaintance with equal amounts of shock.

"Yes, I know he's… eccentric." The way the gray eyed man said that seemed like that was all that needed to be explained.

It was.

"Who the hell are you?" One of the mages around them finally stood up, causing a reverse domino effect and made the other mages around them rise up as well with the obvious intent to kick them out.

It was then that a loud voice from above the room caught everyone's attention.

"Now, now everyone. These are my guests, and it would be a very rude if you all were to treat them so poorly." The voice made nearly everyone look up to see a man dressed in dark purple clothing in a balcony above. "Mr. Ryan Peloth. I wasn't aware you made deliveries in person."

"Walking is good for the legs, Mr. Jose Porla." The handsome, Adonis-figured man with swept back black hair and glasses tapped his legs before motioning the suitcase he was carrying. "Where would you like me to hand you this?"

"Come to my office. Lawrence over there will guide you over."

Ryan Peloth pointed over to the closest man to them who of which Jose was referring too. "Ha! Your name is Lawrence! That's so not fitting to your appearance."

Lawrence's response to that was only to glare worse at the seemingly oblivious man.

"S-Sir, can we please hurry?" Bora offered as he seemed to be the only noticing the increasing tension in the room.

"Well you heard my friend, Lawrence! Press on! I've got important paper work to pretend I'm filing later!"

Bora sighed as he saw his boss and his co-worker practically brisk ahead without seemingly taking in the amount of glares towards their direction. He put a hand worryingly over his head.

"I don't get paid enough to deal with this crap."

* * *

"Thank you for coming in such short notice. I admit I'm pleasantly surprised at how quick you came." Jose Porla, Wizard Saint and Guild Master of Phantom Lord spoke as he sat on one end of a table away from Mr. Peloth and his two bodyguards.

"It's really no biggie." Ryan dismissed easily. "We've got some mages working on Portal Magic, so travel isn't that much of an issue."

"Oh? Portal magic? I thought we were one of the few guilds with someone capable of that lost magic?"

"Jose, buddy! People always call rare magic like that lost, but they don't have my resources in finding them!" The black suited man laughed jovially.

The Phantom Lord Guild Master laughed earnestly as well. "I suppose that is a true. It is why I was surprised to hear rumors of a certain… item… in your possession."

Ryan nodded. "And why you wanted to buy it from me, no? It's only experimental, but I theorize along with some of my magical experts it has the same basic abilities of the rumored 'Ancient Weapon' that is said to be floating around Fairy Tail."

Bora instantly noticed the guild master's face frown deeply at the mention of the other guild's name. However, it disappeared as fast it happened. "What type of basic abilities?"

"The major one: it amplifies battle and magical prowess." The vendor answered easily before putting the suitcase into the table. "However, it requires… a direct input… to activate."

"A direct input?" A voice in the shadows behind Jose made Bora blink in confusion. As he focused his sights, somehow he realized that there were five mages all behind the Phantom Lord Leader and somehow he had missed them.

"Yes, you see…"

Everyone in the room except Jose and Fero seemed to gasp at the explanation.

"You're crazy!" One of the mages behind Jose cried out.

"Calm down," Jose told one of the mages behind him before looking back to his guests. "Mr. Peloth, wouldn't this be extreme useless if it needs such an action to work?"

"It would be… if it actually killed the user." The silence after he said this spoke in volumes. However, Ryan didn't seem to let it bother him as he continued. "We actually did a test and our subjects only felt brief pain before… you get the idea."

"… I see. So it does work?"

"Well, in an unorthodox manner, but yes. It does."

After hearing that, a smile spread across Jose's lips. "Well then, Mr. Peloth, I would be glad to buy this new product of yours."

"You serious?" A gruffer voice spoke out from behind the guild master.

"Gajeel, trust me, I know what I'm doing. Now kindly hand these men their money so they can be on their way."

The one referred to as Gajeel grunted as he stepped out of the shadows with long black hair and a get up that made him look like the toughest man in the room. He carried a suit case and placed it right in front of the excitable man with black hair.

Or he should have. He slammed it into the table and towered over the still smiling salesman. "I don't like your attitude towards the strongest guild in Fiore."

"Ah? Really?" Ryan looked over to his right briefly before looking back to the raven haired man with long unruly hair. "My apologizes but you might want to step back."

Gajeel, feeling defiant, moved forward, "Oh and if I—" At least he tried to move forward closer to threaten the vendor. However, he found it actually hard to do so with something around his neck: string.

Gajeel then followed where Ryan had glanced over, seeing Fero glaring at him while holding his fishing rod.

"I recommend you step back this very instant." Fero spoke in a low tone as he lifted his right hand up, revealing string coming out from inside his fist and slowly putting pressure to the string around Gajeel's neck.

However, instead of feeling fear, Gajeel smiled. "Ha! You think string like this is going to stop me? Go ahead!" The Phantom Lord mage declared with a smirk.

"Are you referring to the fact that you are an Iron Dragon Slayer, and therefore have a body like steel?" Fero asked, much to the surprise of everyone in the room except Ryan Peloth. "It is true, string is good for cutting flesh, but yours is as hard as steel and my wires might not be strong enough to match how well you can harden your body no matter how much magic I put into them."

"Then what's the point?" It took Gajeel a second to realize that his arm was no longer moving and quickly looked down to see both his hands and his legs covered with string without his notice. Which he had to begrudgingly admit was impressive to get the surprise on a dragon slayer mage with their heightened senses.

"The point is, Mr. Redfox, that I knew my string couldn't harm you." Fero's eyes narrowed. "But my magic isn't just the string." His tone became eerily calm and soft.

"Ahh! Gajeel, your chest!" A female voice from the shadows cried out, making everyone look towards the chest of the Iron Dragon Slayer.

To nearly everyone's shock, there was a huge bulge nearby where Gajeel's heart would be.

"W-What the hell!?" The Phantom Lord Mage cried out as he tried to move—only to instantly feel pain as he never felt before when he even twitched.

"My magical tool is a Fishing Rod, so I ask: where is my fishing hook? I'll give you one guess." The darkness around the room obscured Fero's face except the glow from his gray eyes and the light reflecting off his strings coming from his finger and rod.

"How'd you get it in there!? Forget it! I'm going to kick your ass!" Gajeel roared as he tried to move, only to feel another shock of pain and stop.

It was then that Fero started speaking in a low but clear tone. "I wouldn't move if I were you. As of right now, I used magic to make my hook phase through your skin and attach itself to a small but important vein in your heart. The more you move, the more the hook will start to tear open that vein, causing you to internally bleed from the inside with each heartbeat." Fero coldly stated while Bora stared in shock and fear. He knew his ally's magic was deadly, but he didn't know he could do that with it.

"You bastard!" Gajeel leered at Fero with obvious intent to kill.

"Judging by that reaction, you can't solidify your insides like you can with your skin and muscles, can you?" Fero observed calmly.

"Fero, let him go. I think you've shown off enough." Ryan nonchalantly commented out loud.

The navy-uniformed assassin quickly reeled his rod, releasing Gajeel and making the hook pop out of his skin like it came out of water.

"Forgive me sir." Fero bowed to his boss.

"That's it, I'm going to—!"

"Gajeel, let it go." Jose spoke up, much to the annoyance of the Iron Dragon Slayer.

"What!?"

"You were a bit rude to our guests, so of course one of his body guards will try and make a move." Jose began.

"Oh and don't take it personally. In terms of magic power and raw strength, you definitely outclass Fero here for miles!" Ryan began. "However, he's not a battle hardened mage like you, but an assassin mage. A good one knows how to pick their fights to their advantage."

With that, the eccentric vendor stood up. "Alright, but that's enough. I wish you well in your future endeavor! We'll all be leaving right now."

"Thank you for your business." Jose responded as Bora nervously took the money and the three left the room with their original suitcase.

With them leaving, Gajeel didn't waste time to kick the table into the wall in anger, but not before Jose used his magic to snatch the original suitcase and bring it into his hands. "Dammit! I'm kicking that slob's ass all across Ishgar for that!"

"How about a job to make you feel better?" Jose asked quickly, stopping the fuming mage from acting out even worse. "It involves your _specialty_ and it involves a certain guild that we are about to crush."

Gajeel's smile returned full swing.

* * *

…

Okay, from what Levy told me, these two symbols translate into… this… which means this passage is as follows:

 _The language of magic has long eluded the most studious of interpreters and scholars. However, these symbols are designed to increase certain attributes if done correctly and with perfect tracing._

Sweet. Though decoding really is a tedious process and Natsu isn't actually the best teacher in learning dead languages.

Still, everyone in the guild is excited to eventually start reading these books as soon as Levy, Natsu, and I start transcribing them…

Hold on…

What was this feeling of dread in the air?

 _Ꝏ_

 _ **KKRASH!**_

… Whoa, did I just slide out of the way from a giant metal pillar piercing into the guild? How did I—the shine of my gauntlet distracted me. Was it because of that I had some kind of strangely zen warrior moment?

 _Ꝏ_

 **KRAKOOM!**

Alright, going to take that as a yes, and I should probably get out of here.

Against the more logical part of my mind, I ran out to see what was attacking the guild.

"Finally! I thought people would come flying out the doors to stop me, but imagine my surprise when there's only one of you here!" There was some really tough looking dude with super saiyan 3 hair shouting at me from above one of the nearby roof tops. "I've been itching for a fight all day, and you're not getting away!" He jumped into the air before a large magical circle appeared and fired a _bloody tower sized piece of metal at me_.

I quickly hopped away, instantly regretting lending Natsu and the others Ignis for their mission while I stayed behind to catch up on legal work. Looks like I was completely on my own while the guild was under attack…sunnuva. Why? Just why?

Pushing those thoughts aside, I spotted the raven haired man jump down with a boom into an area nearby me. I didn't waste time and quickly activated my morpher.

"Huh." The stranger put his hand down after the quick flash of red light. "So you must be the rumored Wyvern Rider in Fairy Tail's guild."

"Wyvern Rider?" Is that what other's have been calling me? You know, it's really catchy. And since Erza is already a knight mage, I think I might take up that title—oh crap I'm in a fight!

I barely avoided his fist becoming some kind of metal pillar that extended into trying to punch me. However, he had used that extended limb as a distraction as he came in and kneed me right through a wall back into the guild.

"Now I definitely know who is going to be douche bag of the week…" I groaned as I got back up before noticing my opponent running at insanely fast speeds towards me. His hand then turned into a bloody giant sword that tried to cut me in half like the three tables he hit if I didn't jump out of the way.

"That's it!?" The raven haired mage looked at me with obvious disappointment and disgust. "Quit running and fight damn it!"

"But I barely know how to fight! It's just this stupid thing that gives me armor in the first place!" I pointed to my wrist where the morpher was gone.

Unfortunately, while I'm in my armor, my emotions get amplified. And since I like to be snarky when I'm terrified sometimes, I end up babbling like an idiot.

That last sentence I said gave my attack an interested look.

"Well then, looks like I'm going to take it from your corpse!" He jumped up into the air before his hand turned metal again and another magic circle appeared. I quickly started to run—good thing too as a multitude of metal arrows shot where I was all over the guild.

As I kept running from the barrage of arrows, and letting them hit nearly all of the Guild's main hall, I instantly realized that my opponent was right. Running away would not solve this. I would have to fight.

I just hope Erza's training really has prepared me for this.

As I ran, I picked up a broken bench and tossed it right for the black haired assailant. He stopped his spear shooting at me in order to break it, but that is what I was counting on. He wasn't expecting me to knee him in the face with my top speed and send him flying through one of the guild's halls.

However, even with that clean hit, I felt my own knee cap buckling despite wearing the armor. It was like I hit something made of titanium!

A dark laughter filled the air as out of the dust my opponent walked out with a grin on his face and no seeable damage because the universe just hates me. "Now we're talking!"

As soon as he said this, he jumped into the air and stretched his leg—I knew what it meant as I jinked right to avoid his leg turning into a spear and shooting right where my chest would have been.

I noticed that I landed near the first giant pillar that my opponent threw that pierced through the guild and quickly I decided to run on top of it to the roof of the guild.

"Hey! Get back here!" I heard the steel mage cry out as he jumped after me to the roof of the guild.

I made a beeline for the very top of the roof before I heard another hum of magical energy behind me. I turned and tilted my head to avoid another spear limb thrown at me. However, I noticed the pillar shrinking and then realized that my opponent had used that punch like a hook shoot to get to me—

I blacked out for a second from my familiar opponent's punch and ended up landing near an edge of Fairy Tail's roof.

I tried to get up—only to grunt when a heavy foot slammed into my chest plate. "Heh! Don't worry about dying alone! I'll make sure your other friends get sent to hell with you!" My assailant turned his hand into a giant blade ready to decapitate me again.

However, as he tilted his hand back, time slowed down. My life started flashing before my eyes… wait. Why are my memories of Erza's sword training the only ones being shown? And why are they showing me back in the fight against the Lullaby and Deliora Fusion, Symphony? Huh? The sword I picked up from Sypmphony?

 **Clang!**

"What the—!?" My assailant jumped back away with all haste to avoid a sword trying to stab him in the face.

Slowly, my mind had caught up what my body had done without it telling it to move.

Somehow, I had summoned the same blade that Symphony had stolen from Erza, but instead of that dark eerie katana he used, it turned into a sleek red broadsword in my hand. With one of my free hands, I somehow summoned that same blade to block his sword arm from decapitating me. But then my other hand summoned the same blade and tried to stab him while he was still standing over me.

Now here I was getting back up wielding two red broadswords in my hand. Looks like the armor is kicking in with toys to help protect me… good. It's time to test these babies out!

I focused in on my opponent and ran quickly at him, slashing at him with all the form that Erza had taught me. My tougher opponent who was kicking my ass just a few seconds ago was now actually on the defensive for once as he dodged every slash I threw at him. And boy did I not let up in my attack! I was swinging these blades like a master somehow! It's like the armor knew how to move my body for me!

I-I think I can win this!

"This is much better!" Aaannnddd my confidence died when I saw him smile that battle hungry smile again.

After I tried to stab him, he tilted his head _then bit my sword off_.

I instantly backed away as I noticed my left blade looked like it was torn like a piece of cardboard. Then I heard the sound of crunching as I looked back at my opponent eating my blade as if it was a snack.

He then swallowed and gasped before wiping his mouth with a scary looking grin in his eyes with the full moon seen behind him.

"Well that was an exotic tasting metal!" He laughed darkly as he seemed to spot my frozen and stupefied self. "Sorry, kid, you can't use metal to beat the Iron Dragon Slayer."

" _Iron_ Dragon Slayer? You mean… you mean you're like Natsu?"

"The famed Salamander huh? I kinda hoped to meet him here, but all things considered this isn't too bad." His smile became feral when he suddenly took another fighting position. "Unfortunately, I've played with you too long and we're both on a **deadline**!"

It took me a second to realize the second meaning of that before he rushed for me again with his giant arm, metal blade. Instinctively, I braced myself and parried his blade with my own despite feeling my armor exerting a lot of my enhanced strength to take that blow.

Instantly, I realized my mistake, in this dead lock, the Iron Dragon Slayer was now close to my second blade! He quickly bit it—

* _The red blade flashed in an instant._ *

"GAH!" I wasn't expecting him to actually release his bite over the sword. I wasn't expecting him to stagger backwards as if he was in pain. And I certainly didn't expect to see his mouth bleed while my last blade remained untouched!

"W-What the!? The hell was that!? It was like eating sharp paper!" My opponent cried out as he looked at me.

Suddenly, there was a liquid like sound coming from my left side. To both my opponent's and my own surprise, the blade he had originally eaten started forming back to normal as if it was never bitten off before.

"The hell!?" My opponent had the same reaction as me only more exaggerated. "What are you!?"

"Would you believe me if I said a spatially displaced boy from another world given an ancient weapon believed to be created during the final life span of a dying god?" Ah banter. Way to put my thoughts out in public like that.

In the distance, I noticed the other houses around Magnolia starting to light up. No doubt the town was just _now_ realizing something was going wrong here in the guild.

"Well looks like I've got to cut this short." My opponent said before he spit some of his blood on the roof. "The guild ain't as trashed as I wanted it to be, so consider this a parting gift!"

He smiled before leaping into the sky like Super Man would and even from up there, my armor could see him smirking as he inhaled—

 _{Iron DRAGON SLAYER}_

"Shit."

" **Iron Dragon's Roar!** "

After my short whisper, my enemy opponent released a massive maelstorm right for me and the guild. However, to my surprise, I found myself swinging both blades in circles before stopping with them positioned behind my back. They were also glowing faintly in a way that I never saw before.

I was briefly confused, but with the massive energy blast heading my way, I let go and let the armor guide me.

To my surprise, I took two steps forward before putting a lot of power into swinging both my blades at the torrent of energy.

What happened next silenced every thought in my mind except my inner five year old as I launched _**a giant sword beam**_ at the Dragon Slayer Roar.

Unfortunately, even my inner five year old was silenced when the two powerful attacks clashed—

 **KKRAAACCKKKOOOM!**

And sent me flying off the roof and crash landing right into Ignis' stable.

My body was aching and all I could hear was white noise. Even so, I still got up; ready for anything else he might throw at me.

However, nothing came.

After the white noise died down, I tried using my senses, but I couldn't hear him or see him anymore.

Seeing that it was safe, I powered down my armor. Instantly, my body felt even worse than before since I'm assuming my powered up mode somehow lessened the pain I was supposed to feel. I think I even felt one of my eyes throbbing—wait no. It's black—ow—yeah. Somehow I got a black eye in armor because apparently that just is.

Ughh…

I looked up and whatever feeling I had then, only felt worse.

Despite how banged up I was, the guild was much worse off since it was now without a roof.

"I better not get docked from my pay for this."

* * *

Ugh… even with this ice pack on my right eye, everything still hurts.

"KAIN!"

Ow. No, really; add a headache to the list of things I desperately needed right now why don't you?

Though it's nice to see that everyone returned safely.

"Kain! Are you alright!?" "What happened to you!?" "Yeah, tell us!" Most of Team Valiant ran over to me as soon as they came into the guild's basement were everyone else was stationed.

"Natsu please be softer, my head is still ringing from the fight." I said to the salmon-haired dragon slayer before easing into a magic bean bag Kageyama was kind enough to let me borrow. Where he got a bean bag, he was suspiciously quiet on.

"Fight?" Lucy repeated in confusion.

It was at this point Mirajane came in. "Last night, the guild was attacked by a lone mage from Phatom Lord and Kain was the only one there to ward him off."

"I didn't even know about a guild called Phantom Lord until today." After my comment, I noticed Mira hand me a drink. "Oh thanks? But I didn't order one?" I raised my brow in confusion before taking the drink.

"It's on the house… or what's left of it in this case." She said as she put the tray to the side. "You deserve it for trying to protect our guild.

"In all fairness, I think I ironically made it worse by fighting him and using the place as a battlefield." Yeesh, saying that makes me feel like I don't deserve this smoothie. Wait, no. I'm still drinking it anyway. Grape is my favorite fruit.

"Aaah!~It's fine! This place is always getting beaten up!" We all looked over to the side to see Master Makarov drinking to his heart's content and currently not fully sober.

"What!? Master, we gotta get back at the guys who did this to our guild and Kain!" Natsu passionately yelled as he pointed to me as if I was dead. I'm flattered but at the same time…

"Ahh guild's can be rebuilt and Kain is alright, in fact he told me he gained some new powers in the fight so all in all, everything is alright!" Makarov laughed again as he drank, much to everyone's rising anger.

"Master, do you understand the gravity of this situation?" Erza asked the drunken guild master carefully.

"The guild's been demolished and heck they beat up Kain!"

"Hey! I lost, not got beat up! I'm fairly certain I put up a decent fight…" I mumbled that last sentence after I shouted in right after Natsu agreed with Erza.

The small Wizard Saint stopped drinking for a second before dismissing the other two. "There's no need to get so worked up about it. In fact, it goes to show those Phantom Losers can't even beat one of our weakest guild members in a fair fight."

"Sir, you are lucky I'm allowing that backhanded praise to slide because you're drunk." I mean I can't believe I'm considered lower than Happy of all people in the guild. And it sucks that when a complement finally comes my way it's also in the form of an insult. I just can't damn win here, can I?

"Overall, we shouldn't worry about punks who don't have the guts to face us head on! Forget about those jerks!"

Suddenly, I looked back up to the sound of Natsu's fist connecting with that poor crate.

"Ain't going to happen, Gramps! We can't just let them trash our place and one of our friends and get away with it!"

"Again, I'm bruised but alright!" I yelled after our dragon slayer's angry yell. I can understand how he feels about it but…

"Until the upstairs is repaired, we'll handle job requests down here in the basement." Makarov went on, seemingly ignoring our resident fire mage.

"Grr! We shouldn't be worrying about jobs right now—"

"Natsu! That's enough out of you!" Makarov shouted to interrupt him before the sound of a slap caught my attention. I felt my headache return tenfold when I saw Master slapping Lucy's butt.

"Godammit, sir." I groaned before continuing to drink my grape smoothie. If only there was magic here that could refill drinks like I think they do in Harry Potter and Marvel—this is the worst magic world ever.

After a comment by Mira to keep his hands to himself, the small man ran out to go to the bathroom, much to Natsu's dismay.

"Why is he being like this?" That was my cue to finally stand back up.

"Because he was the very first person to come to the guild after the attack." I told the newcomers as they all turned to me.

"He was the first one?" Gray looked at me with surprise which was just like the others.

I sighed before I noticed everyone in the guild looking at me. It seemed like I had now caught everyone's attention since what I just said was news to everyone.

"I probably shouldn't say this, but Master is as worried as all of you, if not more. Okay, first I have to tell you all what happened when the guild was attacked."

Everyone listened closely as I described what happened when I was attacked and what followed after.

* * *

I was sore all over, but I could still walk fine. As I pushed through some of the debris of our guild, I tried to get back to my room and fish out anything that was still intact. Most of my stuff was actually in good condition, although somewhat dirty and scattered around, but before I could figure out how to pack everything, I heard a voice.

"Kain!" I walked out of what was left of my room to see Master Makarov.

When he saw me, he was instantly relieved. But despite that, he wasn't fast enough to change it for me to see the look of horror in his face before he spotted me.

"Are you alright?!" He ran up to me worried as he viewed me all over. "Who… who did this!?" At that time, even though it was still the dead of night, I could still visibly see the veins in his head popping.

"I… don't really know. It was some kind of Iron Dragon Slayer… a guy that had similar magic to Natsu but a different element."

"An Iron Dragon Slayer? Wait the only one I know is… Phantom Lord!" He was actually gripping his fists so tightly they were trembling when he said those words. "Damn them!"

* * *

"… He then told me how guilds are forbidden from clashing with one another." I told everyone who was deeply into the story. "He apologized to me for the night, but I told him that I was still in once piece and that no one else really suffered for it. It's half the reason I understood why he was drinking so much this morning. He feels more trapped about this situation than anyone, but he can't do anything without risking the council's wrath."

"But they were the ones who started it!" Natsu yelled to me.

"Exactly, and isn't that the weird thing?" No sooner had my mouth said that, everyone stared at me with confusion. I started to elaborate. "I only now just heard it, but Makarov has explained to me that Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail have been on bad terms for years, so why is it only now when they finally decide to attack? Master clearly said to me that it is illegal for one guild to attack the other, so why did Phantom Lord attack us knowing that it was illegal?"

"They hate us!" I and everyone else turned to Wakaba after he shouted an answer to my rhetorical question. "Right?"

"It's more than that, Wakaba. Their attacker that night… he let some things slip when he was fighting me. I never once got the impression that he was attack our guild for the heck of it. There was purpose in how he carried himself, like he was ordered to attack the guild… and how it wasn't going to be the end."

The air in the room felt thicker after I just said that, but I continued. "I told master this as well. He doesn't understand why Phantom Lord would do this even with their hatred. It was then that we both realized it was some kind of trap. Phantom Lord is goading us into fighting them for some reason and despite how much Makarov wants to pay them back in kind, we have no idea what they're planning."

After I said this, the room became deathly quiet. Erza was the first to speak up after a few more seconds. "So that's why Master is choosing to let this slide even with you injured. Phantom Lord is up to something suspicious and he doesn't want to take risks."

"He asked me to go to the Magic Council tomorrow with him in order to get them to cease Phantom Lord's actions for a while or at least stall them some way until we get more information on what we're dealing with." I responded to her. "And again, I'm bruised, not injured."

Erza nodded. "In that case, it's best if we trust the master's word."

* * *

That night Kageyama Maru heard knocking—knocking on his chamber door.

"Now which late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door? It better be this and nothing more." The shadow mage paused for a second at the rhyme before shaking his head. It can't be Phantom Lord; they definitely don't knock on his chamber doors nevermore.

Kageyama Maru opened the door.

"Heeeeyyyy~ Kage!"

Then he slammed the door to be opened no more.

"Kage," The muffled voice screamed behind the closed door then started tapping—tapping on his chamber door. "I have Ignis with me. Do not tempt me to break it down with a wyvern. I warn you the idea actually sounds appealing to me since having Ignis break a wall or door is kinda cool."

Kageyama sighed and opened the door back open. "What are you doing here?"

"Don't you remember Mira saying that we should party up for the next few nights?" The brunette asked carefully.

"Well yeah, but aren't you with Team Valiant?" Kage quickly pointed out. "Why are you here?"

"Oh they can handle themselves, but you didn't really have others helping you out, so I asked if I could come over to your place."

Despite his eyes being naturally low, Kageyama leered. "Wait. Why do I have a feeling you aren't telling me everything?"

"Uuuuhhh?" Kain paused suspiciously before to Kageyama surprise… and horror… Natsu Dragneel appeared and wrapped his hand around Kain.

"Yo Kage! Can you let us in?" The salmon haired fire mage waved hello nonchalantly to the shadow mage.

Kage stepped out of his apartment. He later found this an unwise decision as he found out all of team Valiant was waiting out his door.

The shadow mage turned back to the wyvern rider. "Explain."

"… Slumber party?" The young lawyer offered before the door was closed on his face again.

It took a while, but Kageyama did begrudgingly let almost everyone in. Except Ignis because no room could fit in a wyvern.

Still, it was a relatively peaceful night for everyone… except Team Shadow Gear.

* * *

That next morning…

Master Makarov could handle the guild being destroyed. Despite Kain's brush in with Phantom Lord's mage, he was relatively fine and Kain understood what it would mean to go to war at that point.

However, Kain, for the very first time since he got here, was considered lucky the one time he wished he wasn't.

Team Shadow Gear did not share that same luck.

They were all pinned to a tree with Phantom Lord's symbol painted on to Levy's stomach as if they were all executed.

Makarov could accept the previous two. But this?

"Kain," The small guild master started.

"Yes sir?" The young man felt nervous but understood what was going on as he saw nearly every civilian back away from the guild master by his rising pressure alone.

"As our finance expert, order me a new staff."

"What's wrong with the one you're carrying—" Kain said nothing more when it was crushed with ease.

"Fairy Tail," A sudden burst of energy exploded from the small guild master. "We're going for a walk."

* * *

The attack on Phantom Lord's main branch was anything but silent. Nearly all members Fairy Tail members were present when they launched an attack on the Phantom Lord guild.

Including the Guild Master, Makrov, the Wizard Saint himself.

The guild master climbed the highest tower with an aura that destroyed nearly every object in sight. Eventually he blasted the doors and came face to face with Phantom Lord's guild master, Jose.

"Ahh Makarov, it's been six years since we last met at a Guild Master's convention—"

A giant fist punched the area the purple clad guild master was.

"Enough small talk! What is the meaning of attacking my guild!?" Makarov demanded before instantly realizing his fist connected with nothing. "A projection?! I knew you would have tried to run away at the first opportunity! Face me like a man!"

At this moment, a new projection appeared before Jose's feet… it was Lucy Heartifilia tied up. The image of such a thing snapped Makarov out of his anger and was replaced by shock.

"Lucy?" Makarov asked in disbelief. She was the reason why Phantom Lord attacked them?! "But why!?"

"Really? You don't know why?" Jose asked with equal amounts of confusion. "She's in your guild and you don't know why we captured her?"

As soon as a magic circle appeared in Jose's hand, Makarov cried out, "Wait, stop!"

And then he felt the presence of a large man behind him. Makarov quickly turned around, realizing he did not sense the large man's presence before that very moment.

"It's so sad! So sad!" The large man cried as magical energy started to gather in his hands.

However… instead of panic… Makarov was eerily calm at the attempt to ambush him. "You're right it is sad. If you weren't wearing a blindfold, you would have noticed my shadow wasn't moving normally."

The crying mage paused for a second. Even though he was wearing a blindfold, he tilted his head down—

Then the sound of a heavily coated and plated fist crushing a jaw bone echoed throughout the room.

The light coming from his close range spell was cancelled due to the large man being thrown out of the room as if he was turned into a baseball that was hit by a home run.

Jose was shocked as he saw Makarov's shadow jump out and punch one of the Element Four in the face. He was more shocked to see the shadow start to form out to reveal two young men coming out from the small midget.

"Looks like you were right after all, Kain. They did have a trap waiting for me." The Guild Master said as he looked to the red wyvern rider.

"I'm glad I was at least able to convince you to have Kageyama and I follow you sir," Jose looked towards the young man in red armor with curiosity before the crimson rider then turned and pointed to him. "What the hell did you do to Lucy, you bastard!?"

Jose looked at the scene before him. It seemed their plan to make Makarov's magic fail didn't work out. It seemed like Phantom Lord would have to fight Fairy Tail at one of their strongest. Yet on the other hand…

"Well this is an interesting turn of events. I actually had planned for Aria to scatter your magic and crush your guild while you could do nothing." Phantom Lord's guild master mused with interest before a dark smile spread across his lips. "But as much as that was preferred, a piece of me is actually glad you were able to see through this two-bit ruse! Now I can crush you beneath my feet at your maximum strength to fully humiliate you!"

"Don't you recall our last encounter? I'm sure to give you a worse beating than last time!" Makarov barked back.

"A lot has changed since then, Makarov," The opposing guild master said with a creepy smile remained on his face. "A lot has changed…"

Behind the three, the dust settled to reveal Aria, one of the Element Four now flying in the air where Kain had knocked him out of the tower.

"Aria, be a dear and start Plan B will you?" The Phantom Lord asked one of the Element Four.

The crying wind mage could only nod. "How sad! Plan B! It's so sad!" He cried out as he vanished back in to thin air.

"Plan B? You mean they actually had something incase this trap failed?" Kageyama asked in shock.

"Jose!" Makarov yelled as the image of both him and Lucy started to fade.

"I'm feeling generous, Makarov. One day. You've got one day to prepare your best… don't disappoint me." And with that, Jose's image left the room.

"Damn it!" Makarov roared as he blasted the wall where Jose was previously standing. "He got away!"

There were hundreds of sounds of screaming coming from below as the three looked over to one of the holes made at the top of the tower. Phantom Lord mages were in retreat with Fairy Tail pushing them back.

Despite it looking like a victory, the three on top of the tower knew something bad was going on.

At this point, Makarov looked over to the young man in red armor. "Kain, I need a favor from you."

Later, Makarov and Kageyama walked down to the ruined main hall of Phantom Lord, as soon as he did, the rest of Fairy Tail started to cheer.

"Everyone," Makarov's voice was not as jubilant as the rest of them. "Return to the guild at once!"

"Wait what? But we won!" Macao cried out.

The wizard saint was quick to shake his head. "I wish that we did, but this indeed was a trap. If not for Kageyama and Kain, I might not be standing in front of you all as I am now."

Erza seemed to be the first to notice that. "Where is Kain? Was he not with you?"

"I immediately sent him and Ignis on a mission. But come on, we must hurry back to Magnolia… where's Natsu?" The wizard saint asked.

Gray was the first to respond. "Now that you mention it, he was fighting Black Steel Gajeel until he said something that made him high tail it out of here with Happy."

To everyone's surprise Laki was the one to talk next. "Actually, when Natsu left, a tall green guy appeared behind Gajeel and the two retreated as well."

"Master, what's the matter?" Erza asked after hearing all this.

The guild master looked to everyone in his guild with worry. After a second he sighed and revealed what he knew. "Phantom Lord has a plan B."

* * *

 **{Author Notes.}**

 **Funny how Kain's first official brawl in the guild is him defending it.**

 **Also the part with Kain sleeping over with Kageyama is a parody of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. Foolish Internet! While you all dawdle with your memes and references from other pop culture, I, PhantomGalaxy13, choose to parody a famous dead poet who married his cousin! Truly I have the better and more refined tastes than the likes of you masses!**

 **So snap your fingers! Snap like they would in a poetry house when praising ingenious writers! MWAHAHAHA!**

 ***Obnoxious snapping intensifies in the background.***

 **Now I am excited for this whole new take on the Phantom Lord Saga! I changed and Ret-conned a few things here when making this saga: Jose mostly. Let's just say he hasn't quite changed in power, but there are some life tweaks I made to him to make him a little more credible as a villain.**

 **You're all also probably wondering, with Makarov seemingly in good health, how can the stakes be raised in this arc?**

 ***Evil smile***

 **Anakin Skywalker, if you will?**

 **Anakin: YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER!**

 **Well said, Anakin. Go challenge Obi-wan over the high ground. I'm sure it'll work out.**

 **So back to this story, I am excited for my take on the Phantom Lord Saga. I really hope you'll enjoy how different things are this time around.**

 **Anyway, thank you all for reading and check out my other stories too if you have the time!**


	14. Chapter 14

It was very hard for her, the guilt of knowing that all this violence, all of her hurt friends, all of the danger… it was hard for her not to feel horrible at this situation that she had unknowingly brought on to people she has come to love over a short period of time.

"I'm so sorry!" Lucy bowed her head in shame after revealing to the entire guild that it was her father who hired Phantom Lord to attack them. "This… this is all my fault!" She said as tears started to fall down her face.

"No it is not." Makarov began sagely, doing his best to console the girl even though they were currently back in the basement of the guild. "Phantom Lord hated us for years, if not you, they would have found another reason to attack us eventually. There is no point in blaming yourself when it's not your fault."

Despite the kind words, Lucy still cried at the problems she had caused for such nice people. Mirajane was quick to try and console Lucy with a hug.

Makarov sighed at the sight. He really did mean it, no one blamed Lucy for any of this. Before he could try to explain it further, there was a familiar roar in the air above the Fairy Tail guild. "Kain has returned." Makarov said as he went out, prompting everyone to follow after him.

The wyvern rider had returned with an obvious nervous look on his face. The young man was known in the guild for having the most unflappable nature even in a guild filled with big personalities. To see him of all people look worried made everyone else feel dread.

"Kain, what is your report?" Makarov softly asked. Even though he did that, he was still heard by everyone around him with how unusually silent the loud and proud guild was.

The brunette with dark brown eyes shook his head. "I'm sorry, sir, it seems you're right. I checked with Ignis at least four other Phantom Lord guilds nearby the one we raided and… every one of them were empty to the point where even rats couldn't be found in them."

At least four of Phantom Lord's other branches were empty!?

Despite hearing that news, everyone was getting a bad feeling about what was really happening beyond Kain's scouting report. It appeared that Kain himself knew what everyone was thinking, but decided to spell out loud. "Sir, I think Jose is massing _all_ of his members."

Without wasting a second, Makarov turned to his guild and threw out his hand. "Evacuate the city."

Those three words were all it took for everyone to look on with shock at their master before he turned to Nab. "Go to the mayor and order him a mass evacuation. Hurry!"

"R-Right!" The mage who usually dawdled in front of the job request was now bolting towards the door without a hint of hesitation.

"Everyone else, help out with evacuation! Later, meet back in the guild at sun set." Makarov said nothing more as he started walking out of the guild area and heading towards the back. "Kain, please follow me. We have much to discuss."

The young man nodded as he followed the master.

There was so much to say, but nothing was said. The rest of Fairy Tail went out the door to help out with evacuation.

* * *

Come sunset, all the members returned with the evacuation now handling itself.

Makarov was waiting at the back of Fairy Tail, watching the sunset.

Erza was the first to walk up to him when everyone returned. "Sir, Levy, Droy, and Jet have been sent to Porlyusica. She… sends her regards."

The small mage gave a faint smirk at the name of their old friend and medic. "It was basically her telling me how stupid I am, aren't I?"

The red haired mage said nothing, but that was more or less an understatement. Both of them knew that her actual words for Makarov were anything but simple. However, this was not the time to muse in how much his friend hadn't changed. Makarov turned to his guild.

"Thank you all for coming here. Oh? Éclair? Momon? I was under the impression you two would also leave this place with the others."

At the master's mention, the vagabond looked away and held her arm. Momon flew on to Éclair's shoulder and declared, "You guys helped us and took us in without question! We still haven't repaid your hospitality yet!"

"I appreciate it, but you don't need to stay here."

"We can still help!" Momon declared and pretty much spoke for the silent and somewhat shy newcomer.

"Thank you then." With that, the guild master turned back to everyone. "Now as I was saying, we face one of Fairy Tail's darkest moments yet. I had ordered the evacuation of the town because if Jose is doing what I think he's doing, there is no possible way for all of us to protect the civilians in the upcoming battle. If anyone wishes to evacuate with the civilians now is your chance, I will not look down on you for avoiding a bloody fight."

No one dared say anything or move from their spot.

"Hmph. Stubborn children. In that case, I've been talking over strategy with Kain."

"Uuhh, sir? You just stood there and told me to look at the map of Magnolia and its surroundings." The brunette said as he picked up a map.

"Wasn't that enough? I know you already had a few plans popped up in that head of yours." Makarov stated.

"Well… well yeah some. But still, we're basically outnumbered at least twenty to one! Even if we are better, how will we stopped being swarmed from all over!?" The wyvern rider asked in shock. "Does the town like have a defense system we can use?"

"It does." Makarov easily answered back.

At that, the brunette blinked and calmed down quite a lot. "Oh. Why didn't you say that sooner?" Kain asked earnestly while he didn't notice everyone else looking in surprise.

Wakkaba the smoke mage was first to call out what nearly everyone else was thinking. "Wait, we have a town defense system?"

"That's the first time we've heard of it!" Macao added in.

In response to others agreeing with the two,Makarov addressed them. "It's been decommissioned since The Second Trade War. It was the town's defense mechanism the First Guild Master, Second, and my father created to protect Magnolia at the time." Makarov stepped forward and pointed towards the direction of the church. "It's called the Thunder Palace."

"Thunder Palace huh?" Kain looked towards the elaborate cathedral in the distance. "But what does it do specifically? I need to know how it works in order to figure out a proper defense strategy!"

"I promise to tell you more about it. First, I asked you to start making teams. Please do so now."

"Teams?" Natsu asked in shock.

The young man from another dimension was quick to explain. "Master wanted me to organize everyone into temporary teams or groups or squad-whatever! We'll be spread out throughout the town with other mages to manage our defense and… Warren, are you here?" Kain looked over the crowd of people.

The raven haired telepath reluctantly raised his hand. "Uhh here? Yeah?"

"I need you to set up a massive link for Fairy Tail to message instantly to others. You, I, and Makarov will be overlooking command."

"Oh-Oh!" The telepathic mage was not expecting that. He placed his hands together and started concentrating. " _It's done._ "

" _Huh, tingly,_ " Kain's voice echoed in everyone's mind. " _Alright, for now, I'm going to begin assigning teams from Alpha to Zulu. There's going to be 26 teams so pay attention to who's with who._ "

Kain did so, pairing those who he thought would work well with each other and telling them which part of the town they were going to be stationed in accordance with their magic and abilities.

When he was done, Makarov ordered everyone to rest up and prepare before going to their stations at midnight.

However, Kain was quick to make one last announcement before they all started to leave.

"Wait, I would like to see the following before you leave: Erza, and Laki."

Erza wasn't really much of a surprise, but Laki Olietta was just as shocked as everyone for being called up.

Soon, the two women came up to Kain and by extent Makarov who was nearby the brunette.

"So uhh why was I called up to the spotlight?" The purple haired mage asked.

Kain turned towards the ground where the two females had noticed two books nearby Master Makarov that they didn't notice before. The young man picked them up, dusted them off a bit, and explained what they were. "Levy, Natsu, and I started transcribing the books we found with lost magic, but Levy only completed two of them… and these might suit you two the best."

With that, the wyvern rider handed a book to the two. "I think it would be a good idea to try and squeeze in some spells that you can before the day is over."

"Rune Enhancements?" Erza brought up her green book and opened the first page. "The ability to increase an attribute of a weapon by scripting runes on them… I see these would prove helpful to me."

Kain turned to the wood make mage. "Laki, you have wood magic, and well Levy thought this book could also include Droy, but seeing as he's…" Kain did not dare finish that sentence since everyone knew what he had meant. "I think you should be the first to read this spell book." The red book was handed over to the glasses wearing mage.

"Flora Majesty?" Laki read aloud the book's title before opening the first page. "In all honesty, my magic is more like Gray's than it is with Droy's." She said as she kept looking at the book and turned the page.

"Oh?" Kain raised his brow. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"No it's fine. I can still make some of these spells work." Laki closed her book and fixed her glasses. "By the time Phantom comes, they shall rue the day they messed with us!"

Kain nodded before looking to Erza. "Could you ask Natsu to teach Macao a few new fire spell from the book he's been reading? It might benefit him."

"He's right over there." Erza looked over to Natsu talking over to a sad looking Lucy.

"That… reminds me." Kain sighed as he walked up to the two. "Lucy, hey."

"Hey Kain." Lucy's usually lively voice was so dour and soft, even Natsu didn't seem to like it.

Seeing that, the boy from another dimension quickly spoke up. "Don't feel so bad. No one blames you for anything."

"Yeah, Lucy. We can handle these Phantom Losers easy!" Natsu smiled to try and bring back his friend's character back up.

"Natsu, by the way, I need you to try and teach Macao a few of the new fire spells you learned before tonight. We're going to need every advantage we can use for the upcoming fight."

"Huh? Okay." Natsu nodded before looking over to Lucy. Kain got what he was trying to say and turned to the blonde girl.

"Lucy, you'll be with Warren, Master Makarov, and I in command which we'll be stationed in the Cathedral."

"Sure…"

The wyvern rider looked back to the dragon slayer who then slowly made his way towards his older friend.

"Are you ready?" Makarov asked Lucy and Kain as Mirajane, Éclair, Momon, and Warren were right behind him.

They silently nodded before he started walking ahead. "I have to activate the Thunder Palace. Come with me all of you."

Eventually they were all lead into the Cathedral that was filled with benches and an elegant carpeted floor that lead up to the shrine in the end of the wall.

"There's something I should probably say, like how hiding a defense system inside a church seems a little unorthodox, but then again I have no idea how churches work in your world." Kain spoke up while he was looking around the place. However, while some people did appreciate a little levity to light up this heavy atmosphere, no one really knew how to start a conversation after that.

Soon, Makarov placed a hand on the tabernacle. As he did, a bright light started shinning from the temple and then from the very top of the shrine, it shown a light down into the center of the cathedral, revealing something like a blue hologram of the entire city of Magnolia.

Everyone, even outside of the cathedral, noticed around hundreds of floating lightning bolt spheres appeared around the city.

Makarov looked to Kain as he pointed to the many spheres that now appeared over Magnolia. "These spheres have the ability to launch stored amounts of electricity. The reason why The Thunder Palace was created was during the Second Trade War, there was a powerful enemy of Fairy Tail given the title, City Breaker, a powerful mage who commanded typhoons and thunder storms. These Lacrima were created by the First, the Second, and my father to absorb electrical energy and use it against anyone that tried to attack Magnolia at the time. Even long after the War, the Cathedral has always doubled as a lightning rod, storing a hundred years worth of storms in them. Needless to say the power within them is quite outstanding."

"Hey, Master?" Warren walked up to him with obvious confusion. "How come we've never heard of this until now?"

"Because while it is Magnolia's defense system, it was made during a time of war. The power it wields can kill a large army with ease if they don't have proper defense. While our war with Phantom Lord is going to be a hard fight, I'd rather not use this to kill people brought into a fight caused by two guild masters." Makarov began. "I activated it in hopes it would scare or ward Phantom Lord's large numbers away from the city."

It was good to know that even in a fight, Makarov wouldn't truly harm those he didn't deem worthy.

Kain looked up to the hologram. "Wow, this really does feel like a command center with how you can see nearly everything outside a hundred miles of Magnolia, was this also made in the Second Trade War?"

"Yes, made by my master, the Second Guild Master, Precht Gaebolg. Mavis had asked him to map out the area for a better home field advantage…." Makarov's tone suddenly became lower as he stood to face Kain completely.

"Uhh sir?" The brunette asked carefully as he noticed the solemn stare.

Without faltering, Makarov asked the young boy, "Kain, I want you to be Fairy Tail's Tactician in this upcoming battle."

Needless to say everyone was shocked at the words coming from their master's mouth, but no one was more surprised than Kain.

"What-What!? Me!? Why me!?" The young man cried out in shock. "If you're referring to my ideas, all of them were just used to get out of sticky situations! I know nearly nothing about war… okay maybe I played a few fictional games where they simulated war, but those were for fun and not at all serious!"

"If that's the case that makes you even more qualified than anyone else within miles." Makarov quietly began before he actually… bowed his head to Kain. "I know I'm asking a lot, but you're the only one who has a remote chance at leading us in the fight to come. Please, say you'll accept."

Kain nervously looked around before spotting the map of Magnolia. Seconds had passed, but they felt like eternity before the brunette finally said, "Alright. I'll do it."

However, Makarov's only response was a few words. "I truly am sorry."

* * *

Everything was set and everyone was in their positions, so now came the hardest thing of all:

Waiting.

The night was actually very beautiful as it usually was at Magnolia, only it felt far quieter with all civilians gone and nothing but the light of the stars, moon, and the Thunder Palace illuminating the giant city.

Fairy Tail at best had around a hundred mages. However, considering their opponents, they were nearly outnumbered twenty to one at least.

Not to mention, along with the Element Four and Black Steel Gajeel, Makarov had admitted in hearing lesser, but none the less capable mages in charge of Phantom Lord's Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Branches.

It was… disheartening to say the least.

But there were two people, besides perhaps Makarov, who were feeling absolutely bad about all of this.

One of them just so happened to be on the very top of the Cathedral, sitting right beside the giant bell, watching over all of Magnolia…

"The mountains in the north should give Bisca and Foxtrot Squad a good vantage point since they consist of our mages with the best long range magic. But I should send other teams to back her up if they get overwhelmed. The thing is though we're already spread thin as is even with us setting up the city with barricades and traps. I could actually send Alzack with his group since the two work well together, but I do need both of them as snipers in two different vantage areas. There's also the off chance a dozen or so mages attacking from the sea behind the guild. The Thunder Palace should basically deter any attack from the sea unless our enemies are suicidal, but seeing as how magic has a multitude of abilities, I have to factor the chance one of Phantom Lord's many mages finding a way past it through the water either. The question is will that be a proper wave or will they act like a sabotage or scouting group? Damn, to many variables while I still don't know enough!"

Kain continued to mutter as he scratched his head and marked even more scribbles on the seventeenth map he held. Seeing it nearly unreadable, he threw it away behind him, not knowing it hit someone's foot as it floated away.

"…"

The unwilling tactician sighed as he stopped making notes on a new map and put down his marker. "Hey, Lucy? What's up?" He turned his head towards the second friendly mage he met in this world.

"… I'm sorry." Kain turned around to see how amazingly guilty she was looking. Forget kicked puppy, it was like watching a tortured puppy that was slowly dying and you could do nothing but watch as the last of its life faded. "This… this is all my fault!" She felt the need to apologize again seeing how disturbed the young man looked.

"Don't worry about it. I've done some pretty stupid things too." The dimensionally displaced boy dismissed.

"How could you say that?! Levy… and everyone else…! They're… they're…." She started to sniff. "Maybe I should surrender myself to Phantom Lord."

Kain sighed. Rather than directly try to tell her she was wrong—even if she was—the young man understood what it was like to feel bad for one's self. "With all due respect, Lucy, I doubt Phantom Lord would stop the attack even if you did that. It was illegal for something like this to be done in the first place, so I don't think Jose is in the right mind for pulling out all the stops in this." Kain said which only made Lucy look at him with fear. "I'm sorry. I get snarky when I'm stressed." He sighed and leaned to a pillar on his right. "So, you really were related to Jude Heartifila."

"Yeah… unfortunately, I was." The blonde celestial mage answered softly before she noticed Kain patting the empty edge next to her, signaling her to sit with him. Seeing as there was no reason not to do so, she eventually sat beside him.

"Wow…" She gasped as she looked out to see Magnolia in all its splendor under the star lit sky. "This is such a beautiful view!"

"Huh. It is, isn't it? I only choose to be here because it was possibly the highest point in all of Magnolia." The wyvern rider responded as he looked out there then chuckled softly. "But yeah, it's as beautiful as the sunrise we saw back at that island… wow… the isle of the undead was literally a few days ago but already it feels like a lifetime."

"Ugh, I still want to do that magic Horus showed me I can do with my spirits. That reminds me, Aquarius has been… hounding… for you." Lucy nervously said. As she said this, a smile had re appeared on her face, a nervous one, but a smile none the less.

Kain groaned like that of a young rebellious teenager. "She's still mad about the things I said during the first Lullaby Event, isn't she?"

Lucy said nothing in response to that.

Kain blinked. "She's more than mad isn't she?"

The mage said nothing.

"She swore vengeance or worse the next time we met didn't she?"

The blonde was now starting to sweat.

"… Okay, Lucy, please do not summon her near me if at all possible and if you do, make sure I'm at least in my armor?"

"Yeah…" Lucy nervously agreed while silently trying to repress the trauma of her witnessing Aquarius' true feelings if she saw Kain once more.

…

…

"Haha…" The young adult with brown eyes started to let out some laughs. Until it started coming it with real, maniacal laughter that almost made him lose grip on the edge.

It was so spontaneous, so random, but so genuine that even Lucy began to laugh.

The two laughed while they were on top of Magnolia, forgetting about all the pressure and horror that was to come as the sun started to rise.

"Haha… whooo… I needed that. Thanks Lucy."

"I… I should be thanking you." Lucy laughed a few times before standing up and looking towards the guild. "Coming here to Fairy Tail was my best decision I ever made. I don't regret that, but I fear that I might have doomed you all because of it."

"Pssh! Lucy, take this from a guy who wasted like ten years of his life in self pity: blaming yourself doesn't do anything. From my personal experience, feeling sorry for yourself actually distracts you from doing the things that supposed to help you become a better person. Do you really think surrendering will make anyone happy even if we are—and I say this with implied air quotes—safe?"

Lucy thought about it carefully for a moment, her friends here would feel sad to actually see her go. She doubted her own father would be happy to have her back, and she herself wouldn't feel that way. "Well… no…"

Kain stood up and patted Lucy's shoulder. "The guild especially wouldn't be happy that they let one of their own go down like that. It's a bit cliché, but I greatly respect Fairy Tail for putting a lot of value into building and protecting good friendships. I'm going to say that protecting your happiness is just as important as protecting everyone's happiness."

A small smile appeared on Lucy's face. "You sure know how to use your words, Kain."

"I'm a lawyer and a theater nerd, being a wordsmith is kinda my thing." The wyvern rider stood up. "Hey, what is that magic that Horus tried to teach you? We have some time, maybe you can work it out and help us in the battle if we really need it."

Lucy looked at her keys and seemed determined. "Since you weren't there, I'm going to have to explain it to you. You see…"

* * *

Jose stared at the sight before him: around a thousand or so mages all lined up under his command. It was no Royal Army, but it was nothing to sneeze at as well.

There was a knock on his office door. The Phantom Lord Guild Master put down his glass before standing up and looking at the door. "You may come in."

Aria had walked in and bowed. "Sir, Voyu Carliso, is here."

The large, green themed man stepped aside, revealing a middle-aged man with long, lime colored hair styled in a pony tail that reached his back who was wearing a white suit and black tie along with sharp looking glasses over his green eyes.

The one addressed as Voyu bowed politely before smiling. "Hey, J-man. You really are pulling out all the stops, aren't you?"

An honest smile appeared across Jose's face as he ended up walking towards Voyu with his arms out stretched. "Come here, you magnificent son of a Vulcan in heat!"

The two laughed before embracing like old friends.

"It's good to see you again, Flat-Nose. It's been what? Two years since you last brought Phantom Lord together?" The green haired man in a suit asked.

"I promised Juvia command of all guilds for a day because I lost a bet, how was I supposed to know she would use it to try and use Phantom Lord's vast connection as a personal dating service?"

The two men laughed again before Jose looked to Aria. "Thank you, Aria, go help out The Eastern Captain, Zolon and his forces ease in. No doubt he and Gajeel are already going to butt heads."

The large wind mage nodded before vanishing in thin air.

"Where did you find him, Flat-nose?" Voyu asked as he made a reach for a wine bottle on Jose's table and poured himself a glass of wine.

"Around the northwest, in the mountain range that separates south and north Fiore. he was an excommunicated Vaijin Monk because he was too sadistic and cries too much."

Voyu raised his brow, "A sadistic and crybaby wind mage. I admit the combination never occurred to me." The he took a sip out of the glass he poured for himself and looked out the window.

Jose walked beside him and looked down to the many guild members working together.

"You can say it, you know." The Guild Master finally said after a few seconds of silence. "I think I've been preparing for this conversation as much as my assault to Fairy Tail, so let it rip."

The green haired gentlemen surprisingly said nothing for a while. Jose found this somewhat worse until his friend finally spoke up, "What can I say? I know there's no stopping you at this point." Voyu's tone became somewhat somber as he lifted up the wine bottle and offered it to Jose.

Jose took it although he seemed shocked. "What? You're really not saying anything?"

"I'm not saying what the two of us already know." Voyu looked at his friend. "But I will just ask… win or lose… what will happen to you?"

The Phantom Lord Guild master stared at his drink, or more specifically his reflection and then suddenly chugged his drink whole without savoring it. "I will be fired or even arrested either way for disobeying the council alone not counting the future damages this fight will no doubt cause. … That is why when I go: I want you to be the guild's new master."

To many other people, the offer to become the next guild master would have been a privilege and an honor. For these two old friends, they both silently knew that it meant they would no longer be able to enjoy a drink like this anymore. "So… this is basically the last time you and I meet huh? Is it weird to say I'd rather go through another Juvia Lockser Fiasco?" Despite his attempt to make a joke, his voice was so soft that you could more likely hear sounds from behind the sound proof glass.

"Yes." Jose put the glass down on his table before turning to Voyu. "With that in mind, I would like to say—"

"Hold it." Voyu picked up the glass Jose put down and snapped his fingers.

A giant, red portal appeared behind him and swallowed the two of them whole.

When Jose looked around again, he noticed that he was on a flower-filled cliff overlooking a valley river under the night sky. At the very edge of the cliff, there was a tabernacle that Jose frowned at by just seeing it.

The sound of running liquid made Jose look back to see Voyu using a small portal to fill up his empty glass and hand it back to the guild master.

"Now you can say it."

Jose smiled and raised his glass. "A toast: for the wrathful fool who died in a long extinct village and existed as nothing more than a ghost of vengeance made flesh…"

Voyu raised his glass and continued, "And for the foolish outcast that befriended that ghost of vengeance even if he dragged many innocents to hell."

The sound of glass tapping was all that was heard in the beautiful area before the two aged men drank what would no doubt be their last drink as brothers in all but name and blood.

"Well then, Voyu," Jose turned his back on his friend as he looked to the endless night in front of him. He stood on the edge, yet for all intents and purposes, it seemed like even gravity could not even hope to touch him let alone pull him to the earth with all of its power.

Jose gave a defiant smile, as if to show whoever was watching one last grand insult. "If this is where it ends, let's make sure that afterward even Hell will fear us when we enter through their gates! Let us make both heaven and hell rumble in fear at what we can do!"

Voyu smiled then bowed with one knee to the ground. "Very well said, Master."

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **This one is the shortest Chapter yet! It was mostly because it was a sort of 'Calm before the Storm' thing.**

 **I've been setting up how radically different yet similar this Arc is going to go. You thought the Lullaby and Galuna arcs were different? You ain't seen nothing yet!**

 **One of the major changes I want to talk about that I made is Jose Porla; AKA the main "Douche Bag Of The Week" in this arc.**

 **Now, if you guys all look back at that arc: he was extremely shallow. He started a war that hurt so many people… just because he didn't like Makarov.**

 **That's it.**

 **That's basically it and well…. Unless they're from My Hero Academia, One Dimensional Villains don't work well.**

 **So I ret-conned him. Made him OOC. You get it. I'm pretty sure this is one OOC that people actually don't mind at all because it's on a villain rather than a main character.**

 **Here, I asked myself what could really make Jose Porla despise Fairy Tail that was worth him losing his Wizard Saint status, his acclaimed fame as one of the other best guilds in Fiore, and potentially all the riches from the guild's giant status?**

 **Jude Heartifilia's riches? Meh, not good enough for me. The last scene in this chapter was supposed to show how much different this Jose is from the Cannon one was.**

 **Also one more tidbit that properly wasn't explained here was that I bumped up Jose's age. This little fact might be important later, might not. Meh.**

 **Strangely enough, I feel as though I wrote him as a hero rather than a villain by giving him more back story to his nonexistent one.**

 **Bah, his new history will be revealed later.**

 **Anywho, thank you all for reading and a very big thank you for supporting this fic with follows and reviews. I'm going to assume that you guys like this story with how much support it's getting.**


	15. Chapter 15

**{Merry Holidays Folks!}**

" _Okay everyone, roll call. Is everyone still in their position?_ " The sun was shining, the sky was clear, and Kain's groggy voice entered through everyone's mind.

Way to start the morning of Fairy Tail's greatest fight yet.

" _Alpha Squad?"_

" _We're all present, command._ "

There was a followed yawn coming from Kain in the mental link. Warren must have been also too tired to filter that out or he automatically filtered it in because he was tired. Either way, it wasn't hard to blame him considering how stressful the night before was.

" _Beta Squad?"_

" _*Hic* All good on this front._ "

" _Despite Cana being the opposite sober, she's right. All's clear here._ "

And so it went on, all teams were accounted for and still… waiting.

At one point in the night, things felt tense. An attack could come up at any time during the dead of night, so everyone was feeling tense and sleep was far away from most minds. It was only through the instance of Master Makarov that people allowed shifts and the mages were allowed some semblance of rest.

Come morning though, everyone still felt on edge. Their one day grace period was running out and there was still no sign of Phantom Lord.

" _Okay then umm… Master Makarov wants to warn us about four other acclaimed mages under Phantom Lord known as the Captains._ "

" _Thank you, Kain. Now, all of you are aware of the Element Four and Black Steel Gajeel. However, Phantom Lord has four other mages that mange the Northern, Western, Eastern, and Southern branches. While not as acclaimed as the Element Four and Black Steel, they are famous in their respective areas and Jose has placed great trust in them managing their sections._ "

The air grew still. Fairy Tail still barely saw the true abilities of the Element Four or Black Steel in their opening skirmish, now they had to deal with potentially four more acclaimed mages?

" _I'll start with the South Captain, Alexandra Raphael. Her nickname is known as the Gladiator. Stories go around how she defeated the infamous Pirate Mage, Brown Beard and his one hundred ships single handedly. I've heard rumors she could match Erza in weapon mastery._ "

At the mention of the name, Erza gripped her fists tighter.

" _Next up is the mysterious, Amanda Peaks, West Captain. Her rumors all vary, but some constants I've heard that is she's surprisingly young… and horrifying to her enemies. A pack of giant eels once plagued a nearby valley city, but both the eels and the people evacuated the area after she took the job._ "

Warren gulped before Kain looked at him. "I sorta had a flash of what everyone's been thinking. … We have some really creative people in our guild."

" _Third is the Eastern Captain, Zolon Mercer. The stories surrounding him are the opposite to the former in the sense that there are too much exaggerated stories about him. A boastful fellow by the sounds of him, but with a unique magic no one has ever seen before._ "

"Tch! A man shouldn't rely on rumors." Elfman bitterly whispered.

" _And last but in no way least, Voyu Carliso, the Northern Captain. Instead of telling you hearsay like the others, I'm going to state a fact about him that I know for sure: he is the guild master's right hand man and long time teammate with magical mastery over portals before the two became the powerhouses they are today. He is no doubt the one capable of bringing all members of Phantom Lord scattered across Fiore in one day and making them appear nearly anywhere near Magnolia, even right on top of us._ "

"Okay, that literally makes him the number two mage to look out for in Phantom Lord right under their Guild Master." Kain said out loud, but Warren accidentally transmitted what he said to everyone scattered across Magnolia.

Needless to say, the Captains bolstered Phantom Lord's already massive strength. Perhaps maybe if they were alone, they could be beaten by a singular powerful mage, but seeing as how they were brought together, they'd be a force to reckon with.

Seeing Makarov finished, Kain made a signal which allowed Makrov to back off.

" _And on that note,_ " Kain took hold of the link spreading to everyone. " _Are there any questions?_ "

" _Yeah, when the hell are they coming!? I've been waiting for hours, damn it! I even mastered two of the new Pyromancy Spells waiting for those jerks! OWWW!_ " The sound of a metal fist cutting him off was heard throughout the link.

" _Any questions_ _not_ _from Natsu?_ " Kain quickly corrected as the link around Natsu was wisely filtered out by Warren since he was about to scream again.

Out of everyone, Reedus was the one to break the silence. " _… When do you think they'll attack?_ "

…

…

Mirajane gasped. "Master, there's something in the map!"

Everyone in the cathedral turned their attention to the hologram of the town and its surrounding area. There was some kind of blinking light appearing around the edges of the town hologram.

" _Foxtrot, I need you to confirm visual from vantage! Something's appeared five miles away from Magnolia's main western gate!_ "

" _I see it with my scope!_ " Bisca's voice cried out. " _It… It's a red portal! Someone I haven't seen before is walking out—I'm more than willing to bet it's Voyu!_ "

" _Everyone, battle stations! Phantom Lord is here!_ " Despite stating the obvious, Kain did manage to snap out those still in stupor and ready themselves for their upcoming fight at the appearance of the right hand man of Phantom Lord's Guild Master. " _Bisca, give me a play by play! Is he with anyone!? What is he doing!?_ "

" _He's-He's alone and just… standing there… shit! He's preparing a spell by chanting!"_

" _Can you stop him from there!?_ "

" _No! He's too far, and with how much magical pressure I'm sensing even from here, there's a good chance he can easily counter it!_ "

Everyone suddenly felt a massive spike in magical power; even the non-mages could feel the tense shift in the air.

"Everyone, brace yourselves! He's summoning all of them!" Makarov shouted as he got the Thunder Palace charged up.

No sooner than he said this, the war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord began with a bang unlike any other.

The bang being space ripped up open like a sword slashing through a curtain as a colossal tear towered behind the portal mage and revealed a giant mobile castle with a cannon sticking out aimed right where Magnolia currently was.

"No! He had Jupiter Class Magical Convert Cannon!?" Makarov cried out in shock at what had escaped the portal. In the briefest of nanoseconds, Kain took a mental note to just shorten that name into Jupiter Cannon.

The large cannon in question unleashed a powerful blast towards Magnolia with the intent to wipe it off the map. The Fairy Tail guild master, seeing no time left, activated the Thunder Palace, making all orbs surrounding Magnolia shoot up and quickly combine into a massive bolt of thunder right for the Jupiter Cannon blast.

" _Brace for impact!_ " Kain managed to yell into the link seconds before the two massive weapon's powers clashed.

It was nothing short of seeing a nuke go off.

The effects were devastating even though there was something like a five mile gap between both parties, the shockwave of both attacks hitting was enough to blow away some of the closer houses in Magnolia's edge.

Everyone held on for dear life as they felt the earth shaking. It felt like hours, when only seconds had passed after the two attacks clashed.

"Ro-Roll call! _Roll Call!_ " Kain cried out before Warren put the link back up. " _Report! Any main casualties!? Beta Team, you were stationed over Magnolia's main Entrance. Status Report! Beta Team respond!_ "

" _Macao here… ow… having the second worst headache of my life right about now. We… We caught the worst of the blast but despite some rubble falling on us and being disoriented as heck, I think we're good._ "

Kain sighed in relief before looking back at Master Makarov and the holo map. " _Foxtrot, what is Phantom Lord's next move!?_ "

" _Right! I… they're just standing there! Their base is just stationed there! They don't seem to be doing anything else!_ "

The wyvern rider's eyes widened as something came to his mind. " _Where's Voyu?_ "

" _Voyu? … Shi-Shit! I can't spot him anymore—wait! I got him! He's… on top of the Jupiter Cannon!_ " The sniper cried out. " _He's… shit! Oh shit!_ "

" _Bisca, calm down, tell us what you see!_ " Kain was starting to sweat right now despite him trying to calm their sniper down.

" _It's all of them damn it! The Element Four, Black Steel, and the Four Captains! All of them are on top of the cannon with Jose freaking in front of them!_ "

Needless to say to hear all of Phantom Lord's ten best mages together made even Natsu actually feel a twinge of doubt… before he pushed it back down into whatever hole he threw away into first. " _So what!? Bring it on! We can take them!_ "

" _Natsu is right._ " Kain quickly played on Natsu's outburst. They needed a morale boost desperately and Kain was quick on the uptake. " _We can still do this! We need to be smart and cautious but we can take them down. This is without a doubt our greatest fight yet, do not let it be our last! Lima Squad form up with Juliet Squad! Hotel squad, assist Quebec and Whiskey Squad! Yankee Squad, move out! I don't think they'll be attacking from the sea anymore but a portal opening there is still possible! Move up and meet with X-Ray and Zulu teams!"_

" _Kain! I mean command! Voyu is opening several portals! They're all splitting up and heading into them!_ " Bisca cried out.

" _Max with Echo Team here! Portals have opened up in front of us! It's Phantom Lord's lackeys; they've started attacking directly!_ "

" _Same here!"_

" _Portals are popping up like magical daisies!_ "

Kain looked to the map where over a dozen blinking lights appeared all across Magnolia. In the distance, the once deathly quiet streets of Magnolia now became filled with explosions, cries, and magical blasts.

"Voyu truly is a mage worth fearing. Dare I say he might be on the level of our strongest mages." Makarov gripped his fist with anger and traces of fear.

Suddenly there was an alarm sound as one of the Thunder Palace orbs flying in the air suddenly vanished from the holo map. Then another.

The temporary tactician quickly realized what they were doing. " _Everyone! They're aiming to attack the Thunder Palace! Do everything in your power to protect all the orbs! Do you hear me!? Protect the Thunder Palace!_ "

Perhaps in another time, Fairy Tail would do all in their power to destroy the Thunder Palace. This most assuredly was not that time.

Kain looked to Master Makarov. "Does our defense have any form of defense!?"

"It is laced with body link magic so if one destroys one, they are basically destroying themselves. However, Phantom Lord's numbers work in favor of this. They could all possibly sacrifice enough of their men to destroy Thunder Palace without harming their battle strength."

Kain finished a thought that no one wanted to hear. "And leave us open to Jupiter Cannon."

They were sitting ducks at that rate! Fairy Tail had higher quality members, but Phantom Lord was smart enough to turn it into a battle of attrition that they were sure to win. Kain had to give Phantom Lord credit where credit was damn due. They knew how to expose their weak spots, but it was time to see how well they can handle Fairy Tail's trade mark unpredictability. " _Screw it. Time to do something crazy! Alpha Squad, pick up Charlie Squad on Ignis! You two will spearhead a strike team to destroy Jupiter Cannon!_ "

"What!?" Lucy cried out as she looked to Kain in shock.

The wyvern rider quickly turned to the celestial mage. "We won't win by playing only defense. If we have any hope to win, we're taking down their weapon of mass destruction as well!"

" _I'm all aboard for it! Warren, lead us to Charlie Squad!_ " Natsu's voice echoed back into the link.

"Something isn't right though." Makrov muttered before accessing the link. " _Has anyone spotted any of Phantom Lord's top ten!?_ "

There was a bad feeling in the air as more and more of the teams were quick to say no.

It was nothing compared to the doors of the cathedral being smashed in.

Makarov used his magic to freeze the flying doors from crashing into his 'children' and let them drop into the ground.

From outside, three figures stepped out of the smoke and into the cathedral: Black Steel Gajeel, The Northern Captain, Voyu, and Jose Porla, the Guild Master of Phantom Lord himself.

"N-No way! Thr-Three of Phantom's best, right here?!" Lucy cried out in horror as Marajane stepped in front of her, Éclair, and Momon.

"Mira, get the girls and Momon out now!" Makarov ordered instantly as magical aura started flowing out of him.

"Yes sir! Come on you two!" Mira then grabbed the two girl's hands and ran towards the back exit with Momon not to far from them.

"Gajeel, you and I will pursue." Voyu stated in an impassionate manner. "It's best not get between the two guild masters."

"Tch! Everyone else is having a fun battle, while I'm stuck with you, old fart." Gajeel disappointingly folded his arms.

Voyu seemed to ignore that comment and opened up a red portal behind him and Jose. The two then easily walked into it.

"Warren, Kain, I know it's hard, but you two must protect Lucy!" Makarov stated.

The two were about to question it until they realized… this was going to be a battle between guild masters.

"A-Are you sure, sir?" Warren started before Makarov threw his hand.

"I said go!" The two young men didn't need another word as they both bolted after their allies.

When the left, despite all the fighting, all the explosions and magical blasts surrounding the town…

Everything was deathly still between Makarov and Jose.

"Jose…" The Fairy Tail Guild Master said with trembling fists of anger. "You have three seconds to cease this foolishness and call off all your men."

The opposing wizard saint, in his own wizard saint uniform, still kept his hands behind him as he did when he had first entered. Instead of increasing his own magical power like Makarov was, he was just standing there with an impassive look on his face.

"One!" The aura around Makarov started to glow even brighter and started to become like that of fire.

" **Two!** " Makarov slammed his hands together and started charging, but all Jose did was removed his hand out of his cloak, revealing a suit case while still looking impassive.

" **This is your final warning!** " Makarov's voice echoed with power. " **Call them off, now!** "

At last… Jose blinked before sighing. "You really don't remember do you?" He said with a trace of disappointment, yet it felt like he was half expecting him to do that.

His reaction was not what the Fairy Tail guild master was expecting. " **What are you talking about?** "

"55 years ago." Jose began, confusing Makarov. "It was when I was 4 years old that we truly first met."

"First met?" While keeping his guard up, Makarov eased on the power he was exerting. He was surprised they had actually met before and that he was older than he looked.

"The town of Figo Valley," Jose's voice was eerily calm but there was some restrained control behind it. "Do you remember that?"

"Figo Valley? What about—" In one instant, Makarov dropped his accumulated energy. His eyes widened, his mouth gapped, and his hands shivered.

"So you do remember. I'm actually impressed." Jose scoffed with venomous sarcasm.

"N-No! That… that means you're… you're…!"

"Why don't I say it for the both of us?" There was Jose's teasing tone before, but there was no smile as he said this, no playful tone… only scorn and rising hatred. "I'm the **only** survivor of Figo Valley."

* * *

"Warren, cut Master's link." The telepathic mage winced as he looked to Kain while they both ran into some streets that somehow remained untouched by the fighting.

"Wha- what!?"

"Warren, cut his link now! I don't think we're supposed to be hearing this!" The armored rider cried out to the telepathic mage.

" _So you do remember. I'm actually impressed._ " Through Makarov's link, all of Fairy Tail was confused by what Figo Valley was and why Jose seemed extremely hostile about it.

" _N-No! That… that means you're… you're…!_ "  
"Warren, cut the damn link!" The wyvern rider practically roared when Makarvo's voice started shaking.

The telepathic mage did so with more effort than he thought he could, a treacherous side of him wanted to know what that was about but Kain was right. That did not seem like something to be exposed to everyone unless it came from master Makarov himself.

"It's done!" Warren cried out.

With that done, Kain quickly used it. " _Update! Command has been breached! Jose is now fighting Makarov, all units avoid the cathedral and continue protecting the Thunder Palace! Voyu and Gajeel are pursuing Lucy Heartifilla, all groups have a secondary objective of helping her and the others!_ "

" _What!? Jose is with gramps!? Kain, what's going—!?_ "

" _No time, Natsu! How are you and Charlie team!?_ "

Erza's voice came up on the link. " _We've broken into Jupiter Cannon with Laki, Elfman, and Alzack. Kageyama and Vijeeter are in our entrance point with Ignis and trying to secure it in case we need a hasty escape._ "

Taking that in while checking his surroundings, Kain continued. " _What's the status there?_ "

" _I assume most of Phantom Lord's forces are in Magnolia because security is surprisingly light._ " There was a slight pause which felt like Erza was defeating some foot soldiers. " _We're en-route to Jupiter's main lacrima and destroy it before falling back to Magnolia_."

" _Careful, Erza, only Voyu and Gajeel have been accounted for,_ " Kain's voice spread to the link. " _There is still no sign of the Element Four and the three other captains!_ "

"Huh?" Warren suddenly looked back towards the Cathedral. "Kain, I'm sensing another power spike from the Cathedral!"

"What?" Kain also turned back before a sudden explosion came from the center of Magnolia. The blast was so strong, that from behind Warren and Kain, windows from the building they past by were shattering and a wave of power was rushing right for them.

The wyvern rider acted quickly and tackled Warren down and covered him in his cape.

The magical explosion passed over the two, but Kain felt something very, very odd in that magical shockwave.

He quickly got back up and helped Warren as well. "You alright?"

"Yeah… thanks… crap! I don't know what that was but the link is down!" Warren said as he tried to use his magic.

Kain inwardly cursed after hearing something like that. They needed that Link for some semblance of quick communication. "Can you set t back up?"

"Not with everyone so spread out anymore. At best I can only do those in Magnolia; the ones in the Jupiter Cannon are on their own."

At that moment, both Warren and Kain looked back towards the cathedral where there was a glowing black light.

"You think master's alright?" Warren asked nervously towards Kain.

"I…" Before Kain could answer, he felt a burning sensation on his wrist. To both him and the telepathic mage's surprise, Kain's morpher had re appeared only this time it was cackling with black electricity and its jewel eye in the wyvern head was glowing black.

They had never seen that before and seeing as how it only did that when it came from the Cathedral….

"I hope he is." Kain said before shaking his head. "Lucy comes first though. We need to catch up to her and Voyu!"

He picked up Warren and boosted with his high speed. All the while, he hopped this horrible feeling in his gut would go away.

When a large explosion and deafening crashing sound came from the Cathedral, the feeling only grew worse.

* * *

"Mirajane Strauss. S-class mage." The way he emphasized that second sentence made it look like he was disappointed. In all fairness, Mira herself was feeling disappointed too, but mostly at herself.

"You kidding? That broad's an S-Class mage?" Gajeel folded his arms as they saw the three girls and one flying bird step back from them.

"I heard… complications… and that she doesn't use her magic anymore." Voyu pointed to Lucy who was standing right beside to Mira. "Come with us Ms. Heartfilia, we're nothing if not punctual in our quest orders."

"I won't come with you!" Lucy claimed as he pointed a golden key at her opponents.

"Jeeze, I can't believe I get the worst damn job out of all the fun here!" Gajeel complained as he stepped forward with his fist crackling, seemingly ignoring Lucy's threats.

However, Voyu raised a hand and suddenly pulled Gajeel back from an invisible blast that crushed the area the Black Steel step forward to.

The three and Momon looked to see Kain and Warren coming out from one of the corners nearby.

As soon as they arrived, Kain looked to the girls. "Girls, are you alright?"

"Kain! What happened to the link!?" Lucy asked with worry.

"Link?" Voyu suddenly repeated out loud. "Oh a telepathic link? You have a telepathic mage with you?" The glasses wearing man turned to Warren. "That's you isn't it? So that explains why you were with Makarov despite your lack of magical presence. You have telepathic and telekinetic magic in your arsenal."

"Huh, well if it ain't little boy red! I've been itching to punch something all day. You'll do nicely." Gajeel smiled at his first sign of something to fight.

"Alright then Gajeel. It seems we have to fight after all—"  
"Lucy, move!"

It was an instant but a lot happened in that moment. Before Voyu could even finish his sentence, he suddenly shot an arm out towards the blonde celestial mage. A portal instantly appeared beneath her and she quickly started to fall. However, Warren acted just as fast and used his telekinesis to push Lucy out of falling into the portal even if she did land on her butt as he did.

"So that telekinetic blast was from you after all." Voyu leered towards the psychic mage who only cowered by instinct.

" _Warren, set up a link with all Fairy Tail members here._ " Kain mentally thought out loud before glancing towards Mira and the others. " _Mira, get the others out, we'll hold these guys off._ "

" _What!? But Kain, they're some of Phantom Lord's best mages!_ " Mira looked on with horror towards the younger red knight.

" _We aren't here to defeat them, just hold them off long enough for you guys to get to safety._ " Kain summoned a blade and pointed it to Gajeel. The obviously battle hungry Iron Dragon was all too eager to forget about his main objective and step closer towards Kain's bait. … Much to the young rider's unease since he actually lost to Gajeel the first time.

" _Kain, jump! Voyu is opening a portal under you!_ "

The red knight did so, quickly avoiding a portal tearing up from underneath him. Warren quickly fired a telekinetic blast at the portal mage only for him to open up a portal that seemingly swallowed the attack. The psychic mage's eyes widened as he jumped back to avoid his own blast being fired on him due to a portal opening right above him.

" _Hurry up and go!_ " Kain linked to the three girls before Gajeel rushed for him and ended up clashing blades with the red rider.

However, Kain didn't know Lucy was angrily gripping her fist as she heard all of this. Kain, someone who didn't even have magic, was risking his own life for hers. Everyone… everyone was fighting so hard and yet here she was… just… just… running!? It was maddening! " _No!_ _I am tired of everyone fighting for me! I am also a part of Fairy Tail too!_ "

Kain and Warren looked to Lucy in surprise. Voyu saw his opponent let down his guard and quickly fired a portal to swallow Lucy. The blonde Celestial Mage quickly saw the movement and jumped before a portal appeared behind her and tried to swipe her in. With another pull from Warren, the celestial mage was able to avoid the second portal from reaching her. Then she took out a golden key—

" _Lucy, Voyu is just going to try and catch you when your spirit is separated from you. It's a bad match up!_ " Warren linked to her.

" _Alright, in that case!_ " Lucy threw out her key and cried out to open the gate of Sagittarius However, something was different: instead of her spirit appearing before her a light shined around her body and momentarily blinded everyone else.

Voyu suddenly heard the sound of something flying through the air in the middle of the light. Three portals appeared in front of him and allowed what he felt to be arrows pass through his portals and land right behind him.

" **Star Dress: Sagittarius form!** " Lucy appeared in a style of clothes similar to Sagittarius and even wielded an elegant bow after the light ended.

Nearly everyone was shock… well except Kain.

"Uhh Lucy? Why do you look like a stripper now?" Despite his intent to respect his friend, it didn't help that his eyes trailed to some rather unshielded areas of her new 'dress'.

"Wait, she isn't a stripper? But she always dresses like one." Momon innocently added in.

The blonde mage was quick to correct her allies. "I am not a stripper! AND I DO NOT ALWAYS DRESS LIKE ONE!"

"Rrrriiiigghhhttt…" Momon didn't look convinced while Éclair had this look on her face like she was trying very hard not to judge.

"You really must dress more appropriately." Voyu of all people noted. "I understand styles of fashion change nowadays but at least have the decency to dress in respect to your own body."

Kain momentarily side stepped away from a confused Gajeel and pointed to Voyu. "See, even our enemy thinks you dress inappropriately!"

"I DIDN'T CHOOSE THIS DAMN IT!" Mira probably shouldn't have been laughing at Lucy's plight since they were still in front of some powerful enemies. "And I can't use my spirits when I'm using the clothes! Virgo told me I didn't have enough mastery to use both the spirits and the dress at the same time yet!"

"Ha!" Warren took this weird timing to blast Voyu if his guard was down. However, all Voyu did was step forward—to fall right into his portal to avoid the attack heading towards him. Gajeel saw this and went straight for an extending iron fist right at Kain who ducked under it as it flew to a nearby wall and smashed it like glass.

Warren looked around, no matter how hard he tried to sense he couldn't find Voyu's thoughts anymore. He was starting to panic; it was epically hard not to when Voyu's last thoughts was figuring out that he had more range than the telepathic mage and assumed he could attack from anywhere outside the mind reader's abilities.

In one instant, over a dozen medium sized portals all appeared around the telepathic mage then…

Just as many punches and kicks came out of them and all hit Warren in exposed areas with enough force to make his eyes roll back in.

"Warren!" Mira and Lucy cried out before the telepathic mage fell.

The celestial mage tried to run for him but a portal opened up, revealing Voyu standing right in front of her.

"A mind reader is tricky to fight. However, he can't read my mind if he doesn't know where I am." Voyu stepped forward to Lucy. "Now Miss Heartifilia, we have an appointment."

" **Star Dress: Virgo**!" Lucy hurriedly cried out as in a flash of light, her dress changed to that of a maid and she quickly went into the ground. Voyu raised his brow before the ground beneath Warren opened up and swallowed him whole.

The glasses wearing mage remained silent as he then closed his eyes and tuned out the sounds of Gajeel shouting to his opponent to stop running.

Mira had a bad feeling as she saw this and yelled, "Lucy, get out of there!"

However, her cry came too late as Voyu already swung his hand, making a portal appear to his right. There was a scream as Lucy, carrying Warren's unconscious body, fell out of the portal.

"N-No way! He could open a portal even where I was!?" Lucy turned back to the well dressed man walking over to her.

"As I was saying," Voyu opened a hand towards Lucy. Kain, seeing his friend in trouble, tried to rush for Voyu, but he was blindsided and launched through two buildings by a punch from Gajeel. "Come with us, Lucy Heartifilia. You have no one left to protect you."

To the blonde celestial mage, time slowed down. Despite her roar for courage moments ago, she realized that her opponents were just on another level. Natsu and the others were all the way at the Jupiter Cannon, Makarov was battling Jose, Kain and Warren tried to help her, but they weren't strong enough against Phantom Lord's top mages.

However, to everyone's surprise, including Gajeel, there was a mysterious spike of magical power that everyone felt. It was tremendous enough to attract everyone's attention.

Voyu was the only one who didn't turn to the direction of the magical presence but he did close his eyes. "So you did show up." He opened them back up and turned to face the masked stranger that was not there mere seconds ago. Everyone else still conscious saw that standing behind Voyu…

"Mystogan!" Mira cried out as the mysterious mage of Fairy Tail had arrived in the battle and not a moment sooner.

"Finally! Things are getting exciting!" Gajeel smiled as he tightened his fist and jumped. He launched an Iron Dragon Fist right towards the hooded mage—no—his attack was stopped by a magical circle mid-air.

"What the," Before he could even start the third word, the magical circle started to shine brightly and a portal quickly snatched the Iron Dragon Slayer away mere milliseconds before an explosion shaped like a beast tried to swallow him whole.

"Oof!" Gajeel landed with all the grace of a clown slipping on a banana peel and landed on his rump nearby Voyu. The iron dragon slayer looked up at the northern captain. "The hell was that for!?"

"Gajeel," Voyu locked his sights on their new opponent. "I know this is something you might not want to hear, but leave Mystogan to me."

"Bullshit! I can take him!" The Iron Dragon Slayer jumped back up as he did. However, Voyu raised a hand and pointed to Lucy.

The usually calm man turned to Gajeel with his eyes glowing green.

Black Steel Gajeel flinched. He gripped his fist and turned around. "Damn it! Just open up a portal for me back to the rendezvous point when I'm done." He shouted in frustration. Everyone could notice how much powerful Voyu was if even someone like Gajeel was forced to obey him.

However, The Iron Dragon Slayer abruptly froze and jumped back as a red energy slash passed in front of him, and cut through a house. Kain slid back between him and Lucy with his sword pointed towards him.

"Mystogan! None of us stand a chance against Voyu! Can you handle him!?" Kain cried out.

The hooded figure slightly turned to the armored rider before nodding once.

Kain returned the gesture before pointing. "Mira, Lucy, for the love of god, get out of here now! I'll follow right after you!"

"R-Right!" Lucy nervously agreed as she tried to help Warren back up. Mira and Éclair came over to help her and the four including Momon ran away.

Gajeel snarled as he saw his angry looking reflection on the armor's visor. "You're really starting to piss me off, kid! And I sure as hell ain't in a good mood now!"

"I seem to have that affect on every Douche Bag of the Week," Kain retorted, "Now if you'll excuse me: exit stage left!"

Voyu turned and summoned a portal right in front of Kain as he tried to follow after Mira and the others. However, that portal vanished as fast as it appeared and allowed the boy to run after his friends.

"Gajeel, go after them." Voyu said as he turned back towards Mystogan who was with his fingers styled out in an unfamiliar magical stance.

"You're lucky I want to bash that red kid's skull in. That's the only reason why I'm listening to you!" The Iron Dragon Slayer responded before running after his targets.

With him gone, Voyu slowly turned back to Mystogan.

The two remained eerily silent despite all the battles; all the destruction; all the loud sounds and explosions in the distance…

Voyu twitched first and summoned a portal right as he punched forward. A dozen portals appeared over Mystogan and so too, multiple fists attempting to hit him. However, instead of hitting flesh, most of the punches dug into Mystogan and remained trapped in there! Soon, the figure was slowly turning into mud, revealing that it was a decoy.

Mystogan was already behind Voyu and swung his staff filled with magical energy right for the portal mage's head. However, another portal appeared in front of the path of the staff and made the weapon go in and appear through a portal beside the mysterious mage's head and bash him instead.

Voyu pulled his fist out of the portal and the body made of mud as he turned around to see a stuffing coming out of a hooded and beheaded doll with Mystogan's image.

The portal mage silently looked to his left to see Mystogan wielding three staves out of his collection.

Both of them were just sizing up each other. Voyu's spell reaction was impeccable, but Mystogan's magic was completely unpredictable. Both fighters were silently and surely trying find a weakness in their opponent. Truly, this was a high class battle between two S-Class mages.

Voyu placed his hands together and formed a giant O with his hands.

As he did, a larger portal appeared in front of him. Mystogan readied himself as—

He was not expecting a large amount of water to come rushing for him in less than an instant. With great urgency, Mystogan vanished mere seconds before the first droplet could touch him.

( _Did he open up a portal in the bottom of the ocean!?_ ) Mystogan realized in his mind as he saw from up the sky the amount of buildings getting crushed by the fast moving water that came out of the portal. To open up a portal there would unleash a torrent of pressurized water that even the toughest of spells would have a hard time overpowering! ( _Wait, he's no longer behind the portal. Was that a feint!?_ )

No sooner than he thought this, he felt a shadow cast right above him. A portal opened and something was about to come out. Wasting no time, Mystogan fired a magical blast right for the portal.

However, instead of seeing Voyu, something else came out of the portal. Or rather… _things_.

( _Wait!? Dynamite!?_ ) Mystogan inwardly panicked as he saw a bundle of dynamite fall out as his own blast flied right for it.

The sky above Magnolia gave a loud bang that all could see.

( _That was close._ ) Mystogan appeared on a roof top after forming from smoke. ( _This opponent is going to be troublesome. He knows how to use his own magic._ )

Another portal opened up behind Mystogan as a large, angry Vulcan came charging right for him in blind berserk rage.

Mystogan slid under the punch of the twenty foot tall monkey and fired a blast right into his face. Instantly, the raging creature fell asleep and tilted off the roof… and into a portal.

( _He's wearing me down. He's sending obstacle after obstacle against me, trying to find my weakness and/or waiting for a chance to strike. In the mean time, I still can't find him with how long his range is. He could be on the other side of Fiore with no way for me to get to him. This is more troublesome than I thought._ )

More portals appeared around Mystogan. Over a dozen lightning bolts came out of them which were all aimed for him.

( _He can even open portals under a thunderstorm somewhere else!?_ ) Mystogan moved around, avoiding bolt after bolt and then avoiding more elaborate trap portals like falling bear traps, magical blasts from either somewhere here in the war or who knows where, and angry magical creatures.

( _I can't even fire into the portal randomly. I'd just be shooting practically into the dark and Voyu seems smart enough not to hide right behind the portals he opens up. But something isn't right. He's attacking me with such accuracy. How does he know where I am despite where he is?_ )

A little past Mystogan, there was another smaller portal coming up. However, nothing was actually going out that portal.

This was the portal Voyu was using to spy on Mystogan from high on top of a mountain forest.

( _That didn't work either. There is something uncanny about the magic he's using._ ) Voyu carefully and cautiously observed his opponent before open up a portal beyond him and letting a thunder strike hit the mountain. The blast caused a chain reaction that eventually caused an avalanche.

An avalanche that Voyu did not hesitate to send directly above Mystogan.

With his smaller portal, Voyu watched Mystogan avoid the falling boulders with another unknown spell. His eyes sharpened as he noticed the S-Class mage use his stave to turn the boulder into literal dust. ( _Those staves he uses. Those must help channel all these spells. Now I have a plan of attack._ )

Back in Magnolia, Mystogan was still trying to figure out the secret of his uncanny accuracy. ( _Wait, since he has such mastery over his portals, he must have one nearby that keeps following me. If I could just spot it…_ )

Another portal opened up, prompting Mystogan to be ready. Despite what he had seen before, he still wasn't expecting a large swarm of purple bugs to appear heading right for him.

( _Are those Venom Wasps!? Just one sting of those is enough to kill a person!_ ) Mystogan acted quickly and moved his staff…

A portal opened up as he tried to point his staff, the air suddenly sucked in the staff Mystogan was about to use away from him.

( _Shit!_ ) Mystogan paled as the staff was stolen from him and the swarm was upon him. In a burst of magic, the entire swarm was incinerated but Mystogan was now starting to pant at the large exertion of magical power. _(Damn it! He's aiming for my staves! … Wait… He's aiming for my staves…_ )

( _Good, I'm finally making progress._ ) Voyu thought carefully after making sure to send the stolen staff into a volcano in one of the southern isles of Fiore. ( _He is a powerful mage that can more than likely defeat me if given the chance. But I will not let him._ )

Voyu was now near a desert valley with a sand storm brewing in. Seeing the upcoming storm, he opened up another portal.

Back in Magnolia, both Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord mages were surprised to see a sand storm brew in.

"Max, are you doing this!?" One Fairy Tail mage cried out as the sand storm blew in stronger.

"No! It's definitely not me!" The sand mage cried out as he tried to use his magic to mitigate the incoming storm. But he could only do this for himself.

Mystogan was swallowed by the sand storm. As he struggled to keep his senses sharp, he did hear a faint hum, revealing that another portal nearby was opening up.

Instead of a natural force, like all the others before, what came out was a metal spear thrown and lodging right into Mystogan's shoulder.

The S-Class mage grunted in pain as he tried to use his own magic to remove the spear. However, as he moved his staff, a second portal quickly came moving through the storm and sucked up Mystogan's second staff.

Rather than get worried, Mystogan smirked under his mask.

Voyu sucked in the second staff with the intent of opening it right above another volcano. However, no sooner than he sucked it in, the portal he was using to spy on Mystogan suddenly exploded without warning.

"GAAAHHH!?" Voyu cried as the blast sent him right into a giant tree while he was in a swamp.

He wasn't expecting an attack like that so it hit him when his guard was down. Voyu grunted as he got back up to his feet despite the swamp now starting to burn around him.

"I found the portal you used to spy on me."

Voyu looked back up to see Mystogan standing over him with a bleeding shoulder.

"I saw how you were trying to steal away my staves. A good move, I admit fully, but by my second one? I was able to cast a timed spell on it that would explode and disrupt any magic within a hundred meter radius as soon as it left my hand. I knew that your portals were still connected and exploding one of them would result in all the others becoming unstable and exploding as well. From there, I have magic that specifically closes and opens portals. It was just a matter of finding which portal you used to spy on me, opening and extending it, and walking through."

The Northern captain tried to get up, but the second before he could activate his magic, he saw a magical circle beneath him.

"It's over." Mystogan pointed down as a heavy magical blast fell down and hammered Voyu from on high.

The Northern Captain screamed in pain before he fell into unconsciousness… leaving Mystogan the winner of this fight.

However, Mystogan quickly suppressed the fire around them and then fell to his knees, gasping for breath as he removed his mask to properly breathe oxygen then cradle his stabbed shoulder to lessen the bleeding.

( _I spent too much magical power fighting him! I originally planned to attack him with his guard down if he stayed in the north division. If he wasn't called over, I would have been able to sprung my trap and easily take him out of this war. No wonder he was Jose's partner when they were young…_ )

Mystogan got back up and put his mask back on. While he may have crippled Phantom Lord's back bone by taking down one of their major mages—their second in command no less—he was also weakened from the fight and Fairy Tail's opponent still had at most nine other powerful mages to deal with.

It took the S-Class mage a second to realize that he was far from Magnolia once more. He would have to find the portal he stole from Voyu…

— _A thrumming sound of a portal opened up behind Mystogan's head._ —

The masked mage turned but only saw darkness as a fist connected to his jaw and sent him flying into a tree.

Slowly, he got back up, only to see Voyu, injured, but standing up from Mystogan's more powerful spells.

( _Even that wasn't enough!?_ ) Mystogan showed no sign of emotion despite how bad this situation was.

However, if there was one constellation, it was that Voyu was now heavily injured and his suit was torn up somewhat. He threw off his coat, removed his tie and threw away his sunglasses all while gasping for breath, those two direct hits did affect him, but he was more than strong enough to take those hits.

"I can see," Voyu breathed in between before continuing. "…why you are lauded as one of Fairy Tail's best. Not with raw magical strength but the near unpredictability of your spells could make a wizard saint caution themselves around you."

Mystogan slowly got back up, even though he flinched several times from that heavy blow from awhile ago and his magical fatigue was also factoring in from Voyu's creative assault from awhile ago.

"And you deserve to be titled, Lord of North." Mystogan let him have that. He never faced an opponent that pushed him this far before.

Both men were weakened greatly. Yet they both refused to lose. With most of their resources wasted in trying to defeat the other, they were now caught in a situation where this would be the last phase of their fight.

Whoever won here would decide a major victory for their side.

They both knew this as they stared down their weakened opponent.

Like how their battle first began, they both stood up tall and stared down each other, waiting for the other's first move.

With the fires now dead, only the quiet woodland forest around them remained. Birds were chirping peacefully, a river was running a little away from them, and some small critters skittered around the edge of their clearing, their instincts screaming to them to avoid that clearing with every part of their being even though they couldn't understand why.

It was a peaceful place to finish a hard fought battle.

Suddenly, Mystogan was the first to move. However, instead of using magic, he dashed right for Voyu.

Fearing that Mystogan would just close any portal he would try to open up, Voyu leaned forward and caught Mystogan's left wrist as he tried to punch him. The Northern Captain opened up small portal behind his right leg as he kicked into it. The other end of that portal was the back of Mystogan's knee, and a strong kick there, caused the masked mage to stumble forward. Voyu didn't hesitate as he unleashed his free left hand to uppercut the falling mage.

However, Mystogan used his right hand to swat away the strong uppercut and quickly pushed that same hand forward to touch two fingers into Voyu's stomach.

" _Assegai!_ " The masked mage whispered as a sudden and invisible impact exploded right into Voyu's stomach. The blow of the attack caused Voyu's body to be thrown like a rag doll and crash into the river.

Seconds passed after Voyu fell into the water, but it seemed like there was no sign of him coming back up this time. Mystogan didn't take any chances this time and quickly tied up and momentarily sealed away Voyu's magic.

However, no sooner than he did, he fell back to the ground, weakened greatly from the fight.

( _Damn. I'm too weak to even open up that portal I stole form Voyu. Fairy Tail… Erza… I hope you can still win this._ )

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Here we go folks! A completely new take on the Phantom Lord Versus Fairy Tail saga!**

 **We kick things off with the Jupiter Canon VS The Thunder Palace followed up by Mystogan appearing and actually having a tough battle with Phantom Lord's mages!**

 **It's really too bad Mystogan had only a few magic battles. He was awesome! His magic also seems really flexible depending on which staff he's using, and I don't even know what they can fully do!**

 **I hope you enjoyed the battles so far, this arc is chalk full of them!**

 **Wait till you see what I've planned for Jose and Makarov, but that's somewhat for the finale.**

 **Next we follow how Strike Team is storming the Jupiter Cannon.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	16. Chapter 16

**{Happy 2018, folks!}**

 **How to potentially injure yourself by reading this chapter: take a drink every time the story mentions a wall getting destroyed!**

* * *

" _What's the status there?_ "

"I assume most of Phantom Lord's forces are in Magnolia because security is surprisingly light." Erza responded as she easily dispatched around a dozen Phantom Lord grunts in the hall. "We're en-route to Jupiter's main lacrima and destroy it before falling back to Magnolia."

" _Careful Erza, only Voyu and Gajeel have been accounted for,_ " Kain's voice spread to the link. " _There is still no sign of the Element Four and the three other captains!_ "

" _Huh? Kain, I'm sensing another power spike from the Cathedral!_ " Warren's voice sounded panicked through the link.

" _What?_ " There was sudden explosion that quickly cut the rider's thoughts off.

"Kain!?" Erza cried out as she tried the link again but found nothing. "Kain!?"

"Is the link down!? What happened?!" Gray asked after taking down henchmen on his side.

"Should we go back!?" Alzack asked worriedly.

Erza shook her head quickly at the idea. "No! We have to stop the Jupiter Cannon. With Master now fighting Jose, the Thunder Palace won't activate without someone manually activating it. It's imperative to stop this weapon right now!"

Elfman pointed in the direction where several doorways lay ahead of the group. "This place is too big, I say we split up and whoever finds the Lacrima first has to destroy it!"

"Is that really wise? Those ghost freaks might still be lurking around."

In response to Laki's comment, Natsu pounded his fists together. "Then we'll just plow them down!"

"But what about the rest of Phantom Lord's top mages? Besides Jose, only two of them have been accounted for." Alzack pointed out.

"Didn't I just say we'll just plow them down?" It seemed like Natsu was counting them among the resistance when he first said his opinion.

"Alright, we'll all split up. Everyone, be safe if you find yourself meeting with any of Phantom Lord's top mages." Erza began before the six of them left the area in different directions.

…

…

If any of them stayed in that area a little longer, they would have noticed someone entering into the hallway.

"…?"

* * *

Gray was the first to find the large black Lacrima which no doubt was the source for firing the Jupiter Canon.

"Alright, let's break this thing." The ice mage didn't hesitate to start gathering energy with his fists as he looked at his giant target.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."

The ice mage heard that different voice, but as he turned he quickly avoided a blast of fire before looking over to someone below the black lacrima.

"I am Totomaru of the Element Four, Fairy Scum." The man styled with heavy eastern appearance with black and white hair tied into a top knot stood with his arms folded and his chin held high as he said this.

"I don't got time for you. I'm here to break this thing before you guys can even finish destroying the Thunder Palace." Gray said as he got into a stance.

"I admit, Fairy Tail actually having a defense system to rival the Jupiter Cannon was a surprise to nearly all of us. But it matters very little. Unlike us, we've only got to protect one target while yours are laid bare to a ground assault courtesy of our North Captain." Totomaru relaxed his stance. "And with it currently decommissioned…"

A mechanical voice echoed into the room. "Jupiter Cannon now engaged. T-Minus 15 minutes until fully charged."

The ice mage looked at his opponent with utter shock. "What are you guys crazy!? Your own men are back in Magnolia!"

"Two words: Voyu Carliso." That name was all it took for Gray to realize what he was implying.

"You're kidding me? He has enough magic to get all of your people out of Magnolia before the attack?" However, as soon as Gray said it out loud, his mind did realize that if that man was efficient enough to open up portals nearly everywhere in Magnolia, how different would it be to open them up again for retreating?

"Captain Carliso is basically second in command of Phantom Lord in all but name! His mastery over Portal Magic is outstanding! You had no chance without the likes of Laxus or Mystogan in your team to fight him! Even if they were here, it would take them both to defeat him, but I'd bet they'd barely put a scratch on him!" Totomaru laughed arrogantly at the thought.

Gray grunted at the man's attitude. "Big talk! But my guild can take them all on without Mystogan and especially Laxus! Now get out of my way!"

He started the fight by firing Ice Make: Lance. Shards of Ice cut through the air to reach their opponent. However, a green magic circle appeared before him and as soon as the ice attacks made contact, they instantly evaporated into nothing.

"An ice mage? Oh this is too easy." Totomaru began as he walked forward.

Fairy Tail's ice mage looked in shock. Even Natsu never melted his ice that fast. "What the heck did you just do?!"

Totomaru opened up his right palm, revealing a small green flame. "Magic Green Fire is specially designed to instantly melt ice. As long as I have this in my arsenal, your attacks mean nothing."

"Oh yeah!?" Gray took that as a challenge rather than a fact as he quickly summoned one of his most powerful attacks: the ice make version of Bazooka.

Rather than look intimidated, Totomaru smirked tauntingly and turned his back on Gray… before patting his behind mockingly. "Come on, buddy, right here. I'll even wiggle it for you so it'll be easier to hit."

Needless to say, Gray was beyond ticked off at this point and didn't hesitate to fire an ice blast right for his opponent. However, a wall of green fire popped up to protect Totomaru and when the attack made contact with it, a large explosion of mist covered the room.

Gray covered himself from the impact of his attack, but as the mist settled down, he saw Totomaru without a single scratch on him.

The Fire mage of Element four smirked. "I guess you could say," He licked his finger and put it on his ass while at the same time making a sizzling sound. "I'm too _hot_ for ya."

Great, Gray was now facing a complete douche bag who nullified most of his magic and was making stupid fire puns over his attacks.

The ice mage clicked his tongue as he put his hands together. However, instead of the usual fist on top of palm stance he always uses, he made his fingers inter lock with each other and pointed a combined fist at his opponent.

"T-Minus ten minutes till Jupiter Cannon fires." The announcement voice cried out.

"Haven't you learned? None of your ice magic can touch me!" Totomaru declared with pride.

"My _normal_ one, yes," Gray admitted as light started shinning from inside his two hands. "But thanks to one of my more recent opponents," Flashes of Horus and Flora appeared in the ice mage's mind. "My magic is a lot more versatile than even I give it credit for."

Gray paused as he opened up his palms, revealing a small ice bird in his palm.

" **Ice Make: Sparrow!** " The raven haired mage declared as the small ice creature flew up. He had put a lot more extra magic in this one construct for a reason.

Totomaru suddenly laughed and pointed at the bird in Gray's hands. "All that build up for a stupid bird?!"

"He's a sparrow." Gray quickly corrected.

But at the answer, the Element Four member only laughed louder. "Like that matters, what's he going to do? Peck me to death?"

The ice mage smiled as the little sparrow started flying beside him. "Oh, the idea doesn't sound too bad actually."

Totomaru felt an odd tone in the air as he dropped his proud ego for a second and warily faced his opponent. "What's that kind of talk for?"

Gray's smile remained as he just pointed towards his opponent and said two simple words, "Sic him."

The flame mage stared at the bird and blinked.

Then the small ice bird was no longer there.

"Huh?" Totomaru's confusion was quickly replaced with pain as he screamed when he felt something sucker punch him in the right cheek—then in the left cheek—then uppercut his chin—and then hit the back of his knee, causing him to fall on his butt.

The flame mage quickly got back up, noticing the oh-so satisfied look on Gray's face to see him knocked down a peg.

"What was that!?" Totomaru cried out before he noticed something above him. It was the ice sparrow flying just over head of him.

The fire mage quickly fired a blast of green fire towards the bird. However, faster than the eye could catch, the bird sped away from the blast. Totomaru was about to attack again until…

He was hit in the face by an ice mallet.

Totomaru skipped the ground like a smooth pebble on the surface of water until he crashed into the other side of the wall.

Gray scoffed as he turned back to the giant black lacrima. "Idiot, even ash-for-brains knows that sparrows can reach a top speed of 50 MPH, a magical enhanced one can reach the speed of sound without wasting that much magic energy like it would for a human."

"T-minus seven minutes till—" The ice mage fired several dozen ice lances that pierced through the giant lacrima, the cracks quickly encompassed the entire black orb before shattering and dropping to the ground, instantly stopping the building energy.

"I had seven minutes left? I really thought I had less than that." Gray put his hands in his pockets before realization hit him and he grabbed his cloak. "Huh, I didn't even strip that entire fight."

He then noticed the Ice Sparrow flying closer towards him. "You did pretty well. I'll call you up again if I need you."

The bird seemed to nod before a flash of light surrounded it, causing it to turn into an ice shaped symbol of a sparrow and fall harmlessly into Gray's palm then faded into thin air.

"Dynamic Make magic sure has some fun properties to them. I wonder if I can make my own little pet from one?" Gray nonchalantly said before looking back at the destroyed lacrima. "Anyway… with Warren's link down, how am I going to tell the others we're good now?"

However, while Gray was looking at the destroyed orb, he then suddenly felt a presence right behind him along with a strange heat and killing intent.

"Take this!" Totomaru screamed as he swung his green flame blade at—

"Buzz off!" To the Element Four's surprise, he was hit again by a powerful blow but instead of crashing into a wall, he was kicked through a wall and ended up screaming as he fell off from the mobile guild hall.

Gray looked to his protector, but clicked his tongue in disappointment when he saw who it was.

"Really, Striperella? That's the third time I've had to save your sorry butt." Natsu folded his arms as Happy flew up to catch up with him.

"You wanna go, fire dweeb?!"

The two quickly went to butting heads with each other. However, it seemed like even though the Jupiter Cannon was stopped, Phantom Lord still wasn't done.

Soon, the entire castle started to transform, much to the dismay of Natsu whose motion sickness quickly kicked in.

"What the hell?" Gray looked up in confusion as to what that rumbling was.

Unfortunately for Fairy Tail, the Jupiter Cannon was only one weapon under Phantom Lord's arsenal. As soon as the cannon was destroyed, the mobile guild started to transform.

* * *

Everyone inside the Phantom Lord Guild noticed the walls turning and shifting mechanically as the loud sounds of gears and magic turning transformed the moving fortress into a giant robot.

On the outside, nearly everyone who was not the two guild masters noticed the giant robot in the distance.

"What the hell!? They have giant robots here?! AND IT'S WITH THE ENEMY!? Oh no! That makes total sense!" Kain complained as he ran with Lucy, Mirajane, Éclair, and Momon with Gajeel not to far from them.

Mira felt the need to agree, but seeing a group of mages she didn't recognize up ahead along with some phantom lord symbols, she pointed up ahead while looking back to the red rider. "Kain, less snark, more punching!"

The group of Phantom Lord mages looked to their right. "Oh hey lookie here, some Fairy babe—"

The man who spoke up was quickly shut up when it took him a quarter of a second after to realize that a fist was punching his cheek.

That mage flew into a wall that created a crack at the impact, the rest of the members looked over to see the red rider that had closed the distance between them without their notice.

They were quick to try to fire at him. However, half of them weren't fast enough as Kain unleashed a flurry of enhanced punches and kicks with his enhanced speed while the other half was blindsided by a flurry of arrows by Lucy.

Even though the two quickly dispatched the lower mages, there was a boom coming from behind them, revealing Gajeel had caught up.

"Get back here you cowards!" Gajeel then avoided several energy slashes and a few arrows that were shot his way. When they stopped, he looked back up to see the group already running away from him. "I will rip your heads and put it on a pike!"

* * *

Back inside the newly formed giant, Natsu was groaning in (stomach) pain.

"You're pathetic." Gray quickly said.

"Shut up!" Natsu retorted before he felt the giant finally come to a stop. He slowly got up and looked out the hole in the wall he made. "Oh crap! It's making a giant magic circle!"

"What!?" The ice mage cried out as he also stood by the opening to see the large hands of the giant slowly making a giant circle. "Those patterns… isn't that Abyss Break!? But one that size will…" Gray didn't say anymore as Natsu slammed his fist on the hole, making it much larger than before.

"Damn Phantom Lord! We gotta find out whatever is powering up this spell!"

"For once I agree with you. We should split up and meet with the others. They should know that we took care of the Jupiter Cannon if they haven't figured it out yet."

Natsu nodded for once at what his rival was saying. However, he stopped for a second as he put a hand on his chin. "Wait. If Kain were here, wouldn't he come up with something else instead of just randomly searching every nook and cranny of this place?"

"Unfortunately for us, Kain's back in Magnolia, and last time I checked: Phantom Lord is the team with a portal mage on their side." Gray folded his arms, yet remained curious. Was Natsu… thinking?

Suddenly, Natsu's face seemed to light up as he put his two hands together in realization. "Oh! I just remembered! Do you remember that machine that Kain bought for the guild that makes coffee?"

"That? It looked pretty intricate, but yeah, Kain even got me some hot coco from it before it was destroyed from the first attack." Gray mentally thought back. It was some good coco, but what did that have to do with anything?

Natsu seemed to go on. "I was there when he was first started putting it together. He said that machines usually need even small parts to work together or not at all. So isn't this thing one big machine? We don't gotta look for its power source… we just gotta break all the parts keeping this pile of junk standing!"

Gray smiled at the thought. "So what you're basically saying is… they trashed our guild, so let's do the same to them."

"You bet!" Natsu gave thumbs up before looking to Happy. "Happy, bring me to the head of this thing! I wanna see if machines get headaches!"

"Aye!" The blue cat saluted before lifting Natsu and flying out the hole.

The ice mage of Fairy Tail was honestly surprised. Maybe Kain was a better influence on Natsu rather than Natsu influencing Kain.

* * *

Meanwhile, Elfman was running down a corridor. "What the heck was that moving? Whatever it is can't be good."

As he kept running, he passed by some giant gears… but then he ran to a stop.

"Wait a sec…" A smile spread across his face as he looked back at the gear. "Well, it's not the Jupiter Cannon, but…" His right hand started to change into that of a muscle bound beast. "What man can't ignore the call to destroy things threatening their loved ones?"

The really was no need to answer that rhetorical question.

But there was a need to respond to it with a loud smashing sound.

Elfman went to work, breaking the gears and anything that looked like it was keeping this machine going. However, he failed to notice that while destroying anything that looked like it would support the machine, there was an eye peeking out of the wall behind him.

The younger Strauss sibling reared his fist back to punch another gear until to his surprise; the wall behind the gear shot out and punched him away.

Elfman got back up, and noticed a lanky man wearing a brown suit come out of the wall like a daisy.

"Oui? Salut." The man with green hair and a monocle greeted in mocking tone.

Elfman tensed as he got back up and then threw his jacket aside. "One of the Element Four…" He supposed he would have to meet with either of the remaining captains or the Elements.

In response to the large man's statement, the Element Four member started swaying his body like a long grass swaying in the wind "Comment ꞔa va? My name is Sol. Monsieur Sol." The Element of Earth introduced himself.

"Like I care! I'm here to stop this thing, so either tell me how, or I'll just wreck the entire place myself!" Elfman cried before raising his fist in the air and gathering large amounts of energy towards it. After it transformed into an enhanced arm, he was ready to fight.

Instead of being intimidated, Sol seemed to just flail around at a much faster pace. "My, my! Isn't Take Over magic supposed to be the whole body?"

Elfman gave a slight bristle at the mocking tone of how Sol said that. "You shut up!" He then charged right for the skinny man, only for his opponent to somehow sink into solid earth before popping up like a daisy a few feet behind him.

"You had a younger sister, n'est-ce pas?" The earth mage darkly sneered.

At the mention of that, Elfman was shocked to hear about that. When he did that, he let his guard down, which gave the bilingual mage a chance to get close and kick him with a surprising amount of power.

After getting back from the surprisingly powerful blow, Elfman screamed to his opponent. "Cheap bastard!" However, the insult did little to slow his opponent down as Sol disappeared into the ground once more.

Sol's smug smile didn't seem to fade as he started talking again. "Now don't be like that! I hear you once failed at a full-body Take Over and went all berserk on the poor mademoiselle?"

That hit far too close to home for the white haired mage. He quickly shook his head and reared his fist. "Shut up!" He roared with anger as he tried to punch the earth mage once more. However, without him noticing, a familiar face froze and stopped Elfman's attack from following through.

"Lisanna!" Elfman gasped in shock as he saw a rock form of his dead sister.

"Well isn't she pretty? I wonder what happened to her?" Sol mockingly mused before leaning a little too close to the face of the statue. "Oh right, she's—how you say? Six feet under."

"Y-You bastard!" Elfman gritted his teeth as he looked at the earth mage clearly playing on his insecurities.

Sol tilted his head downward in a creepy manner. "Moi? The bastard? Why monsieur, you were the one who put her there in the first place! How could you do that to someone who loved you so much!?"

Suddenly, the Lisanna statue started to move, her eyes slowly opened—until one of them snapped open with Sol's eye. "Well, big brother Elf?"

Seeing the image, Elfman roared and unleashed a large amount of magical power around his body in order to forget about how Sol was trying to get into his head.

"Non, non, non! Are you really trying to act brave and use the same power that killed your loved one?" With a dark chuckle, Sol summoned a multitude of fake Lissana statues, all screaming out horrible insults and such while Elfman tried to channel a full body take over.

In his mind, memories of what had happened on that day he lost his younger sister put such emotional stress on his psyche.

However, despite all the guilt, his subconscious seemed to be fighting just as hard as he was. Among all those memories, something else came up.

* * *

"Thanks a lot, Elfman. I really do appreciate you showing me around the mall." Kain said as he fixed the bag of gear he bought from Weasely's Wizard Weasers.

"No problem! Things like these are nothing to a man!" The white haired mage proudly declared. However, when he looked back at Kain, he seemed to have a very thoughtful look on his face. Curious, the large man asked, "What's up?"

The brunette from another dimension blinked before pausing for a second. He then asked, "I'm just curious but why do you boast so much about being a man?"

The takeover mage was not expecting such a forward question. However, one of the reasons why he boasts so proudly about being a man was because…

"Oh? If it's personal, you don't have to tell me. I was just curious." It seemed like Kain had read Elfman's emotions since he quickly redacted his question after it had come out.

"Sorry." For the first time since they had met, Kain had not seen Elfman so dour compared to his usually boisterous self.

"If it makes you feel any better," Kain began as he looked at the sunset in the distance. If Elfman liked talking about manly men, why not talk about that subject? "I've always liked the idea of a man overcoming his inner demons. It's not easy, but when they do it, it's hard not to see them in a respectable light for honoring their mistakes and realizing they can become more by making peace with it."

Elfman looked to Kain in surprise. The smaller boy laughed before explaining, "In other words, I've always found myself really respecting people who accept their faults and move on to be better people. That's my view of someone manly."

There was a small but honest smile on Kain's face as he said this. Elfman felt weird; it wasn't very masculine or tough…

"Huh? You don't say."

But his soul admitted that it was surprisingly manly.

* * *

Despite all the horrible insults coming his way, for the first time, Elfman smiled.

Sol noticed this even among all the statues firing insult after horrible insult. "Why are you smiling?"

Elfman, with the magic power around him, smirked at Sol. "Kain, you're right. A real—no a _true_ man accepts his faults and rises above them!" In a burst of even greater magic, Elfman's body started to grow.

Sol shielded his arms at the energy massing in front of him. "What!? Do you not care—"

"I do care!" Eflman defiantly shouted as his body started to transform. "But I owe it to my family and my friends to surpass myself! You failed, dirt bag! **Full Body Take Over: Beast Soul!** "

"Sacré Bleu!" Sol cried out before firing several earth based blasts at his opponent. However, the attacks seemed to dissipate a second before a bright light covered the entire hall.

As the light died down, Sol felt something big looking down on him and quickly looked back up.

A massive and monstrous creature roared with a power that shook Phantom Lord's hideout. And then the creature looked down on Monsieur Sol.

"Ah? This is an interesting turn of events" Instead of being afraid of such a creature, Sol seemed oddly calm and put his hand on his face to support it up. "I was honestly doing you a favor, monsieur. I used your own memories against you so I would only have to defeat you mentally, not physically. Honestly, it would have been painless for you." He closed his eyes deep as he admitted this. "Well… physically painless."

Elfman in his beast form snarled as he raised his fist over the green haired earth mage.

However, Sol still didn't move. Instead he snapped open his eyes and narrowed them. "I suppose we will have to do this the hard way, non?"

Beast Soul roared as he punched down in an attempt to crush his opponent.

The blow of Elfman's punch was enough to crack the walls around the hallway the two were battling.

Yet… it was not strong enough to fully break a giant and nearly broken hand of rock catching Elfman's big fist.

" _Fools who dare threaten ze land we thread upon,_ " Sol's voice echoed with magical power. Elfman realize that his opponent was using a rhyming incantation: in other words, a lost spell! " _Feel ze warth of the Earth God's Spawn!_ " With those last words, Sol threw his hand out and the nearly broken earth hand threw back the colossal beast.

Eflman staggered back but then noticed all the debris around the area and pieces of the wall swarming around Sol like a black hole. Soon the rocks all formed together to form a humanoid figure made of stone that was the same size and weight class as Elfman's Beast Soul.

The two giants stared at each other in silence, obviously eyeing one another with caution—well except the giant humanoid rock, it had no face to begin with.

Then the two reared back a fist each and let it rip—

* * *

Gray struggled to gain his balance as he felt the entire base shake. "What the heck? That doesn't feel like Natsu."

* * *

Erza supported herself on a nearby wall as the ground shook once more. "Something was different that time. It wasn't the building shifting; it felt more like two gigantic powers clashing."

* * *

"Will this stupid castle stop moving!?" Laki Olietta cried out while she was on the floor, waiting for this new movement to stop.

* * *

"And here I thought Magnolia was the worse place to be right now," Alzack thought as he held on to a nearby pillar to support himself.

* * *

"Aww man, don't tell me this place is moving again! I just beat up all these guys in a control panel looking place!" Natsu panicked as the place started to rumble. He wasn't too keen in the place moving like it did a while ago to activate his motion sickness.

* * *

After the strong clash of powers, the stone giant staggered back as his fist crumbled into dust. Elfman saw an opportunity and tried to punch the stone giant once more. Yet the opposing titan caught the punch with its other arm. To the surprise of Elfman, the broken arm quickly reformed and then threw a punch with enough force to launch Elfman's boosted form into the air and cause him to cause a large skid on the floor.

( _Ow!_ ) That impact was strong enough to put the mage's mind back in control. ( _This bastard is tough enough to still fight me with control over my powers again._ )

The beast soul stood back up and roared as he rushed for the stone giant in a kung-fu stance. The fairy Tail mage threw a punch right for the face of the giant, only for his opponent to tilt his head, grab his fist, and perform a judo throw with enough force to destroy several walls in the process.

To Eflman's surprise, the ground around him started to pin his feet and arms, locking him into the ground.

( _He can still manipulate the earth even in that form!? Gimme a break!_ ) The takeover mage spotted the earth golem rushing for him with his fist reclined. With more exerted strength, Elfman broke through his restraints and rolled out of the way of Sol's punch. He followed it up with a burst of punched the head of the titan with enough force to blast him through several walls.

( _A spell like that has to be draining his magic especially if it can regenerate! I gotta keep up my offensive!_ )

Elfman steered his powered up form to rush right for where he assumed the golem had fallen. He jumped up high in an effort to stomp his opponent down through the floor if he had to. However, as he started descending down, a fist shot up from the dust and decked him right in the neck.

Sol in his stone giant form leapt out of the smoke, grabbed Elfman by the face then slammed it into the wall. He then started to run, dragging the takeover mage while pushing his face into the wall as the stone giant ran.

Elfman quickly grabbed the hand holding on to his face and crushed the wrist with both of his hands before unleashing an uppercut on the stone form. The stone giant flew and hit the wall on the other side. As it bounced off, Elfman bolted up to Sol and connected another punch to the face and used more force to punch through three walls and several large gears.

However, even after all of that, it seemed like the damages that Elfman was putting up were already healing.

( _This is getting me nowhere! His magic isn't draining fast enough!_ ) Elfman thought to himself as he finally noticed even his beast form was starting to pant. In terms of raw power they were nearly the same, but Sol was obviously able to take more punishment than him. At the rate things would go, he would lose!

( _Damn it! I am not losing to… huh?_ ) Elfman, with his heightened senses, noticed something off. Behind the stone golem, the wall seemed to be giving way. This was strange because, Elfman was sure he hadn't hit the wall behind him, so why was it crumbling weirdly?

Elfman quickly noticed something else. The walls that were destroyed seemed to be decaying fast. However, the gears that Sol flew through didn't seem to move beyond being destroyed and bent.

( _Wait a second. He's an earth mage._ ) The Take Over mage couldn't help but give a toothy grin as he bravely…

Ran away.

The stone giant actually seemed surprised before chasing right after his opponent. For some reason, Elfman was bashing through wall after wall and trying to get away from Sol.

However, he stopped in seemingly after a dozen or so wall breaking.

Sol had a bad feeling from inside the giant and quickly made two stone arms on each side, giving his stone giant six arms and quickly rushed for Elfman. With the extra arms, and therefore extra attack and defense, Sol was slowly but surely overpowering the Take Over mage.

However, Elfman just needed Sol to take one more—THERE!

Powering through the pain, Elfman punched with enough force to break one arm coming his way and once more grab Sol's stone head. With amazing power, he threw Sol out the wall again.

Yet something was different this time.

Instead of there being another hallway, or gears… Elfman had thrown Sol **outside** of the guild giant.

The earth mage panicked until he realized that he was closing in to one of the titanic metal arms of the guild giant and landed there.

Elfman landed on the arm as well and rushed straight for Sol. In retaliation, Sol threw his left three arms at his opponent, only for Elfman to smash all three fists with an upward punch.

Sol remained calm as he tried to fix his broken arms…

…

…

!?

"I finally figured it out." Sol from inside the golem looked towards Elfman. "Your spell is pretty tough, but it needs earth and stones to keep regenerating itself. As long as we fought inside the guild, you had a near indefinite healing factor." Elfman's beastly form gave another toothy grin. "But we're not in the guild anymore, are we?"

Realization hit Sol as it all came to his head: that was why Elfman ran a while ago, to find an area to isolate him away from the many earth that originally surrounded them! However, if he could just get back to the inside of the gui—

However, Elfman was quick to grab Sol's head and slam him back on the metal arm where there was no earth or stone nearby. After a mighty flex, Elfman unleashed his own rush of fast punches on the stone giant that was no longer capable of regenerating.

After Elfman was done, he had finally broken through the stone giant… and he might have gone overboard with how Sol was now bruised all over and looked deeply unconscious from several… or dozen punches Elfman gave.

Soon, Elfman let go of his magic, gasping for breath as he fell on his knees and hands.

"I won…" He panted but then looked at his fist and gripped it tightly. "But is this really as far as I can go? Damn it!"

"Elfman!"

The white haired mage looked up to see something that gave him a needed smile: Erza flying over to him.

"Erza, man am I glad to see you!"

The red haired mage turned back to her casual get up before running up to the injured take over mage and slinging his arm over her other shoulder to carry him. "I noticed the tremors were close by, but imagine my surprise when I saw a monster fighting a stone giant." She then looked over to Sol. "Since he was using earth based spells, I assumed he was one of the Element Four?"

"Yep, he was a dirty but super tough bastard. I almost didn't win…" Elfman gripped his fist tighter.

"Be proud Elfman. You **did** win." Erza said with a smile. "I'm sure you did Lisanna and Mira proud if they were both to see you now."

"Thanks."

Soon the two Fairy Tail mages heard large sounds of creaking. As they looked over, the Abyss Break spell seemed to be slowing down significantly.

"Either, I've finally damaged enough gears, or The Element Four was one of the power sources for this thing."

"I believe it's more of the later than the former. It seems the gears don't slow down the giant as much as the…" Erza stopped speaking as she narrowed her eyes at the other mechanical arm casting the Abyss Break.

"Elfman, go back inside." The armor mage spoke with deadly seriousness.

"What?" Elfman started before looking at the hand where Erza was looking at.

His eyes widened as he saw a figure standing right on the other hand creating the spell. It looked like someone wearing all gladiator-looking bronze armor… wait a second… was that figure a female with a shiny bronze sword and circular bronze shield?

Erza spoke up again while looking to Eflman this time. "I can sense their magical power all the way from here. According to Master's descriptions of the Captains, she must be Alexandra Raphael."

The white haired mage was surprised when Erza gently let go of him and pointed towards back into the guild. "Elfman, you did well, but retreat back to the escape zone."

The male Strauss sibling wanted to argue. However, his body wasn't willing to listen. Begrudgingly, he decided to leave this battle to the S-class mage. "Erza, you better win!" he said as he started to make his way back to the Phantom Lord base and bring Sol along just in case.

As he did leave, Erza summoned a blade and looked to her opponent in the distance. "I intend to."

When Elfman and sol were out of the way, Alexendra picked up her bronze broad sword, which was originally planted on the ground and then pointed over to Erza with it. The S-Class mage of Fairy Tail returned the gesture.

Then the two jumped with their blades poised to strike…

* * *

Natsu finally noticed the Guild Giant stopped in his tracks and sighed in relief. "Finally the shaking stopped."

"We are in agreement with that notion."

Natsu didn't recognize anyone with that foreign accent before and turned towards the doors. There was a seven foot tall man with dark skin wearing a wide black bolero hat. He was a dark skinned man wearing a white mask, a black bandit costume and a red sash tied around his waist and a white spider symbol on his chest.

The extraordinary man was leaning on the archway where the doors were blasted open in a casual manner that made Natsu feel annoyed.

"Who are you? One of the Captains, or the Element Four?"

The man tipped his hat upward with a smile and responded, "East Captain, Zolon Mercer. I was looking for Ms. Peaks with Ms. Lockser, but it appears I've found you instead."

Natsu smiled as he pounded his fists together with flames. "Well I've been itching for something that can actually fight back for a while. But I gotta beat you jerks up and get back to my friends."

Mr. Mercer stood up, wrapped his cape around him but stretched his hand out in a palm and motioned his hand to signal, 'come on'

"Wait, Natsu!" Happy cried out to his friend too late as the salmon haired fire mage rushed with fists blazing towards the masked stranger.

Zolon dodged each punch easily. Annoyed, Natsu jumped and attempted to round house kick the Eastern Captain. However, the dragon slayer had an all too familiar sense of déjà vu when Zolon stopped and caught his kick with just two fingers.

"Aww come oNNN!?" Natsu screamed before his foot was grabbed and he ended up being thrown out of the command room.

Zolon then looked over to Happy, which made the blue cat look with fear. However, the opponent just tipped his hat and went after his opponent.

…

Natsu growled after being thrown before noticing Zolon running up to him with a fist reclined back. The dragonslayer ducked before unleashing an uppercut on the masked figure. However, with uncanny speed, Zolon tilted his head and spun his body to sweep Natsu off his feet then push with an open palm that had the force of a truck causing Natsu to be slammed through the cracked wall.

"You can slay dragons, but it seems you can't even harm a spider, much like a certain metal head I know…" Zolon began as he started walking through the hole he made through Natsu.

The salmon haired mage wiped his mouth as he looked up to his opponent before standing back up. Natsu inhaled before unleashing a powerful dragon roar right for Zolon. It seemed like the masked warrior didn't seem fast enough to dodge the attack.

After the attack, Natsu looked in bewildered surprise as Zolon, despite the scorched area around him and some remains of his flames, looked unscathed from the power of a dragon's roar.

"My! This tickles." Zolon laughed as he then clenched his fist and punched the dumbfounded Natsu causing him to slide in the hallway somewhat.

Happy, watching this fight, stared in awe at how Natsu's most powerful flame was made completely useless. "W-What!? How's he immune to fire?!"

Zolon turned back to Happy after hearing the extra voice. "Now why would I tell you the secret of my magic?"

Between that little exchange, Natsu got back up. But something was off: the second punch Zolon threw felt much weaker than the first time. What was this guy's magic? Natsu enflamed his fist and tried to punch Zolon Mercer. However, the East Captain suddenly leapt high to the ceiling of their hallway. To the surprise of Happy and Natsu, Zolon was sticking to the ceiling like a spider!

Zolon smiled before ripping up a piece of the ceiling and literally brining it down on Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer had to jump out of the way to avoid being crushed between a ceiling and a floor.

It was then that Natsu felt the ground he was standing on shake again. He jumped back again before something came popping up through the floor with a powerful spin. As the object slowed down, it revealed Zolon somehow drilled back into the floor they were fighting and landed in front of Natsu with a confidant smirk.

"I don't get it, what's his magic?" Happy stared on carefully at the battle.

Natsu on the other hand stared at his opponent with laser focus.

Zolon reacted to the glare with amusement. "Aah! A sharp look you have on you, sir. I take it you've already deduced my magic then?"

"Yeah," Happy was surprised to hear that from Natsu. How'd he figure it out? It was then that Natsu pointed to the Eastern Captain, or more specifically, the spider symbol on his chest. "That symbol threw me off for a second, but then I realized what magic you have: it's Take Over Magic!"

Happy looked on with surprise. Their opponent had the same magic as the Strauss Siblings? "Take Over Magic? But he never transformed once!" Happy thought out loud to himself.

"Take Over magic?" Zolon repeated with confusion.

Natsu put down his arm. "Don't try to play dumb! I had a good friend who was a Take Over mage, and she explained to me that Take Over mages had the ability to get any super power from a creature they wanted! Thing is though, they can only use a creature's power one at a time, which explains why sometimes your punches hurt and sometimes they were weak!"

Happy and Zolon looked to Natsu with varying degrees of shock. However, the black themed mage started laughing.

"Well, you have the concept correct. Perhaps Take Over magic has a similar ancestor, but my magic is not that. It's called, Kingdom Access Magic. It is much like Take Over magic but instead of transforming into the creature to access their power, a creature's attributes are put in the body of a user." Zolon tapped his chest. "That was why I accessed the power of a Lava Python, a snake that is completely immune to fire because of how it's species swim in magma, and a normal spider, which can leap and lift things beyond its relative size and weight."

Natsu stomped down with his foot. "It doesn't matter what power you bring out! All I gotta do is beat you up!" The dragon slayer started yelling as flames started to surround him. However, the red and orange flames started to grow more solid and turn to white. " **White Flame Mode!** "

Before Zolon could even blink, Natsu decked him in the face, causing him to fly like a bullet down the hall.

Natsu, with the power boost of his new spell, was able to jettison himself past the flying Zolon and get ready to punch him heading his way. The dragon slayer threw the punch, yet Zolon had twisted his body mid air to avoid the blow and ended up spinning his person to upward kick Natsu's chin.

The hit made Natsu fly up until he motioned his body to land on the ceiling with his feet and bounce back right for Zolon. However, Zolon was prepared this time and must have copied the power of a speed animal because he avoided Natsu's counter blow and started running away with as much speed as Natsu was putting off a while ago.

"Get back here!" Natsu yelled as he blazed like a rocket after his opponent.

The two practically zipped across much of Phantom Lord's giant that wasn't destroyed by the attack or battles. The key word being: wasn't. Whenever Natsu caught up with Zolon, the Captain would then turn their fight into a battle between two using super speeds. To anyone in normal time it would appear the walls were suddenly being melted or destroyed. To other people who could reach fasts speeds, they would notice that Zolon and Natsu were now fighting, throwing punches, or throwing their opponent at whatever they could.

However, Natsu's stamina fell much faster due to prolonged use of the White Flame mode and was forced to drop the magic somewhere in the giant. Zolon used this opportunity to unleash a flurry of punches and kicks from so fast, it felt like Natsu was getting hit from everywhere at once.

With one powerful hook kick from the Phantom Lord Mage, Natsu fell to the ground.

"Unfortunately for you, I have enough practicing sparing with our own Dragon Slayer to know how to handle you, even if you had a few surprises of your own." Zolon rubbed his chin before he grabbed Natsu's sprawled body and punched him hard in the stomach with what he assumed was the strength of a spider again. Natsu coughed out spit and started coughing as his lungs started contracting.

Zolon quickly then raced away, signaling he was using a speed creature again before going on the opposite side of their new battle field and starting in running position. In an instant, he was off, gaining speed and momentum and using the distance to catapult himself so fast, he could change his powers mid-movement into his spider and used the combine speed and strength to put down Natsu for the rest of the war.

However, Natsu had one last trick up his sleeve. He stood back up, albeit a bit weakly then slammed his two palms together almost like a prayer stance.

" **Pyromancy: Burning Ward!** " Natsu shouted the instant Zolon had switched to his spider access and tried to punch Natsu with the combined strength and velocity of how fast he was going.

Before the punch could connect to Natsu, a see through orange orb appeared around the Dragon Slayer. When Zolon's fist made impact with the sphere instead of his opponent…

 **BOOM!**

Zolon flew back even faster than he came in, with flames across his body and crashing through another stone wall. However, with how the rocks from above fell on top of him, he sure wasn't getting up from that.

Natsu smiled as he wiped his mouth. Burning Ward was of all things, a Defensive Fire Spell he learned from the book he got. It was a ten second shield that would reflect all attacks back at the user's opponent. He could even move after it got cast like a temporary buff.

Still, it kind of irked the Dragon Slayer that he had to use a defensive spell to beat his opponent and he never really used those spells until now.

"Now I gotta get to Happy…."

"Hey mister?" Natsu turned around and looked on with surprise. Why was there a little girl around the same age as Romeo here? Why didn't he hear her until that moment? Was he too distracted fighting Zolon? Why was she holding a creepy looking teddy bear? And why was she dressed in white gothic styled clothing with long red hair and amber colored eyes? "Have you seen my big sister, Juvia?"

"Your sister?" The Dragon Slayer turned towards her with confusion.

"Oh!" The girl pointed to Natsu's shoulder with the Fairy Tail symbol on it. "A Fairy Tail symbol! Big Brother Zolon and Mister Carliso told me what to do when I saw someone with that symbol!" The little girl happily said as he eyes suddenly changed into the color of deep blue.

* * *

Alzack Connell continued to run around the area, searching for… well…

"What the heck am I even looking for!? Is this a darn maze or a guild?!" The cowboy themed mage cried out as he looked around the area.

"Natsu! Natsu!" The sound of a second voice made the gunslinger of Fairy Tail tilt this head in the direction it came from. To his surprise, he saw a familiar blue cat flying around with obvious worry.

The gunslinger raised his hand and shouted, "Happy! Over here!"

The blue cat turned to the voice in surprise before a look of relief came over to his face. "Alzack! Have you seen Natsu?"

"No, what happened?"

Happy then explained that Natsu was fighting against Zolon Mercer until the two of them bolted out with speeds that Jet could run. Happy lost track of them even though he thought he was following their left over trail of destruction.

"Well don't worry; we're bound to meet up with him sooner or later. It's hard not to miss him sometimes. In the meantime, stick with me. I'll help you find him." The gun mage saw Happy agree to what he had just said and the two were off.

However, a little into them teaming up, Alzack suddenly stopped Happy and kneeled to the ground.

"What's wrong?" The flying blue cat asked the cowboy.

The raven haired mage put his hand onto a scorched floor. "There was a fire magic used here recently. … I think it might be Natsu." While it is true fire magic was fairly common, no other fire mage he knew could cause so much destruction around the area like the Dragon Slayer could.

The gun mage looked around before noticing something turn at the opposite end of the hallway. "Hey wait!" Alzack yelled as he brought out his guns and ran after the thing he saw.

When he did catch up, he couldn't quite believe what his eyes were telling him. "Huh? A little girl?" Out of everything he was preparing himself for, Alzack did not expect to see a little girl around Romeo's age.

The girl spun to face the two of them after the comment. She huffed and pouted. "I am not little! I'm Amanda Peaks!"

Alzack couldn't believe what he was hearing. She was the western captain!? Master Makarov did say she was young, but he wasn't expecting her to be this young! But wait, if she was a Captain this early on, didn't that mean her magic…

"Aah! Natsu!" Happy cried as he pointed towards the girl. Instantly, Alzack was confused until he saw what the flying cat was referring to.

Or rather, a very familiar looking human doll with salmon hair, and wearing the same exact clothes as Fairy Tail's resident slayer.

The two stared in confusion and felt a creeping feeling of horror before the girl held the patched up doll with a smile. "Isn't he cute? Mister Jose and the others said that if I see anyone with this symbol," She pointed to Natsu's Fairy Tail symbol on his shoulder, "I'm allowed to turn them into my dollies!"

"You turned him into a doll!?" Happy cried out.

It was then the girl pointed to Happy with wide eyes of wonder. "Are you a talking cat? I want one!"

"No way! Back away girlie!" The blue, flying pet backed away in fear. "And turn my friend back to normal!"

"Friend?" The girl suddenly tilted her head, which sent warning signals all throughout Alzack's body. "Does that mean you're part of Fairy Tail too?"

Alzack worryingly looked at Happy who was now pointing to himself with pride. "Yeah!"

The cowboy mentally cursed when the girl hugged the Natsu doll tighter. While being proud of their guild was one thing, Happy failed to realize that Amanda obviously took the order to only attack Fairy Tail mages, and that she originally didn't know they were part of that guild!

Amanda giggled sweetly, but only made the two members feel a cold chill in the air. "I never had a cowboy or cat doll before!"

Alzack acted fast and grabbed Happy and ducked behind the corner they ran from. No sooner than he did, a bright blue light shined where the two previously were in.

The cowboy instantly realized what had happened, feeling a familiar spike of magic around the little girl's eyes before he got Happy and himself out of there.

"She has eye magic! So that's why the other Phantom Lord mages let her roam around." Alzack said before looking to Happy. "And don't taunt her!"

"Well beat her up and get Natsu back to normal then!" Happy shouted back at the gun mage. He might have been still annoyed at the girl for wanting him turned into a plaything.

"Happy, I'm not hurting a little girl! Even if she is part of Phantom Lord's top ten!" The gunslinger responded before noticing the blue light die down around the corner.

"Hey, don't run away from me!" The little girl cried out in a annoyed manner. Even though the two were away, they could hear the girl pouting from behind the other corner. "Fine, Mr. Cuddles, bring them back to me!"

"Mr. Cuddles?" "Mr. Cuddles?" The blue cat and cowboy mage looked at each other and said the name at the same time before they heard a rather powerful thud that shook the floor they were on.

A large, rag paw grabbed on to the corner before a giant teddy bear reared its head around. It had one sewn button eye that was big as exercise ball. It was half black, half brown with stitches down the middle and as it dragged its other paw out, which had claws that looked as sharp as jagged, rusty saws.

"Can you shoot **that**?!" Happy cried out in horror at the scary, giant teddy bear of doom.

Alzack drew both his pistols out towards 'Mr. Cuddles'. "Now that?! I can hit!"

He fired several elemental themed shots at the bear, yet despite how impressive some of the shots Alzack fired on to Mr. Cuddles, the large bear didn't even seem to flinch after the first assault.

The large teddy bear roared, revealing its mouth was also sewn shut, but showing that its mouth could still move. The image scared both Happy and Alzack, causing the gunslinger mage to look at Natsu's best friend. "Happy, I need air support—now!"

The blue cat quickly summoned his wings and lifted Alzack off the ground before the giant bear could crush them both with his stubby yet deadly paw.

While mid air, Alzack tried another round of magical bullets—but just like before they still didn't work. In fact, the bear just looked even angrier than before! Mr. Cuddles leapt with amazing force that frightened the two Fairy Tail members, but Happy dodged out of the way of a swipe from the bear before the doll golem caused the area to shake when it landed on the ground.

"Happy, get us out!"

"But Natsu!?"

"We'll come back for him I promise, neither of us can hurt that thing, and I don't want to hit a little girl with bullet magic!" Alzack explained as he saw the stubby bear struggle to catch up with them. However, Amanda turned the corner and seemed to pout again as she looked at the two escaping in their direction.

"Are we playing tag then? Okie dokie!" She seemed to pull something out of a hammer space.

Since Alzack was a great tracker, most of his senses were honed much sharper. He might not be a good sniper like Bisca was, but he was easily Fairy Tail's second best sniper if given a rifle. Because of his trained senses, he was able to spot Amanda pulling out two more dolls. Instantly, he knew exactly what that meant for him and Happy.

Especially since the dolls in question were ragdoll pterodactyls.

"Mrs. And Mr. Skywalker!" The little girl threw both hand crafted dolls into the sky where they suddenly grew and turned into monstrous looking creatures that roared to life and started chasing down Happy and Alzack.

"Alzack!?" Happy shrieked as the two doll golems started racing for him.

"Right!" Alzack switched back to his pistols and fired one bullet each. He didn't aim just directly at the creatures, but at their wings which prevented them from flying properly and eventually were hit enough to make them both fall to the ground.

However, the Fairy Tail members were not expecting them to be caught by Mr. Cuddles before they could reach the ground. The couple flying dolls quickly got back up and roared, showing that their jaws were also sewn shut.

"I am so not looking forward to my nightmares for the next week…" Alzack commented before noticing something.

Mr. Cuddles was in a pitching position—

"Happy, dive!" The cowboy cried out fast, causing Happy to panic for a second. The reason why Alzack called that out was because the giant, teddy bear had thrown one of the Skywalker dolls at the two of them with amazing force.

One of them bodied the two of them as the doll was thrown at them. This caused the two to fall down at an alarming rate.

Alzack positioned his pistols in a certain angle before firing two wind shots. The impact allowed him to move and catch the falling Happy. This also allowed him momentum to land somewhat horizontally, letting him roll to the floor mostly unscathed.

The cowboy looked back—then bolted before Mr. Cuddles could grab him and Happy.

"Okay, I can't hurt her and I can't look into her eyes. There's gotta be a way…" Alzack mentally paused for a second while still running before he freed one of his hands from carrying Happy and face palmed. "She's a kid."

Alzack turned on his heel mid run to face the monstrous teddy bear. He placed Happy near some debris as cover and noticed Amanda at the opposite end of the hallway.

The little girl in question tilted her head before Alzack made a mad dash towards her. Mid run, the cowboy removed his poncho around him, to Happy, it confused him as to why their friend would act like Gray at that moment, but it seemed like Alzack had a plan. Whatever plan he had, he had to do it quick as Mr. Cuddles roared and tried to punch the Fairy Tail cowboy where he ran. The gunslinger was able to counter this by firing a powerful bullet that unleash a strong shock wave that slowed down the punch enough for him to slide out of the way of the adorably deadly paw from slicing him.

Mr. and Mrs. Skywalker screeched as they both dove right for the gunslinger. However, Alzack shot both his pistols down in the floor in the path of both prehistoric birds which marked two light blue magic circles. Soon, two ice pillar shot up in the path of the creatures, making the flying rag dolls crash into them instead of Alzack.

"G-Get away!" Amanda cried out as he eyes started shinning blue. However, Alzack just raised his poncho over his face to cover himself from the light of the eyes. He remembered from the Thunder Legion that most eye magic requires direct eye contact, so all he had to do was just not look into her eyes when he did this!

When Alzack got close enough, he threw his poncho over the small girl. The blue light stopped and she struggled to remove the brown cloth over her. However, she wasn't fast enough as Alzack used his hand to karate chop a pressure point on the girl's neck and make her instantly fall down. The gunslinger was merciful enough to catch her before she fell, remove his poncho, and place her carefully near the wall. As soon as he did this, all three monstrous ragdolls turned back into harmless toys since they were no longer supplied magic by their mage.

Alzack didn't want to hurt the girl with magic, but a pressure point hit would cause an ache at best that would heal much easier than trauma from a magical attack.

"Why didn't you do that earlier!?" Happy cried out from where he was originally all the way to where Alzack was.

"Cut me some slack, Happy," The gunsman replied as he took the Natsu doll away from Amanda carefully. "Pressure point hits aren't always the first move to come in my mind in a fight."

However, Alzack did have the decency to return Amanda's dolls back to her before pulling out one of his pistols and pointing it to Natsu.

The blue cat pointed worryingly at the image. "What are you doing?!"

"Relax, the night before Phantom Lord attack, I thought it would be a good idea to craft a bullet that disrupts magic—a dispelling bullet if needed. I only had enough resources and time for one, but this is a good enough time to use it. I can just fire this bullet in a way that might sting but nothing more." With that, Alzack fired his gun into the doll after tossing it in the air. When it made contact with the bullet, the doll magically expanded in the air and Natsu falling on his butt while holding his stomach.

"Oww! What hit me!?" Natsu cried out before noticing his two allies. "Alzack? When did you get here?"

The cowboy sighed and rubbed his head. "Long story. Let's find the others first, who knows where—"

Alzack was interrupted by an explosion seemingly coming from the upper floors of the Guild Giant.

Natsu nonchalantly folded his arms. "I guess Erza's up there."

* * *

However, Natsu, and understandably a large amount of people were wrong. That explosion was not Erza and Alexandra, the two mentioned actually stopped their sword duel to glance in the direction of that explosion before continuing their fight.

Would it be Gray then? No. He was currently fighting with one of the Element Four's Juvia Lockser on the right shoulder of the giant.

So who was it that caused it then?

The answer lies some time ago… when a certain purple haired wood mage was running down one of the many halls of the Phantom Lord Giant.

"This is not what I had in mind to one day be running down the halls of a castle," Laki complained after knocking down some guards left over for Phantom Lord. "I always imagined a prince charming racing after me as I did, not towards a group of thugs."

Great, she was now complaining like heck.

It was then that Laki came across some rather elaborate looking doors. After channeling her magic, she then fired to blast down the doors to a fancy looking area with grandiose stairs.

"How sad," A voice cried out that made Laki look up to see a green man cloaked in green. "You came here all alone! It's so sad! A lone, nameless mage has met with me: Aria, strongest of the Element Four!"

The wood make mage was a little peeved about the whole 'nameless' part and pointed towards Aria. "What's sad is that I'm about to kick our butt so hard, you'll be crying… more than usual!" Laki added that last part as she realized that her opponent was indeed already crying for some reason.

Whether he reacted to that retort, Laki couldn't tell. He was still crying before he somehow vanished into thin air.

"Invisibility? How the heck does that even work for wind?" Unfortunately, it seemed like Laki was unaware that specialized wind can be used to bend light in such a way it could hide someone has large as Aria.

It was then that a blast of wind came out that blindsided the purple haired mage and made her crash into the wall.

However, that was just the beginning as Laki was thrown around the fancy room like a ragdoll by invisible wind blasts.

Eventually, Laki was able to finally compose herself and land in the middle of the room on her own two feet. " **Wood Make: Closed Off Heart!** " She cried out as she slammed her hands on the ground and created a circular shield of wood surrounding her.

This was mostly to give herself more time to think of a plan of attack. Aria was able to get past even master Makarov's ability to sense magic in others. If not for Kain and Kageyama, he would have been able to cripple their guild master in this fight.

Unfortunately for the purple haired girl, she lacked any of those advantages in this fight.

There was one advantage she did have…

"It's so sorrowful! All you can do his hide behind such a weak shield!" Aria's voice echoed around Laki, giving her the impression he was all around her.

There was a rumble from her shield, which caused Laki to move quickly.

In a few seconds, the wood barrier the purple haired mage had created exploded into pieces by a strong blast of wind, scattering everything all over the place.

Despite wearing a blindfold, Aria motioned his head around to view the area. It was then he noticed one of the chunks was larger than the others.

" **Wood Make:** " Aria then started to gather energy in his hand. However, it was too late as he realized the spike in magical power was actually _behind_ him.

As he turned around, he was quickly blindsided by a large, wooden " **Gryphon!** " that slammed him into the ground and roared with its beak. The mythical creature raised its talon with intention to rend the opponent before Aria pushed his palm out and blasted the mythical creature with enough force to blast it out of the room and reveal a hole in the wall.

" **Wood Make: Thorn Wall!** " Laki cried out as she then slammed her palms to the ground. No sooner than she did, a giant wooden spike shot out from the ground in an attempt to impale Aria. The large floating mage jinked to the right as the spike kept growing and destroyed another piece of the ceiling. However, Laki only poured more spikes to come out of the ground to strike her opponent followed by several more, then a dozen, then so on and so forth.

( _I really hope he doesn't notice what I'm doing! Why was the only Lost Spell I was able to learn had to have a charge time in it!?_ ) The purple haired mage gritted her teeth while pouring more wood spikes to hit her unsuspectingly nimble opponent.

"It's just so sorrowful to see how hard you're trying to just harm me!" Aria cried out, much to the annoyance of the wood make mage. If she could stall him just a little longer…

"Instead, I will just put you out of your misery." Aria's voice started as he suddenly vanished into thin air. Laki looked around, trying to find any sign of how she could spot him. However, she noticed him appearing right in the very center of the room… gathering a lot of magic energy!

The green clad mage then whispered. "Zero."

There was a large gust of wind that exploded outward, destroying the walls, stairs, wood spikes, and knocking Laki off her feet and slamming her through the doors at the top of the stairs.

The blast went off like an explosion as it took much of the strength of the wood make mage to even stay awake. However, all she could hear was white noise. Had the shock hit her head more than she thought? Even though her senses were struggling to get together, she was still coherent enough to realize there was a large shadow over her.

She looked up to see Aria standing over her with tears flowing from his face.

"It's just so despairing! I've never seen something so futile before!" Of course, everything else felt like white noise but she had to hear Aria's annoying voice nearly perfect.

However, Laki smiled as she reached for her…

"Hey!? W-Where are my glasses!?" The girl realized that she wasn't seeing clearly not just because of the explosion, but she had lost her precious glasses during the blast.

Aria started to cry louder and gather magic in his palm as he pointed over to Laki.

"Dammit, I was totally going to do this really cool glasses thing when I did this…" Laki sighed before turning her head towards who she really hoped was Aria and not a giant rock she was mistaking him for. "But at least I'm not as blind as you."

Even though he was wearing a blindfold, Aria felt Laki smirk by the tone of her voice. Instantly, he realized something off with the ceiling was blown up: why was the sun shining brighter than awhile ago? Aria looked up by instinct even though he was still using a blindfold. If he wasn't wearing a blindfold, he would have noticed that obscuring the sun was Laki's Wood Gryphon that was still in the air. But the reason why it felt like the sun was brighter even with Laki's creation was because on the beast's back was a multitude of brightly glowing sun flowers… aimed right at him.

Laki used the distraction to quickly ensnare Aria for getting so close to her and quickly escape herself. Her snare wouldn't last, but it would be there long enough for her to get a safe distance and declare, " **Flora Majesty: Solar Beam!** "

This was one of the spells Laki took time to practice when she first received the book. It was one of the easier and powerful spells despite its drawback of requiring prep time.

All the combined flowers on the back of the gryphon glowed even brighter then shot out multiple large beams of sunlight that transformed into a giant sun laser right for Aria. The spell was so powerful it actually pierced through the Phantom Lord Giant from the top to the bottom. Everyone in the guild and even some from Magnolia could see the large beam of light piercing through the guild giant like a spear.

As the attack died down, Laki fell back to her knees and gasped for breath. "I…I solemnly swear… to never… make fun of Droy's spells… ever again…." She panted for air since she realized magic plants seem far less stupid with their ability to turn photosynthesis into a mega sun laser.

"I'm actually impressed."

Laki's heart stopped beating for a second as she felt all her skin suddenly pop up goose bumps. With disbelief she looked up to see the smoking crater where her spell was unleashed.

"You pushed me to use one of my most powerful spells and even then I did not fully escape unharmed…"

Much to Laki's horror, Aria was still standing! His clothes were singed, and most of his clothes were signed, but he was standing tall as he did a while ago, and worse? His magic power had suddenly spiked up.

"I had a spell that allowed me to be intangible to physical attacks. Even though I used it, I felt my entire being burned alive by the power of your spell. It took me my full power to brace for that attack—well done!" Aria actually complimented the girl before gales started to form around him. "However, now it's just pitiable to see that was your first and last chance of defeating me."

The strongest of the Element Four raised his hands. However, Laki froze completely. She couldn't even breathe. After trying everything, even being handed a new powerful spell… she still couldn't win?

Aria paused for a second, before snapping his hand to the side and blasting a force of wind to prevent shards of ice from hitting him.

While this happened, several wolves of ice came to Laki and whisked her away, taking her to a safe zone near someone who had just entered into the room. The wood mage looked up and gasped. Even though things looked blurry, she recognized the silhouette. "Gray!?"

It was then that she felt something flying beside her and noticed a shine. It was her glasses albeit it was cracked somewhat. She took it to realize that a small ice sparrow was previously carrying them and quickly looked back up to confirm if she really did see Gray.

It was indeed him and he was shirtless again, but this time he was injured and… wet?

"I just beat one of the Element Four, Juvia Lockser, and then I saw the large beam of light." He stated this as he continued to lock sights with the green clad and smoking mage. "I've beaten two of your friends so far, freak. You're going to be my third."

Aria smiled as he tilted his head darkly at Gray's statement. "Oh? Bold words, in that case I'll even it out by taking both of you out!"

"Hey you!"

Everyone turned one of the ruined walls to see Natsu, Alzack, and Happy at the entrance. "You're that jerk who was causing all of that a while ago? We're going to kick your ass!" Natsu roared despite the injuries he'd taken in his battle with Zolon.

"Laki! Gray!" Alzack pointed over to the two. "I think Abyss Break is powered up by the Captains and Element Four, the more we defeat the slower they become! If we defeat them all, we can stop it!"

"I already figured that out when I beat Juvia. But thanks for telling me anyway." Gray began before looking to Aria. "We just gotta beat him since he's the last of the Element Four then worry about the Captains."

Happy flew up and shouted out loud, "Natsu and Alzack already beat two of them, Gray! Besides Aria, there's only one more mage powering up Abyss Break!"

That was good news to hear. The three capable Fairy Tail mages, Natsu, Gray, and Alzack stared down Aria.

"Oh? You think you three stand a chance against me? The only mages above me are Sir Voyu and Master Jose!" Aria cried out.

However, before more fighting could begin, something fell from the sky and landed in between Aria with the rest of the Fairy Tail.

As the smoke died down, everyone was surprised to see none other than Erza Scarlet in the crater! Erza was seen with a nearly broken Heaven's Wheel armor, struggling to stand back up as she bitterly snarled above.

"Erza!?" Natsu cried out with shock. Erza was one of their best mages in the team, so **she** of all people was being pushed back!?

There was another crash this time from behind Aria. As the smoke died down, a tall woman wearing beaten up bronze armor was seen kneeling on the ground before rising with a dirty bronze shield and bronze sword. Her helmet was long gone, revealing a gorgeous woman with long, flowing green hair, fair skin, and ruby red eyes.

"Ahh, Alexandra. It's good to see you," Aria began before pausing for a bit. "Now that I think of it, your magic would counter the famed Tatiana." As he said this, Alexandra stepped forward with her sword drawn.

"Erza!" Gray cried out as the rest of Fairy Tail ran up towards her. "What happened?!"

The mage named after her hair color stood up and re-equipped her broken armor with one that she once called the Robe of Yūen. "I was careless… my opponent was using Magnetic Magic. Most of my weapons were used against me and her skill with it was truly remarkable."

It was then that the ground started to shake once more. Everyone tried to brace themselves until they saw a large rock orb appear right beside Aria and Alexandra.

As the rock opened up, Fairy Tail could only stare in horror.

All of the previously defeated top mages, Zolon, Totomaru, Juvia, Amanda, and Sol stood tall. They seemed all greatly injured but they were all seemed prepared to go through another heavy round.

"Big brother Aria, Big sis Alex!" Amanda smiled and waved to the two.

For the first time, Aria's expression softened when he saw the small girl. "Amy? Are you alright little one?" Unlike before there was a genuine kindness in his voice that Fairy Tail wasn't expecting to hear from the wind mage. Even in Alexandra, her stern and stoic look was replaced by a small smile.

However, this was not the time as Erza pointed her spear towards Sol in anger. "What have you done to Elfman!?"

"Guys!" Fairy Tail turned around to see Elfman running up to them. "S-Sorry! I lost sight of Sol during one of the times this blasted place kept shaking!" That pretty much answered her question and made everyone in Fairy Tail sigh in relief. At least he was still safe.

"But how the heck are they all up!? We beat most of them!" Natsu roared with anger as he clenched his fists. "Screw it! We'll just beat you all back down again!"

However, there was a sudden large hum and a flash of bright light coming from the front of the giant along with a large boost of magical energy.

Aria bellowed a powerful laughter at the spiking magic levels. "Haha! Fools! You're too late! Abyss Break is about to—"

However, he was interrupted when there was another explosion, followed by the sudden snuffing of the bright light and the sound of metal crashing very loudly.

"What the heck!? What happened to Abyss Break!?" Totomaru cried out as everyone in the area felt the sudden drop of energy.

There was a powerful roar as everyone looked back up, only to see a red wyvern land in front of Fairy Tail and roar towards the Phantom Lord mages. Instinctively, both Totomaru and Juvia quickly stood in front of Amanda as if to protect her.

"Ignis!" Natsu cried out before noticing the two on top of the red wyvern. "Kageyama! Vijeeter!" He equally shouted out with joy and surprise at both the shadow mage and the dancing mage as they both hopped down.

Kageyama smiled and pointed a thumb at their unlikely group. "Seeing that giant magic circle of doom, Vijeeter and Ignis here went to work on destroying the mechanizations making the arms move, while I went to work sealing all magic from the gathering energy. It was tricky, but I was able to do it in a way that no matter what, the magic would fail the moment it tried to start." The shadow mage smiled. "I can't let the town I'm doing my patrol in get erased off the map."

"Well done you three!" Erza smiled as the other Fairy Tail members were glad to finally hear some good news.

"It matterz not if you stopped ze Abyss Break!" Sol cried out. "We shall still win zis fight with Master Jose!"

"I don't think so!" Elfman cried out as he stepped forward with gathering magic energy. "Your master is going to get his butt handed to him by Master Makarov just like you!"

At that, everyone suddenly became silent.

On one side, a group of seven mages consisting of Phantom Lord's best albeit injured and fatigued. On the other side, a just as fatigued Fairy Tail consisting of eight mages, a wyvern, and Happy the flying cat. Both sides had a majority of their members face down enemies of their choice with a glare except Happy and Amanda.

Their combined magical pressure for all of them was enough to shatter small rocks into dust at their presence alone. What was about to happen was an all out, mass chaotic brawl erupting between powerful two groups of mages that would no doubt be one of the most vicious fights of this war.

…

Fairy Tail made the first move.

"For Fairy Tail!" Erza cried out with her lance pointed as she led the charge with her guild members who were all gathering a large amount of magic energy.

"For Phantom Lord!" Aria cried out as Phantom Lord returned the action with one of their own, with Amanda left behind summoning a bunch of rag dolls and tossing them into the air.

The two teams engaged in a battle filled with skill, teamwork, near perfect counters, and feats that would be described as impossible from both sides.

Their hard fought battle consisting of over a dozen powerful magic could have lasted the entire day.

However, the war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord was to be decided in Magnolia… by the very men who started it all.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Yeesh. This was different. (Also I was having document trouble with FanFiction. Took me a bit to get around it.)  
**

 **So welcome all to my take on the Phantom Lord Versus Fairy Tail story.**

 **Now again, I'm going to explain some context since I believe that there are some things I'm sure that not many can get on their first read or like their ten read through.**

 **From the main series, Fairy Tail defeats Phantom Lord, it's no surprise really, but they way they did it just feels… it feels shallow to me. Before the fight, Phantom Lord was hyped up to be equal to Fairy Tail in quality. In actuality, only Juvia, Gajeel, and maybe Aria seemed like decent mages.**

 **Aria's fight was especially disappointing to me since I think that was the first time Erza defeated overwhelming odds against her. Everyone complains about her battle with Irene, but I think her battle with Aria might have played a role in building that fight considering she still one shot him at his best while she was injured.**

 **… Huh.**

 **So here, I basically buffed everyone to actually deserve the title of being one of the two best guilds in Fiore.**

 **Sol actually puts up a damn fight against Elfman powered up, Aria is actually a beast like he's supposed to be, and Totomaru… oh. I did forget something.**

 **I could go on about my OCs, the Captains, but that would take up more than half of this chapter. (Which reminds me, I completely skipped Erza versus Alexandra because I was having trouble trying to write their fight both technical wise and story wise. I'll try to make that up later in the future.)**

 **Instead, I want to say this: sometimes, villain OCs irk me due to them just appearing as obstacles and nearly nothing more, or just serving as future allies. It's been done to death a lot.**

 **But if you want my opinion on how to make them actually likeable and more than just their gimmicks, here's a tip:**

 **"Establish a Relationship with Cannon Main Cast."**

 **What I mean by the mentioned above IS NOT A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP.**

 **I repeat: NOT A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP.**

 **The new OCs I made are meant to "compliment" already existing characters. What I mean by this is that they are meant to bring out the sides of villain characters that you don't see.**

 **Voyu Carliso was an absolute must in this story to further flesh out or arguably create a proper back story for Jose Porla. Voyu brings out a side of Jose that doesn't exist in the mains series: Jose's humanity. Their relationship shows more layers to their personalities that no one else sees.**

 **It doesn't just have to be friends, there are many more types of relationships like boss and worker, teacher student, rivals, and etc. (Romance could work, but that's another can of worms I'm not opening.)**

 **The point is that they have to have a proper relationship with any character. Do not just state Person X is related to Person Y and leave it at that. That's just lazy and almost always poorly written. At least have the decency to add more to each character because of this different relationship! As siblings at least do they have a good or bad relationship? Do they understand their quirks, their ticks more or less than others? My sibling and I don't always get along, but sometimes we end up sharing things we would never tell our parents or best friends.**

 **"Long Story Short" : don't be afraid to add more to people's character rather than power. I'd rather read a story with a character with too much personality than one with too little.**

 ***Looks at rant***

 **Great, I'm turning into Svane Vulfbad/Lorgar Aurelian and Minipa. Watch me take all these author notes and make my own writing tips mini blog because of how bitter I am at reading all the disappointing fics. (JOKE! JOKE! I'm kidding guys; I still love your works… Minipa and Lorgar Aurelian, I mean. I still stand by the fact a large majority of stories here makes me feel sad.)**

 **Anyway, we're finally at the last stretch of the Phantom Lord VS Fairy Tail arc! Trust me when I say there are surprises in store.**

 **Thank you all for reading!**


	17. Chapter 17

**This is your final warning!** " Makarov's voice echoed with power. " **Call them off, now!** "

At last… Jose blinked before sighing. "You really don't remember do you?" He said with a trace of disappointment, yet it felt like he was half expecting him to do that.

His reaction was not what the Fairy Tail guild master was expecting. " **What are you talking about?** "

"55 years ago." Jose began, confusing Makarov. "It was when I was 4 years old that we truly first met."

"First met?" While keeping his guard up, Makarov eased on the power he was exerting. He was surprised they had actually met before and that he was older than he looked.

"The town of Figo Valley," Jose's voice was eerily calm but there was some restrained control behind it. "Do you remember that?"

"Figo Valley? What about—" In one instant, Makarov dropped his accumulated energy. His eyes widened, his mouth gapped, and his hands shivered.

"So you do remember. I'm actually impressed." Jose scoffed with venomous sarcasm.

"N-No! That… that means you're… you're…!"

"Why don't I say it for the both of us?" There was Jose's teasing tone before, but there was no smile as he said this, no playful tone… only scorn and rising hatred. "I'm the **only** survivor of Figo Valley."

Makarov could only gape in shock at the mind-blowing fact. "T-There was a survivor?"

At the reaction, Jose's eyes snapped open as he pointed towards Makarov. "YES! I am a survivor! And I've waited over fifty years for this very moment!"

He threw out the case he was carrying and it dramatically opened. The Fairy Tail Guild Master could only stare as Jose brought out a fine looking and deep black dagger.

"Finally! **FINALLY!** " Jose shouted with every power his lungs could muster as he gripped the weapon out and tossed aside the brief case like nothing. "Fifty years of suffering have all been leading up to this!"

Makarov thought that dagger would be used against him. They both knew that the Fairy Tail Guild master was still stronger despite both claiming the title of Wizard Saint. So was the dagger the edge he would—

The old mage stopped dead even in his own thoughts.

He did not expect Jose to _stab himself_ with the black dagger.

"Gaaaagghh!" Jose roared in pain as he drove the knife further into his own heart. The older mage could only stare in horror and shock at the baffling move. However, as milliseconds passed, Makarov noticed blood was not coming out of the knife.

Blood wasn't pitch black.

The old man could only watch as the inky black like substance spread out across Jose's body then started to form in to something horribly familiar. The black liquid solidified into armor with a white star in the center and large bat like wings that expanded to encompass a large area.

It looked like…

"That looks like Kain's armor…" Makarov gasped as he realized his hands were shivering and he was starting to sweat.

But as he did that, he also realized that he looked down and away from his opponent—

He didn't even notice Jose closing the gap and punching him with enough force to not only pin Makarov to the ground, but create a crater and explosion of black energy that spread throughout all of Magnolia and broke nearly every single window and some nearby buildings throughout the city.

* * *

In a distant area, someone smiled, seemingly looking on to a random direction on top of a cliff.

"Soooo," The figure turned to see Bora, excommunicated Titan Nose mage, looking nervously around. "Why are we here again?"

To his right, Fero walked up, fixing his uniform as he did. "We're just waiting for our ride, one of the Boss' personal pets."

"Pets?" Bora repeated in confusion before he heard the boss speak up.

"I think of him more fondly as a partner of sorts than a pet." Ryan Peloth turned with a smile and behind him something appeared from the cliff that was flying right behind him.

"Aah! Wyvern!" Bora pointed as he noticed the black, flying dragonic creature behind their leader.

"Bora, please calm yourself. That's the ride I was referring to awhile ago," Fero sighed, which only made the excommunicated mage look at him in shock. "Second of all, that's not a wyvern. Please take a closer look."

Bora did so and took a closer look at the flying creature before them. It had a face that looked much like that of a wyvern, had a wingspan that looked similar, but unlike dragons or wyverns, this creature did not have legs at all. Only a serpent like body with black scales and deep black eyes with white irises he barely noticed.

"Amphithere. This dragonic beast is called an Amphithere; they are categorized as evolutionary cousins to Wyverns, Drakes, Wyrms and Lindwurms… basically all lesser Dragons." Ryan answered for him as he lifted his hand out, allowing the deep black creature to lower his head so that Ryan may pet it.

Bora calmed down seeing the creature was on their side. "Huh, boss, it's the same color of the object you sold to Phantom Lord, isn't it?"

The boss smiled once more but Bora didn't know if it was because of his answer or something else completely. "It is, but there is really no connection to that beyond the similar colors."

Bora would find that out as a lie far too late.

* * *

As the dust settled, Jose picked up Makarov from the crater he made with the impact and slapped Makarov twice. The sound of metal slamming hard against flesh echoed through the area followed by a filtered voice that sounded far more horrifying than a while ago.

"Don't you dare fall asleep, Makarov. I want you awake when you see your 'family' crushed beneath my feet. "Jose told him darkly before he raised his fist.

Makarov saw the plated fist and quickly used his expansion magic to repel Jose by expanding into a giant. The black knight looked up to see Makarov towering over him and quickly used his fist to punch right for him. The blow was powerful enough to cause the entire cathedral floor to start cracking around them, but it wasn't strong enough to crush Jose since he was using both arms to push the fist back up even though the ground beneath him was giving way. Jose started exerting more pressure and screamed louder as he did so. When he did, he performed a feat unimaginable: He lifted up Makarov in one of his giant forms!

Makarov was too surprised as Jose lifted him over and slammed him down into the broken ground. But he wasn't done yet as he then tossed him with enough force to break through a sizeable portion of the cathedral wall and into several buildings unlucky to be in the giant's path. After the crash, Makarov shrunk back to his normal size and got back up from the throw albeit a bit dizzily.

He heard the sound of metal clanking on stone and looked up to see Jose walking towards him with black armor eerily similar to that of Kain's red armor.

"What happened," Makarov coughed as he got back up. "in Figo Valley was an accident."

Jose stopped in such a way that was so abrupt, it was actually scary in response to the words that escaped Makarov's mouth.

There was a blur of black followed by the sound of metal impacting on flesh with the force of a locomotive. Instead of flying from the punch that could break a house a hundred times over, Makarov was caught and choke slammed down into the ground.

"Accident!?" Even a dragon's roar was pitiful and miserable when compared to the roar of anger that Jose shouted. "I watched in forced, silent horror as you stabbed an energy sword through my father's chest! And I had to bury my father when I was four! Do you know how I had to dig him a proper grave through heavy rain, crippling hunger, bloody hands, and through tears that would thrice de hydrate any large man!? Do you even realize I repeated that horrifying practice to EVERY single one of my uncles, my aunts, my brothers and sisters that you killed!? Did you know how I was haunted every second afterward on how I could do nothing but listen to their screams as their lives were taken from them!?"

Jose lifted Makarov up and slammed him into the ground with enough force to make the wizard saint gasp, cause a massive crater to appear, and make the earth around them shake uncontrollably.

"Do you know what it was like, shivering out in the wild cold, missing every single millisecond of when my mother would whisper sweet lullabies to my ear every night in her warm embrace!?"

Makarov tried to fire a magic claw at Jose's head to distract him. However, Jose's other hand caught it and instantly crushed it.

"I lost everything!" Jose's wrathful bellowing was cut short when his voice cracked. "I went through hell…" His voice grew softer, and of all things, Makarov heard him sniff and sob once. For the briefest of seconds, either by how hard he was hit or by some illusion… the master of Fairy Tail didn't see a powerful and destructive Wizard Saint. He saw a broken and angry child… orphaned by his greatest sin.

However, that image quickly died as it came as Jose's fury returned like that of a boomerang made by a god of murder. "All because of your reckless use of magic!"

Then Jose lifted his hand in order to punch him one more time. However, this time, Makarov did something different. Instead of expanding, he made his body shrink to a tiny size to avoid the punch and escape the choke hold. Makarov landed on Jose's arm, quickly raced up to his head and punched him. Despite being the size of cupcake, when Makrov punched, it felt like he was in his giant size as it was now Jose's turn to be sent flying through a few buildings.

Makarov gasped for breath, returned to his normal size and wobbled, showing that he was struggling to even stand straight from the few blows into the battle. His miniaturizing spell was always tricky to pull off to keep his weight and momentum as a normal person. He looked to where Jose was sent flying and said, "I… I lost things too that day…"

As the smoke died, Jose was seen standing tall with no sign of dents in his armor. Makarov knew if that black armor was anything like Kain's, it dramatically increased one's resistance to magic. But that the user of the armor is still vulnerable to physical attacks.

However, the major problem was that Kain had no combat practice whatsoever. Jose was the complete opposite of that.

"Things… not everything." Jose darkly responded as the air around him started to pop. Makarov noticed Jose's shadow starting to move… then expand… and then split.

A dozen or so 'shadow' clones of Jose appeared in his armor form.

" **But rest assured that will change before the sun falls.** " All clones cried out before rushing for Makarov.

* * *

The group consisting of Lucy, Mira, Éclair, Momon, and Kain had run around so much that they found themselves back to the Fairy Tail guild hall.

"Kain," Lucy began as she gasped for breath, "Where do we go now!?"

Before he could answer, his sharper senses detected over a dozen magical humming sounds in the distance and quickly acted. "Scatter!"

The red knight instantly tackled Lucy before a hail of giant metal spears pierced the ground where the group was originally.

"Mira! Éclair!" Lucy cried out as she got back up from Kain tackling her out of the way of those metal spears.

However, something else landed with a boom in the side where Lucy and Kain were. Instead of another giant spear, it was Gajeel who was growling angrily towards the direction of the two.

Kain reacted fast and fired a horizontal sword beam right for the steel dragon slayer. Gajeel reclined his fist and punched the ground in such a way that a boulder appeared that took the blast instead. Kain's increased hearing heard Gajeel instantly inhaling which prompted him to jump out of the way before an Iron Dragon's Roar hit him. Even though the wyvern rider dodged the attack, Gajeel shot out of the cover and performed a lariat on the armored young man with enough force to send him flying back to his guild.

"Kain!" Lucy yelled before Gajeel turned to her with a snarl.

"You're a real pain in the ass, you rich spoiled brat." Gajeel spat out darkly as he started to stalk towards the blonde.

"Stay back!" Lucy changed back into the Celestial Robes of Sagittarius and quickly fired an arrow at him that split into six more of them.

Gajeel's hand turned to a sword that swatted away the attacks and closed in to punch her in the face. "Well, at least you can fight back somewhat. So this won't be a total waste of time. But still… I'm pissed off right now and from what I remember: I just had to keep you alive, nobody said anything about a broken arm or two…"

The iron dragon slayer stopped in his tracks before turning and ducking his head from a thrown wooden table.

Gajeel turned to see Kain in his armor, but even while still armed, his body was heaving and gasping for air heavily.

"I…don't know why I used the last good table left in the guild as a projectile." Kain's voice was even tired as he commented. This time, there was hesitation written his movements as he slowly went to a fighting stance.

Gajeel gave a feral smile as he pointed mockingly to the displaced young man. "Ha! Listen, kid, it doesn't matter what power you have, you'll never defeat me!"

Kain instantly dropped his fighting stance as soon as he said that. He was right after all, he wasn't Natsu or Erza. He was just some guy with a magic armor—that was the only reason why he actually contributed anything. He couldn't hope to beat Gajeel who was obviously a veteran warrior.

"Face it! Without that armor, you're a nobody! You can't even use magic!" Gajeel laughed as he looked at the defeated looking boy.

"Kain…" Lucy weakly whispered as she looked at Kain seemingly giving up.

However, Kain had a different reaction to that last insult. Gajeel was right. He was absolutely right.

"Aha…haha… HAhahaha!" Both Gajeel and Lucy were surprised to see Kain go from slow chuckling to boisterous laughter.

"O-Oh, ooohh! Y-You're right." Kain said as he calmed himself down and stood back up straight and tall.

Gajeel, utterly baffled at someone looking motivated by an insult of all things raised his brow and blurted out, "What?"

"I said you're right. I don't have magic. I can't fight like a mage…" Kain drew out his blade once more and pointed it to Gajeel. "So I should stop fighting like a mage, and start fighting like a magician!"

His declaration confused everyone within earshot. Yet no one had the chance to question him as he started to run right for Gajeel again with his sword drawn. Whatever was coming his way, Gajeel knew he would be able to counter anything coming his wa—

Lucy gaped when she saw Kain suddenly stop and throw _something_ at Gajeel. She stared at it, seeing some kind of small, glowing sphere—

Then it caused a bright flash of light that momentarily blinded the two of them.

Closing her eyes, Lucy heard Gajeel scream then suddenly be silenced by a grunt of pain after a heavy blow.

As her sight came back to her, Lucy focused and noticed something off.

"You bastard! That was cheap!" Gajeel cried out as his sight was slowly coming back together. However, something caught his attention as he noticed he was unable to part his arms. To his surprise, there was a sticky, gooey substance that was keeping his arms together. The iron dragon slayer tried to pull his arms apart but struggled greatly as he failed to rip through the gooey substance.

It was then that Kain came in with a powerful blow that hit Gajeel in the face and sent him flying right into one of his metal spears.

Lucy started to recall how Kain originally planned to fight without The Morpher. He didn't actually fight, he relied on magic toys to disorient his opponent so he could escape or help Team Valiant in any way he could. But now that he could fight, he was using his gear to help patch the fact Kain still couldn't fight well yet.

Kain was fighting strategically.

( _I've become ANIME BATMAN!_ ) Or in his mind, he became the hero Magnolia doesn't deserve and definitely not the one they needed right now.

Gajeel could fight any mage, but Kain knew how to do one thing Gajeel didn't expect: cheat like his life depended on it—which it did actually.

Seeing his opponent come back up, Kain threw his next item, the Nausea Marbles. Now doubt these would make Gajeel trip and fal—

"Urrgh!" Gajeel fell to his knees and practically touched his own… well we'll leave it to your imagination.

( _Eww. So apparently, these things are basically portable motion sickness for dragon slayers. Good to know._ ) The wyvern rider felt bad, but not bad enough to concentrate his blade and fire a powerful sword beam right at the downed man. The force of the impact made Gajeel slam into one of his large metal pillars, but Kain wasn't done, using his moderate level super speed, he jumped, reclined his fist and let loose his strongest punch right on Gajeel before he could even bounce off the metal rod.

The impact of the blow sent Gajeel flying some distance back and caused nearby metal rods to start to fall and collapse by the impact.

Kain landed on his feet and powered his armor down, gasping for breath as he did.

"K-Kain!" The young man turned around to see Lucy running up to him. "Y-You did it! You beat Gajeel!"

A smile appeared on Kain's face as he heard this. "Y-Yeah! I did! And it's all thanks to the power of cheating like hell! … What the heck am I saying?"

Lucy couldn't help but chuckle at Kain's random blurting. However, it was cut short as Lucy recalled something important. "We need to find Mira and the others."

Kain agreed yet as soon as he did, the two froze. There was a something in the air that felt… wrong. The wyvern rider instantly activated his armor, but no sooner than he did, something had sped right into him and slammed him into the ground.

"You know…" Lucy gasped in horror as she saw Gajeel back up from that powerful blow. Gajeel was injured, but instead of looking weaker, he was giving off a strong spike of magical power that was so thick, they both could see a physical aura glowing off him. "That may have been a cheap shot, but damn that stung, brat." His skin started to turn into pure steel, making the phantom lord mage look at it with obvious interest. "Huh. I seem to recall Metalicana once mentioning something called, Dragon Force that bolstered a dragon's power. I'm pissed off, but it seems you made me unlock it." Gajeel exerted more force into his arm, denting the armor around Kain's neck and causing the red armored boy to start choking for air. "It's only fair I beat you senseless for making me unlock this!"

"Leave him alone!" Lucy cried out as she ran up in Taurus Clothes and swung his mighty axe at Gajeel. However, all Gajeel did to counter Lucy was stop all her enhanced strength behind the axe with one hand easily. He gripped on the axe, cracking it, and breaking some shards he instantly ate.

"Thanks for the meal!" Gajeel cried out before unleashing a new burst of magical power. In less than a blink of an eye both Lucy and Kain were kicked, punched, and blasted with a boosted onslaught of Gajeel.

To finish off his assault, he threw both Lucy and Kain with such force that he threw them back into the Fairy Tail guild and out towards the sea behind them.

Even though his world was spinning, Kain slowly struggled to get off the ground. To his side he saw Lucy coughing up blood and quickly he started to panic. "L-Lucy? A-Are you alright?"

She groaned but still didn't say anything more.

This was getting them absolutely nowhere. Everyone was too busy with everything else, Natsu and the others were still in Phantom Lord's guild, Master Makrov was fighting Jose, and everyone else was dealing with Phantom Lord mages. With Lucy down for the count, that only left Kain alone against Gajeel once more.

This time, Kain was greatly weakened, injured, beyond exhausted, and all alone to fight Gajeel who he never beat once during their encounters and was now boosted in both speed and power exponentially. He had a bad feeling those cheap tricks he pulled off earlier wouldn't work as well a second time.

With great effort, Kain forced himself up and turned to see Gajeel slowly walking towards them.

"You know the more I think about it, this was rather interesting. Annoying as hell, but at least I wasn't bored the whole time." His cocky voice even sounded somewhat distorted to Kain. Were even his heightened senses starting to lose it?

That was stupidly unfair. Was Gajeel one of those bad guys that went, 'This isn't even my final form!'?

( _Okay, Universe, this is the part where you let the hero some kind of miracle power up! I'd really appreciate one right now!_ )

Sadly for Kain, this was not one of those stories as Gajeel ran and punched Kain again, making him fly closer towards the edge of the sea—

( _Wait! That's it! There_ _ **is**_ _one last thing I can do!_ ) The armored wyvern rider forced himself up through horrible agony and did his best to enter a fighting stance against Gajeel. He had one last chance! One last hope to beat Gajeel!

"Ha! Alright, kid, I gotta admit: you've got spunk for choosing to stand fighting for your last moments." The phantom lord mage was obviously impressed that he chose to die fighting. "Still nothing personal!" The iron dragon slayer turned his hand into a giant blade with intent to pierce through his weakened armor.

Even with that, Kain remained firm then quickly spun—throwing his cape right into Gajeel's face while rolling to avoid the blade!

This action served two purposes: one was to use that one moment to distract Gajeel. The second was to use that distraction in order to pull of Kain's last hope. The armored young man grabbed the phantom lord mage's arm blade and with great effort, threw him with enough force into the sea!

"Wha—GAH!?" The iron dragon slayer screamed before there was a loud splash of water. ( _Jerk! I'll get him for—wait. Why am I not floating up?_ ) It took Gajeel a second to realize that in his Dragon Force mode, his skin turned to steel, effectively increasing his density and weight tenfold. He was now sinking fast into the bottom of the sea!

( _Shit!_ ) Against his will, the iron dragon slayer let go of the Dragon Force ability and started swimming back up before he could run out of air.

The black haired mage gasped as his head popped back up from the water. "Okay, screw that kid! I'm killing—"

However, what he said would never be finished as he felt a shadow on top of him and looked up… to see Kain getting ready to punch him!

"AAAHHH!" With all the force he could muster, Kain threw everything into that one punch. He knew that because of Gajeel's increased weight under the Dragon Force, he would instantly sink if he reached the sea. This would mean he'd have to power down to his much more vulnerable base state in order to get back up and breathe oxygen.

That gave Kain the opening he needed. As soon as the red wyvern rider threw Gajeel into the sea, he used his honed senses to zero in when Gajeel was coming back up. Before he completely came to the surface, Kain jumped and prayed harder than he ever did in his life to whatever being up there that this would be enough.

Kain's coated and empowered fist made contact with Gajeel's normal skin while it wasn't hardened. No sooner than it made contact, the water around the two actually parted, creating a shockwave that made it look like the water turned into a crater for an instant before Gajeel was sent back down into the ocean like a meteor with a visible trail of air as if to say Gajeel was hit with enough force to momentarily cut through the deep pressures of water.

With the blow over, Kain also fell into the water, seemingly losing all strength he had left.

Back at the guild, Momon pointed over to the injured Celestial Mage and shouted behind him. "I found Lucy!"

Éclair and Mira ran to where he was and towards their injured friend. "Lucy! Lucy!" Mira cried out as Éclair checked her pulse.

"She's alive, but weak." The usually brunette said before Momon flew to them worried.

"I can't find Kain anywhere!" The bird told them, instantly making all of them look around for any sign of the displaced boy.

There was a thud coming from nearby that made the girls look over to see Kain carrying Gajeel up back into dry land before dropping on to his knees and powering down his armor.

The young boy coughed water and blood disturbingly, causing Mira to run up to him.

"Kain! Are you alright!?" She cried as she tried to somehow help him if he needed it.

"In pain…. Ow…. Few words only…." Kain managed to gasp in between breaths.

" _K-Kain? Are you there!? It's me Warren! I think I've set up the link back in Magnolia, but I can't reach Master Makarov._ " Warren's voice reached back to the group, signaling he had woken up from Voyu's attack.

Kain stood back up but then started to stumble forward. Mirajane was thankfully quick to steady him again. However, she was worried that he was pushing himself. "Kain, you've done enough. You've got to rest."

"Appreciate it…. Not yet…." Kain returned before activating his armor again. Mira let go and the dented armor started to fix itself back into pristine condition. " _Fairy Tail, this is Kain. Report progress!_ "

There was a cornucopia of voices speaking out: all of them of varying levels of tired, exhausted, injured and so on… however, there was good news in that the stream of Phantom Lord reinforcements had stopped and they seemed to be making progress in dwindling the numbers of their enemy.

Kain looked down at Gajeel who was currently out cold. Yet he continued to over see how things were going. " _If there are no more signs of portals, I can only assume that Mystogan has either defeated or is currently keeping Voyu busy. Foxtrot, are you still there? Can you spot the master from your vantage point?_ "

" _Sorry Kain, we've been forced out some minutes back when a group tried to rush us. Tango Team helped retake it, but now Magnolia is covered with smoke and dust. We can barely see anything anymore._ "

There was a sudden shaking in the ground that many felt throughout all of Magnolia.

Kain looked towards Mira. "Watch over Lucy and Gajeel for me."

Before she could even say something, Kain was gone with the wind following after him and blowing the long hair of the ladies.

Éclair, after fixing her hair, noticed something. "Is it me, or was he faster just now?"

Mirajane looked towards where the wind was blowing. As she looked back… Kain was faster than usual…

* * *

When I was good distance away, and finding a relatively safe spot among the fighting, I powered down the armor and started coughing blood again. My body showed no surface pain but it seemed like the damaged armor translated the pain to internal feelings. Nothing really felt like it was bleeding, but seriously, it felt like every corner of my body was hurting like hell. I have to even support myself by leaning on a wall.

All things considered though, it was still better than actually having my fleshed pierced. And despite how stupidly in pain I was to the point where I felt my eyes so heavy that I feared if they were closed too long I would faint right on the spot, I could still move.

It was then that the ground shook violently again, forcing me to change back into my armor to avoid some falling debris.

This reminded me something else that was stupid was going on: Makarov VS Jose which was basically Goku and Vegeta's battle when they first met. Whoever wins, anyone caught in the crossfire would no doubt lose.

And I had to make sure no one actually did.

As I made my way towards the cathedral area, I was surprised to see that the Cathedral itself was still standing even with all its windows broken and a large giant shaped hole on one side. It was everything else around it that looked far worse. Thing was though, everywhere around was so damaged, I had no clear sign of where the two dragged their battle.

But then I remembered the holo map created in the Cathedral. Master Makrov deactivated it when the doors came crashing in, but it should still work… maybe.

" _Warren, has anyone seen Jose or Makarov? They're no longer near the Cathedral._ "

After activating the map and still seeing working, I noticed we lost 125 of the thunder Lacrima orbs of the Thunder Palace out of 300, effectively halving it's strength from awhile ago.

"Beggars can't be choosers, and we don't seem to be losing much anymore which means we should have saved the rest…"

" _Kain, some of our guys said they might have spotted Master making a beeline out of the town towards the east._ "

East? Wait, if I recalled the map, wasn't there nothing but empty land there?

" _He's probably leading Jose there so there will be less collateral damage._ " I mused as I checked the map. There were indeed some powerful signatures—wait no, it's only picking up one there. That's odd.

And considering how stories usually go and how I'm currently in one, the tiniest details ended up causing the most darn trouble.

" _Warren, I'm heading east._ "

" _What, why!?_ "

" _I_ _have a bad feeling at what originally knocked out your telepathic link before. My armor seemed to react to it, and I am the only one available to get to him fast enough._ " What I wouldn't give to have Jet back right now. " _Warren, have our remaining groups support whichever team needs it most. You'll be in charge of leading everyone when I get out of your range._ "

" _W-What me?! You and master were way better at leading than me!_ "

" _I trust you, Warren. I'm sure you can do it, and don't be afraid to ask for help._ " The ground shook again, making me realize these tremors we were feeling came from outside the city. " _Good luck!_ "

With that, I moved again with my armor, running like the Flash would. I never really thought much about the super speed and strength I was using outside of the fights I was dragged in. The only real time I properly reflected on these powers was in the first week of testing the armor, and even then I was so caught up with how everyone was potentially trying to kill me.

I put those thoughts aside as I entered through the desert like area east of Magnolia. Odd, I felt faster—no time for that! Where's master Makarov and Jose—

 **KABOOM**!

* * *

Wizard Saints.

They are awarded by the Fiore Magic Council to some of the most powerful and acclaimed mages of their land.

There are ten in total; the top four are considered The Gods of Ishgar, effectively meaning that they are not only the strongest in one kingdom, but the entire continent, other Kingdoms included beyond that of Fiore.

But… has anyone ever wondered what a battle between two opposing Saints would be like?

One could mainly argue that it depends purely on their choice of magic. Some magic are subtler than others and some can be considered direct counters. Considering at least, Draculous Hyberion, the ranked second among the Wizard Saints, his preferred magic is based on paralysis. With this in mind, you could argue fights are just as simple as normal mages.

However, there is a major consensus that if two Wizard Saints were to do battle to the death— **KABOOM** —with every ounce of their power— **FSSHHBOOM** —then it is best to pray that you are not within a hundred mile radius of their battle.

 **KRACKOOM!**

Makarov whisked around the battlefield like a bumblebee. He was also the size of one, yet his 'sting' was with the force of one billion stings.

To any untrained eye it looked like armored shadow clones were getting destroyed and exploding left and right to an invisible enemy. Yet Makarov had to rely on his shrinking part of his body growth magic to win this fight.

The shade clones of Makarov were still fast and were capable of firing magic that would no doubt take down even an S-class mage. This point was only proven more when Makarov would dodge one spell, whatever poor boulder or cactus that was hit was not only vaporized—but almost everything around it was erased as if it was never there in the first place.

But while Makarov had speed and mobility, Jose had endurance, stamina, and numbers.

Eventually, one of the shade clones was quick enough to catch a tiny Makarov by slamming his hands together. No sooner than he did, other Jose shades instantly dogpiled on the one to ensure that he would remain caught and maybe crushed.

However, the dogpile did not last as soon Makarov then escaped by expanding back into a giant and throwing off all the shades away.

But even this was planed as the original Jose had already started running and gathering energy in his fist the moment Makarov was first caught. When the giant freed himself, he instantly noticed the real Jose already in the air with his fist reclined.

" **Thousand Wails!** " Jose let loose the punch that exploded with black magic that unleashed a sound that felt like a thousand souls crying out in pain and caused the massive giant to blanch from the blow and fall down and cover a great amount of distance and cause a gigantic crater from the force of the impact.

Jose landed back on the ground and shouted. "STAND UP MAKAROV! STAND UP! YOU ARE NOT GETTING OUT OF THIS **THAT** EASILY! EVERY SINGLE BREATH I'VE TAKEN FOR THE PAST 55 YEARS HAS BEEN LEADING UP TO THIS BATTLE! UNLEASH EVERY OUNCE OF YOUR POWER, TAP INTO EVERY SKILL YOU HAVE EVER LEARNED, REMEMBER EVERY BATTLE THAT HAS MADE YOU THIS DAY—SO THAT I MAY CRUSH IT WITH ABSOLUTE POWER LIKE YOU DID TO MY LOVED ONES!"

The black armored wizard saint then quickly ran up to Makarov's waist while still a giant and then with the strength of his new weapon _lifted_ up the massive giant and threw him into the air.

The air around Jose's feet seemed to gather as he bent down—then leapt up higher than skyscraper with a single bound. Jose yelled as he gathered a dangerous amount of energy in both of his fists and raced closer and closer to giant Makarov's stomach.

" **ONE MILLION WAILS!** "

Then the sky exploded with a boom that had a thousand unrecognizable faces but many more screams that encompassed Magnolia, and Phantom Lord's guild.

Everyone stopped and looked to the sky that was filled with such pained horror that for the briefest of time, everyone forgot that they were in war.

Back during the fight; however, there was a small sphere that shot out from the sky and landed down the beaten earth with an unstable crash. As dust settled, it revealed a fairly small sphere with a Fairy Tail symbol on it.

As the sphere faded, Makarov was seen sweating profusely and gasping for air while coughing blood.

"He's… so powerful… I can't believe I had to use… Fairy Sphere… even though… I had never truly mastered a small version of it…" The Fairy Tail guild master gasped in pain.

There was another powerful crash not to fair from him, causing Makarov to blanch inwardly and almost outwardly.

Out of the smoke, Jose walked out. Makarov was able to deal his fair share of physical blows enough to knock out a man fifty times over. Yet Jose took it in stride—no. It was as if Jose long lost control of his own body and acted purely and soley on vengeance, the amount of punishment that even Jose had taken would have even forced Makarov's friends to stop, but Jose seemed be inhumanly ignoring all attempts to stop him from this fight.

It was no matter how much damage he did, it wouldn't affect Jose—it was like he couldn't actually touch him—like a phantom…

A true Phantom Lord.

Jose walked up to Makarov but then stopped. "… There is… one thing…"

Makarov looked in confusion as Jose stopped in his tracks.

"Did you ever… regret it? Killing all those people?"

Makarov stopped panting and tried to look Jose in the eye. "… It has haunted me in my worst nightmares. But to know that you actually lived through my mistake? I can only imagine what hell you went through… I'm truly sorry."

An apology.

In a battle between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord those three words popped up between two of ten people considered the strongest in Ishgar.

Jose for the first time in their fight seemed to loosen up. However, "We both know those words mean nothing as of right now, pretty as they are."

Makarov closed his eyes and sighed. "That's the sad thing: I wish they weren't just pretty sounding words."

Makarov's eyes then snapped open as he used his magic chain and shot it right behind him. Instead of pulling him away, he was using it to propel himself forward with great force and punched Jose with gathered energy in his fist.

Jose roared and dropped every last shred of mercy left as he ran right for Makarov with renewed anger and blinding battle-lust.

However, unlike before, Makarov stood his ground and sighed deeply. The smaller guild master avoided a wide area of effect attack by jumping far back and the firing a large light based magic with the intention of blinding Jose. It worked since Jose was forced to put his plated arm over his visor to protect his eyes. As he put his hand down; however, the Phantom Lord noticed that Makarov's hand was stretched really, really far back.

At the end, of such a stretch, did that look like a sonic boo—

Jose didn't have much time to react to a fist coming into his abdomen with the speed of a hundred bullets. Even with the enhanced armor, he could feel his entire being, even his own blood, feel the sting of that blow before being thrown like a skipped rock across the desert area.

However, while that move would have thrice put even the best of S-class mages down and out for months, Jose's inhuman endurance was still kicking in. Makarov was absolutely amazed as it seemed like Jose was actually clinging onto the ground he was sliding on, creating a large scar on the earth, but desperately grabbing onto anything his limbs could stabilize him with. In all of his years of fighting, the Fairy Tail guild master had never met an opponent with such pain tolerance that went beyond the realms of possibility.

The two continued their two-man war from before. However, with far more intensity as spells of light and shadow tore the land, the very air, and even the dust in their battle. The two were—if possible—putting out even more power that dwarfed the entirety of both their guilds and were now fighting with magical levels that could be felt in over half of Fiore.

But unfortunately for the Phantom Lord, it was too late. Makarov admitted that the initial shock of the fact that Jose came from Figo Valley was horrifying, but it also made him fight worse than he already planned to since he had to make sure he wouldn't hit any of his 'children' while the two were in Magnolia.

Now Makarov was far, far away from Magnolia. Now Makarov had said all he could say to Jose about his past.

Now Makarov Dreyar could stop holding back.

For the very first time in decades, the Wizard Saint was slowly becoming more and more zen. His old battle senses he thought he lost in his prime, were coming back to him in this fight. His body seemed to move on old instincts, dodging in ways even his conscious mind couldn't keep up with and unleashing spells he thought he had forgotten.

Jose Porla had enhanced speed, enhanced magical power, and he even had tenacity that would put the greatest of Zeref's demons to utter shame.

But the sad truth of the matter was this: Jose was still not strong enough to beat Makarov.

There was a tiny piece of Jose's mind not devoted to pure vengeance that noticed the opposing Wizard Saint was slowly getting the upper hand. He was running out of time and Makarov knew this as well. The two were about to end their legendary war.

" **ONE MILLION—** "

" **Omni—** "

Both men began some of their most powerful spells…

"— **WAILS!** "

"— **Punch!** "

Once more, Jose unleashed an unprecedented amount of magic that started to take the form of beings with faces, mouths, and eyes all rushing for Makarov. However, Makarov threw his fist at the incoming faced magic—then his fist suddenly and almost instantly turned giant sized and rocketed with so much force that it punched through the attack of Jose and directly hit and caught the armored Wizard Saint.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" Makarov wasn't done as he poured more magic, shooting the giant fist outward like a rocket and revealing it was stretching miles and miles, hitting left over cliffs and rock formations and knocking them over like bowling pins. Makarov's fist went further and faster until some distance away it actually exploded, then created something like a mushroom cloud that was then followed by the earth shaking violently.

With magic, Makarov reeled his fist back and turned it back to normal. However, he fell to his knees and gasped for air. He had put every ounce of magic in his best battle spells before Fairy Law.

There was a sound behind him that made Makarov look back and see a left over shade clone he never noticed. That was catastrophic since Makarov had barely any power to fight back and it seemed the left over shade was autonomous!

However, there was a blurr of red that seemed to cut down the shade in half. Makarov stared before the shade vanished in a puff of smoke and Kain was there, gasping for breath and looking completely dusty and dirty.

"M-Master?! Are you alright?!" Kain asked as he ran up to him.

"Kain, what are you doing here!?" On one hand, he was worried that potentially his weakest member was out here in his battle between him and Jose. On the other hand, Kain had just saved his life. "No wait, Kain! Bring me to where I unleashed my attack on Jose! I need to know what happened!"

The red rider nodded before picking him up and using his moderate level of speed to head towards ground zero of Master's last attack.

When the two got there, they quickly noticed the smoke dying down… and that Jose…

Jose was out cold and strangely back to normal. Makarov looked around briefly noticed the knife beside Jose starting to crack and instantly turn to dust before Kain seemed to notice.

However, that was not the time nor the place.

Makarov fell to his knees when Kain momentarily put him down and tried to reach for something in his coat. "K-Kain. Please, end it!" He took out special looking cuffs out unsteadily towards the red rider. "Hurry and put these on him! They are cuffs the Magic Council use to prevent mages from using their magic; it can even work on someone like me—but go!"

Without wasting a second, Kain did what he was told and cuffed Jose. The cuffs started to glow and flash blue no sooner they were cuffed around the unconscious Jose.

"All guild masters… are given one pair of cuffs… as an emergency in case they need to shelter… a criminal in their guild… before the authorities… take them…" Makarov looked at Kain while trying to explain it. "I thought I would be wise to bring them out in case I knock Jose out…"

"I-I see…" Makarov actually noticed something about Kain that was somewhat different. There was tiredness in his voice as well but was there also… nervousness?

Thinking back, Makarov then recalled seeing something red just before he was hit in the sky. "Kain… how much did you hear?"

To the horror of the master, Kain visibly winced at the question. Of course, Kain's senses were heightened while in the armor which meant that he heard the conversation during their fight. He must have been hiding somewhere safe or far, not that Makarov would have been able to afford to pay attention to that.

…Again he made the mistake of not paying close attention to his surroundings. Had he truly learned nothing? Had it not been Kain, who was thankfully sane enough to stay away from the fight between guild masters until it was necessary to, would they have been caught in the collateral damage?

Perhaps… it was truly time to let go.

"55 years ago…" Makarov began as he looked up to the sky where the dust clouds were parting and the sun was slowly coming back. "The Magic Council had privately hired me and my team to capture an escape convict, Jumanda Hagu. A mage who had practiced telepathic magic so much, he could control people's minds against their will. Goldmine tracked him to Figo Valley, but I—in my impatience to get this job done and utter arrogance thinking no one could beat me—split up the team."

Makarov could tell by Kain's subtle movements he was horrified at the idea of splitting the team up against a mind controller—he truly was smarter than him.

"Jumanda got the jump on me. His magic was more than I thought I could resist. However, in a desperate attempt to control my mind, Jumanda locked me in a nightmare where I believed myself to be surrounded by monsters attacking me."

"… They weren't monsters or illusions… were they?" Kain said as he looked over to Jose's unconscious body. It was strange that despite how horrifying Jose was mere seconds ago, he looked strangely… peaceful while unconscious.

"No." That one word seemed to hurt Master Makarov more than he could admit. But the look of shame across his face only showed that there was more.

"One of our newer team members at the time, and someone who joined us for that mission, was one of the first to find and try to snap me out of Jumanda's control…" Makarov gasped as he then put his hand over his eyes and seemed to grit his teeth in utter shame and disgust with himself.

"But she wasn't powerful at all and was unable to stop me," Kain was surprised with the mention of a female guild mate. "And one of the many crimes Jumanda was charged for was…."

What he implied made Kain realize what kind of horrible potential mind control could do.

Those two facts caused Kain to gape in confused horror when he realized that those two things could be added together. "He didn't…" He managed to gasp.

"No," Makarov gripped his fist tight so tightly blood was coming out of his hands. "He was too focused in controlling me, but Illana was beautiful," Kain decided to note but say nothing about the name Master let out. "So he forced _me_ to…"

Kain had enough and put his hand on his master's shoulder. "Master, that's enough, you don't have to torture yourself remembering anymore."

"That bastard watched us…"

"Master!" Kain said and finally depowered his armor and looked Makarov in the eye. "I… I never got to say this, did I?"

"Say… what?" It looked as if Makarov feared words such as how disgusting he acted or how foolish he was.

He was not expecting something kind. "Thank you for letting me join Fairy Tail."

Makarov just looked at the disheveled and obviously tired looking boy with utter confusion. "Excuse me?"

"I mean it. If you had said no when we first met, I wouldn't have known what to do. You helped me even when I was so confused and lost in where I was. So… thank you, I really do appreciate it."

"Why are you saying this?" Makarov asked with a bewildered expression.

"Because," Kain responded. However, he just hoped his heart could speak well enough for him considering his brain was aching like hell. "Because for all the bad you did, I think you did some good as well. Please don't forget that too."

Master Makarov looked to his feet as the boy said those heartfelt words. "Thank you." He whispered honestly.

Since Kain felt bad for master, he pulled him into a hug. It felt weird treating an older and more acclaimed person like a child, but to the displaced boy's surprise, Makarov returned the hug as well. Despite no wearing the armor, Kain could feel tears on his torso coming through his shirt.

It was sad wasn't it? Makarov's greatest mistake still had consequences up to now. Jose actually revealed his reason for hating Fairy Tail and while what happened to him does not give him the right to do this, it did explain so much of his actions. Jose blamed Makarov and Makarov truly did believe himself the one who let the criminal Jumanda get the best of him.

Despite there being a physical winner, it seemed like no one won between Jose and Makarov. They both lost a long time ago.

But wait a second. Something didn't make sense to Kain as he thought back to this tragedy:

Why did the Magic Council _**privately**_ hire Makarov's team?

Before Kain could go any further with those thoughts, he heard a voice.

"It appears I am rather late. How inauspicious."

Kain turned back and saw a man carrying a glass of very red wine styled in such a way that it reminded him of old school Dracula. It was rather shocking, unlike all the times before, how did the man get so close to them without either him or Makarov noticing?!

Makarov stopped and quickly turned to the man who had owned that voice. He rubbed his eyes then stared in awe at who it was in front of him. "Draculous Hyberion?"

"Say who now?" Kain raised his brow in shock.

"H-He's the second ranked Wizard Saint! Basically Ishgar's second strongest mage: The Vampire Slayer, Draculous Hyberion! What are you doing here!?"

"The vampire slayer title is far exaggerated than you know Makarov," The elegant man stated. "I seem to recall telling you all that I killed only one very weakened Vampire Lord and that's it, but I'm not here to talk about me, Makarov, I'm here for you and Jose." The man pointed over to the downed man. "I was asked to stop whatever it was you two were about to do, but according to their sources, Jose had a portal mage friend thus complicating the process all together."

"They?" It seemed Makarov had said what Kain was thinking as they both noticed the use of the pronoun from the man.

Draculous pointed to something, causing the two to follow his sight.

At first, it was just the horizon, but in the distance the two were starting to notice something take shape…

"Master, what's that?"

" _Those,_ Kain," Makarov corrected before he gulped. "Are the Magic Council's main army, the Rune Knights."

Over the skies of Magnolia, several dozen strange aircrafts floated above or beside the Thunder Palace. Rune Knights fell by ropes or magical platforms, trying to stop whatever fighting was left—not that it was needed since neither Fairy Tail or Phantom Lord were foolish enough to take on the Rune Knights.

On the Phantom Lord guild, around fifteen mages halted their destructive and wild battle when a group of fifteen Rune Knights appeared right in the center of the fight.

"If only you could have teleported us all from all the way from Era, Doranbolt." Someone among the new group said as they fixed their glasses.

"Hey, just because the files say Voyu Carliso is capable of opening portals nearly anywhere in Ishgar, doesn't automatically mean I can match someone of that mastery, Lahar!"

And with the appearance of the Rune Knights all over Magnolia, the war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord had ended.

* * *

"Fairy Tail has done it again!" Members of the Magic council cried out, one in particular named Org with long white hair shouted.

"That is unfair to Fairy Tail, Councilman Org." A blue haired, young council man by the name of Siegrain countered from the opposite side. "Even Jose Porla has formally and vocally admitted he was the one to initiate this guild war."

"And guess what we also found out?" Councilwoman Belno began in with the topic of Jose brought up. "He was a survivor of the Jumanda Hagu incident where he used his emotion manipulation magic on Makarov Dreyar to eradicate the small, isolated village! Does anyone even realize what this means!? Jose has fortunately said nothing and is still choosing to be silent in exchange for his guild's punishment lowered to being only temporarily disbanded for a short period of time, but now all Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord mages have been noted to the previous existence of Figo Valley!"

"It also doesn't help that the guild master at the time," Councilman Leiji added in, "Precht Gaebolg, convinced us to keep the matter hush-hush."

"Now that's a bold faced lie even among the art of politics, Council man Leiji." Councilwoman Ultear began. "Let's all be real here. The Magic Council at the time wanted to save face for a mistake in letting Jumanda Hagu escape in the first place and trying to only hire a small team to capture him back. They let Makarov go because Precht was practically considered the equal of Warrod Sequen, one of the four gods of Ishgar, and someone not to be crossed in any circumstance."

"You ungrateful—"

"Michello," Councilman Yajima quickly cut off his fellow member from instantly doing something that would lead to more pointless arguing. "As someone one directly in the Figo Valley incident first hand, you must understand the politics at the time were necessary due to decreasing public opinions on the Magic Council."

"That's not the point of it all!" Org began speaking again. "The point of this is that Figo Valley has been brought to light, therefore, sooner or later the magic council will face scrutiny if someone sharp puts all the pieces together! We must take action for our mistakes now before further damage can be done."

Yajima had a bad feeling about this. The council almost always meant self preservation when they say, 'Take action for their mistakes.'

"Which is why, I propose…"

Yajima's horrible feeling only became worse as Org gave out his plan, and only became amplified greatly when over half of the magic council agreed to his plan.

* * *

Fairy Tail stared in shock. After finally getting things partially together after the Phantom Lord Fight, the Magic Council came with a decree that forever changed them.

"By order of the Magic Council," A frog representative began in front of a Fairy Tail trying to rebuild the city and their guild, "Master Makarov is here by fired as Master of Fairy Tail and suspended of his rights as Wizard Saint due to failure to adhere to hundreds of violations against Phantom Lord!"

Before anyone could say anything else to voice their protest, they all found out the representative was not done talking.

Fairy Tail wished that Master Makarov being fired was the only bad thing.

"However, since a Mage Guild cannot function without a proper representative, the Magic Council recognizes Laxus Dreyar as the Fourth Fairy Tail Guild Master!"

* * *

 **Main re-edit #1 2/19/2018. *Added more build up to the end of Makarov VS Jose.* (Thanks to Lorgar Aurelian/Formerly Svane Vulfbad for the tips in how to better end the fight.)**


	18. Chapter 18

The world of Earthland is a place filled with magic and stories of epic adventure, romance, and friendships…

The stories you are about to hear are decidedly _not_ like any of those major themes.

* * *

[Kageyama: Former Criminal, Currently Humanitarian.]

It was cold, it was dark, Magnolia was in the process of starting to rebuild due to the attack from Phantom Lord.

However, on one corner of the City, a young woman with long blond hair, dressed for the cold stood at the very edge of a half broken building. She sighed deeply, feeling the wind in her hair and how gravity was so close to pulling her off the edge…

"Don't jump."

The woman gasped when a hand touched her shoulder and turned back to see Kageyama Maru from Fairy Tail standing behind her. "Please. Not here… I mean Magnolia Cathedral is just a few blocks down, there's a way better chance of you dying by throwing yourself there than in this place where you might have a decent chance of surviving. Trust me; I've seen people survive the craziest crap." His tone sounded honest at first, but then by the end it started to turn more light hearted and somewhat—

"You're making **jokes**?" The blonde woman asked in utter shock before Kageyama quickly wrapped his arm around her other shoulder and threw his hand out to the front of the two of them.

"You see, my entire life is one grand cosmic joke, so—"

"Get off!" The woman said as she pushed Kageyama away from her. However, the shadow mage seemingly went with the flow and ended up twirling from the push and sat on the edge the girl was standing on.

"So I'm Kageyama. What's your—"

"Don't." The girl harshly interrupted.

"Don't what?"

"Don't pretend to care."

It was then Kageyama pointed to the girl in a scolding like manner. "Don't be presumptuous! I don't care. **Yet**. Here I am trying to actually be a decent person, but you're making it awfully hard to do so. What? Was it some asshole boy? An asshole girl? Money? An ancient Evil Flute?"

The girl could only stare in anger and disbelief. "Are you trying to make me jump?"

"No! Never! … Though I do have certain effect on a large amount of people." Kageyama smiled while the back of his mind thought back to Fairy Tail and how he wasn't truly welcomed yet. He then shook his head and tried something else. "Look, hasn't this place seen enough tragedy? Phantom Lord pretty much decimated the entire city in their war with Fairy Tail before I even had to pay my rent in my new place here. The last thing this place needs is your soul haunting the place."

"Sooo, yeah. I'm sure literally any of the saints and heroes back in Fairy Tail could say something profound to instantly make you feel better, but…" Kage looked out to the city and just shrugged his shoulders.

"…I'm all you got."

After hearing those words, the girl started to cry and let tears fall from face. She had technically heard great things from the number one guild in Magnolia and all of its mages. So hearing that the worst of the best was the only one there for her made her feel… more miserable.

Kageyama pointed over towards the Cathedral with his thumb after standing back up. "Well again— the cathedral is right over there."

"I hate you."

"If I had a jewel every time I heard that." Kageyama then said to her, "Let me make you an offer: if you're that determined that this is going to be your last night on Earthland, what do you want to do? Have you seen the hit play my guild mates have been hosting, 'Frederick and Yanderica'?"

"You're a maniac!" The girl said through the tears. "What is wrong with you? No. I haven't seen it. And anyway, aren't tickets now a million jewels and impossible to get?"

Kageyama beamed with pride. "Ha! Don't worry, I know a guy with tickets!"

Later…

 **BAM! POW! WHAM!**

"Rosebud…" an old man and woman groaned as Kageyama and the girl took their seats in the balcony of the theater.

"I can't believe you! Are they going to be okay?" The blonde girl asked in shock but still sat on the seats as down below most of Team Valiant was putting up a play that without a doubt was going to spiral out of control.

Kage quickly responded. "I said I knew a guy with tickets, I didn't say he would give them to us. And don't worry about these two, these guys are drug lords I've been trailing a while back."

Afterward, Kageyama and the girl were walking out of the theater.

"See? I had a blast! They say the endings are never the same and it was fun to watch some of my guild mates squirm like that." Kage then turned to the girl, "Where to now?"

"Magnolia Cathedral."

"Ha! So you can make a joke—wait, are you not joking?" Kage's smile faded when he realized the girl was still deadly serious.

After a while, the two were found cruising down the streets on a motorcycle.

"Did we just steal one of those new Lacrima Motorcycles?" The girl asked as she tried to position herself so the wind wouldn't hit her directly on the face.

While driving, Kageyama responded, "I dunno, did we? What does your heart tell you? C'mon! We had **Fun**. Right? Aren't you glad you picked a building near my address to fail to off yourself?"

"Yeah, sure. But I think you have a pretty good handle on things without me. Like the rest of the world. You can let me off anywhere."

To the surprise of the girl, Kageyama stopped the stolen vehicle even though she didn't see the Cathedral nearby.

"No. I can't. I'm smart enough to know I'm dumb enough that I can't help you." The girl looked at shock when Kageyama pointed to the building in front of them: an emergency clinic. "But **they** can."

The woman turned to Kageyama with rage across her face. "You promised to let me go!"

In response, Kage was still calm. "I am. This is where you and I part ways. I've been sending messages to the staff. They're expecting you."

The girl seemed conflicted but then sighed. "What if I don't wanna go inside? Are you going to make me?"

For the first time that night, Kageyama seemed unsure. "I-I dunno. I don't think I'll have to because… I think you wanna walk in." Kageyam didn't pride himself as being able to read people well, but he truly did hope to whatever being up there that he was seeing traces of her considering the opposite. "Will you walk in with me? Plus maybe we can visit all the elderly people I accidentally beat up when sneaking into the theater."

However, Kageyama looked at the girl with an honest face. "Look, I don't think you're crazy. You just need a little help. And I am **not** the guy to help you."

For the longest second, the girl looked at Kageyama. It was then that she got off… and walked into the clinic with the shadow mage.

From outside the clinic, someone who was watching Kageyama practically the whole time stared in wonder.

"Éclair, can we go now? I don't think he's going to hurt her after all." Momon the flying bird asked while he shivered in the cold of the night.

"… Yes, let's go."

[End]

* * *

[Laxus and the Thunder Legion: In the end, it doesn't even matter~.]

"Whoa! Nice going, Laxus! You're finally the Guild Master!" Bickslow of the Thunder Legion congratulated their leader, Laxus Dreyar.

"It should have been given to you sooner," Evergreen of the Thunder Legion added in. "But none the less, congratulations, Master."

"Hmph!" Laxus grunted with a smile until he noticed something, or rather a lack of something. "Hey, where's Freed? I thought he would be with you two?"

"Huh? You didn't send him off to a special mission? We haven't seen him in a few days." Bickslow answered.

The door opening made the three look back to a rather disheveled and exhausted looking Freed who had just entered, panting for air but looking very proud of himself.

"Laxus, do not worry! Even though the war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord ruined most of the script magic I had originally set up after months and months of sneaking around Magnolia—and almost was eaten whole by Ignis the one time I was carless near the guild—I have rushed non-stop without food or sleep the past two days to restore every single damage! Now by the time the Fantasia Festival starts, we can ensure your take over to become guild master!"

Bickslow and Evergreen eyed each other nervously before looking to Laxus.

The fourth guild master of Fairy Tail had this unreadable look on his face before he opened his mouth… then closed it. He took a few more contemplative seconds before opening his mouth again.

"Freed, sit down. There's something I need to tell you."

Outside the guild master office, Kain was wondering why he felt like heard the sounds of hard work being fruitless and someone doing muffled sobbing.

As he opened the door, he was greeted with the strange sight of the Thunder Legion all hugging a crying Freed who was just crying and crying… "I'm so hungry… I could eat a horse!" Then he cried even more.

Kain did not visibly react but silently closed the door behind him and told himself he saw nothing.

[End]

* * *

['Siegran' Fernandes: Mixing business and pleasure.]

The Wizard Saint known as Siegran Fernandes sat down near his desk as he saw the files and recent reports on the Phantom Lord-Fairy Tail war.

A smirk appeared on his lips as he took a special magical Lacrima that was labeled: Team Valiant.

In it was a detailed record of the current members of said team. He would have to study each of their characters, abilities, and weaknesses… especially that of Erza Scarlet.

There was a sound echoing on the marble floor, like that of a woman's high heels hitting the floor as they came closer before stopping nearby him. "I see you're not even wasting time."

Siegran didn't even turn to the voice before he closed his eyes and returned, "I would just like to make sure that all my bases are covered." He activated the orb crystal as it opened with a glowing light and brought up a magical screen with five human pictures. "According to these files, all members of Team Valiant, even their quote-unquote 'weak' members," The blue haired man pointed lightly towards a certain lawyer and heiress before continuing, "are capable by their reports. So much in fact that I believe that the current employment of Trinity Raven from Death's Head Order, will actually not suffice in subduing my opponents."

"So? What will you do?"

The blue haired Wizard Saint calmly put his hands together and stared once more at the file picture of Erza Scarlet. "Why, hire more help of course. There is no shame in bolstering one's forces when their opponents do the same."

He turned his head to see Ultear of the Magic Council with a smile. "I have some ideas on who I want. Do you?"

"Are you asking me?"

"I have a feeling that you might be more help if you were there." The council man's eyes wandered dangerously to that of a young lawyer. "Among those in Team Valiant, one of them seems to baffle me no matter how many plans I take, a wild card if you will… and I quite loathe the idea of wild cards in my game."

The raven haired woman gave a small laugh. "Actually, I too am somewhat interested in this… wild card… you speak off. I'm rather interested why someone so insignificant and pathetic was accepted among the likes of Fairy Tail."

Siegran silently agreed on why something even lower than the mages of Fairy Tail, a normal person, was welcomed among them even with a super weapon attached to him.

Still, he'll be nothing more of something amusing by the time his plan comes to play.

Oh, it's fun just thinking about it.

[End]

* * *

[Bora: The City of Otwill.]

Far to the western coast of Fiore, there was a beach city known as Otwill, known for its elaborate water passage ways that fill the city, boat transportations instead of road vehicles, and known to have an infamous smell due to said water.

In this town, three men threaded among some of the many bridges that connected over somme of the many water ways the city had.

"Welcome to Otwill, Bora! I do hope it's too your liking!" Ryan Peloth jubilantly threw his hands out in the air as he did a little twirl while walking on a bride.

The one referred to as Bora was currently pinching his nose hard, considering nearly no one else was doing this in the city; it was an obvious giveaway that he was new. "It smells horrible."

"You get used to it." Fero spoke out as he walked beside his associate. "This is our main base after all. Despite how it looks on the outside, this place is where rogues and the likes of the black market exist."

The three turned to an alley way where there was a steel door with graffiti written all over it.

Ryan Peloth knocked on the door five times in a specific pattern before a magic circle appeared in front of his face.

"What is the password?"

The leader cleared his throat before saying, "Ryan Ta Peloth."

Bora stared in shock. "The password is your full name!?" He harshly whispered.

"No," The voice from the magic circle began with a sigh. "It's not the darn password, but that is definitely our Boss who wants his name as a password even though we keep telling him it's stupid!"

"No one suspects names to be passwords!" Ryan began in a manner in which he seemed insulted. "Come on, Oshen, I think it's clever."

The magic circle faded and the large door opened. Bora didn't really know what to expect on who was behind the door, be he was never expecting to see the one behind the door was a long-legged green troll with upward tusks growing out of his mouth.

"This one's head is full of damn stupid ideas!" Oshen the long legged troll pointed to Ryan as he looked towards Bora.

"If they're so stupid," Ryan began as he walked in through the door which led to a stairs to go underground. "Why do they work?"

"Because the universe just wants to see the rest of us suffer under your damn whimsical nature." Oshen retorted as he walked behind him.

Fero was about to walk after them until he noticed Bora with a gapping mouth.

"Oh? You didn't know? We're basically an International illegal business. We have more different races down there."

"W-Wait!? Other races!?" Bora practically choked on those words as they came out. "You mean we're more than just humans?"

"If it was just humans, we wouldn't be as effective. Come now, Bora, we mustn't lose our boss. And I if you reacted like that to Oshen, one of the more serene members, I truly doubt you want to see how you will react towards our more animated coworkers," Fero motioned the man to follow him down the stairs. As Bora walked passed him, Fero started closing the door behind them. "Here's a fact I'm telling you now: humans are the most common species, but the most fragile of them all."

Then the door slammed behind them.

[End]

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Foolish, fools! Did you actually expect me quickly addressing the previous cliffhanger?! Mwahahaha!**

 **I apologize for the whole, random interlude chapter. But I didn't really want to start writing a real chapter after that climatic fight and I thought that a small amount of short stories here would better suit to easing everyone down before things pick up again when I tackle some other major arcs.**

 **Kageyama's short chapter is directly taken from a Deadpool comic. It might even be dubbed on youtube so it's really good.**

 **I think Kageyama kind of fits Deadpool in this scenario and I just wanted his character to be focused on more. Also, suicide is a real issue, kids, reach out to people if they need it.**

 **I'm not going to say much about the Thunder Legion skit since that's more just for comedic effect. Though, I did recall Freed's magic was based mostly on preparation. So if Laxus was indeed made Guild Master, it means all the work he did was absolutely useless. Poor guy.**

 **Otwill was the small intro into the world building to come for this story. I'm excited for my ideas for this story and I do hope all of you will like it down the line.**

" **Siegran" 's passage is basically just setting up the next major arc in Fairy Tail. Since by now, I can safely say that Team Valiant here is stronger than the ones in Cannon or at least have more spell variety. As such, a buff of enemies and a twist is needed to counter the new growth of the main heroes.**

 **So yeah. Just a short collection of things all happening throughout Magnolia. Nothing too ground breaking or anything.**

 **Now to put aside talk about the actual chapter, and some hints into the next one! I am very excited because the next arc literally cracks open the possibilities of world with lore and culture that Mishma never freaking expanded on.**

 **Just a fair warning that I'm retconning a few world-building themes he had in Cannon and making a whole new one: you'll start to see it more next chapter, I swear. It's one of the main things that I really would have loved to see in a magical world.**

 **Thank you for reading, see ya all soon!**


	19. Chapter 19

**{Author Notes}**

 **Due to the increase of workload my schedule, I've decided to upload chapters either bi weekly at the absolute best or monthly. I apologize for any inconvenience.**

* * *

I frowned as I finished the last paper.

"It's done. I've helped finished all 'firing' papers. I didn't even know when the Council fires guild masters, there's an even more annoying process of filling more paperwork." I then stood up and started walking towards my… old boss… across his soon-to-be-no-longer-his room.

"It's a horrible rule, to be sure. But it's the Magic Council, they're practically second to the king." Makarov said as I handed him the last paper and he put it in a file to straighten out slowly.

"And here I thought one form of government was complicated back in my world." Ah? I was already being snarky? Was I that sad that I regressed to my natural self defense?

"Oh believe me, there are some strained issues between the King of Fiore and the Magic Council." Makarov chuckled with a smile. "Now then all that's left is for my blasted grandson to come in and sign the papers."

No sooner than he said this, the doors to Master Makarov's—I mean Mr. Dreyar's old office opened up revealing Laxus smiling wide as he came through the door.

"It's about time I get this crummy guild as my own!" The blonde cried out with a boisterous and proud voice.

I felt my chest tightening when hearing those words. The guild may have its flaws and sources of headaches, but it was usually a fun and welcoming place to be. Why would Laxus even call it crummy?

"Just sign the paper here and it should be complete." Mr. Dreyar said simply as he walked out of his seat and handed a quilted pen to the larger man.

"Man, you sure did it this time old man. The council pretty much has you by the balls this time, and not even your fancy new lawyer can do anything for you!" I was very, very aware he was passive aggressively mentioning me, but for the life of me I had to do my darnest not to react. Now was not the time for me to lose it.

Makarov seemed sigh but then said. "I suppose you're right. It'll mean you get the guild now."

It was rather simple but then I noticed something in Laxus' face for the briefest of seconds, he looked almost angry and frustrated? What?

However, his face also went back to a normal smug look as he took the pen then went over to the desk and signed the paper. "There! Now get lost, gramps!"

I saw Makarov seemingly not react to that as he walked out to the door but stopped just before the exit and turned towards Laxus. "I'll be visiting your grandmother."

That caught my attention as I saw Laxus visibly react in surprise too.

"I'll tell her you said hi." And with that, Makarov was no longer Fairy Tail's master. It was kind of sad considering Lucy and I were still the newest members of the guild. But even though we were new, we could already recognize how much we were going to miss Master Makarov.

(At that time, I didn't know Makarov had actually decided to keep something secret from Laxus that was supposed to be passed down between Guild master ownership. However, in his defense, Laxus probably didn't earn it at the time.)

"Hey brat!" Two seconds in and I now have to force myself not to run out those doors and beg Makarov to stay.

I turned to Laxus. "Yes, Master Laxus?"

"Master Laxus huh? I like the sound of it!" Glad someone enjoyed it—I felt like barfing a little after forcing out my mouth. Jeeze brain, he's a jerk but I thought we agreed with Makarov we'll try to give him a chance?! Hopefully he'll earn it later. "Get me some coffee and then gather all the other losers around the main temporary hub area! There's going to be some changes I want immediately!"

God, I have a feeling you already sent me away to a world without you to spite me, but if you're somehow still listening, can you please give me the strength to go on… and a whole lot of it please?

* * *

It didn't take long for a rather grumpy looking crowd—was grumpy really a good word to use? Apprehensive might work better— to gather around.

In the center, I stood to the side as Laxus looked at everyone with the same smug smile that got old the moment it first came up.

"Alright listen up! I'm guild master now, and there's going to be some changes around here."

Ooooohhhhh nooooo.

"For one, I heard about how you guys were almost completely swarmed due to sheer numbers." I disliked that was what he was focusing on—in hindsight—anything else would probably just have been bad. "So I think it's time to raise the amount of members this guild takes. 100 is a pretty small number isn't it? Especially compared to our rivals in Phantom Lord?"

And he's making sense. How horrifying.

"Since the guild is getting re built to be bigger, how about a little homework? You guys should go out and try to find more guild members to join in."

Why is this sounding alright? What am I missing in his under tones?

"That's all. Go on about your day."

Great, now I'm paranoid.

"You alright, Kain?" I turned to see Lucy and the others coming up to me.

"Alright as I'll be. I can't believe I already miss Makarov." I ended up sighing as I said.

"I can't believe they fired him, I mean we were always on bad terms with the Magic Council, but to think they actually did it," Gray added in.

"Yeah, the guild just isn't the same without gramps." Natsu added his comment in.

"You know what? No! After all we did to protect Fairy Tail and to stop my father, we deserve some nice R&R!" She took out a bunch of tickets and pointed them towards my direction. "While you and Master were trying to work out details of the next Guild Master for the past few days, Loke gave us tickets to Akane Resort, the best resort in all of Ishgar!"

"Huh really?" I looked around for the glasses wearing mage in the area but so no sign of him. "Remind me to thank him when he comes back into the guild."

"And apparently, he's a Celestial Spirit!" Natsu shouted which Happy only agreed to.

That comment made me freeze before I slowly turned to Lucy.

"Y-Yeah… apparently all this time, he was the Celestial Leo Spirit? … And he was actually banished for accidentally killing his former contractor… and I had to use my power to bring him back to the stars all while you were doing paper work? Who knew right?" Lucy tried to laugh—only for it to grow weaker and more forced with each passing second.

Erza seemed to speak up carefully. "Kain, you're glaring."

"Am I now?" That does explain why my vision is dangerously narrowing. "Apologizes, I'm just really tired of this world seemingly always finding a way to surprise me."

Lucy brightened up and threw the tickets back out in my direction. "All the more reason to finally kick back and relax!"

I admit the idea of having a real vacation seemed to appeal to me greatly. But there was something in the back of my mind that would not let me rest now matter how much I wanted to. However, opening the idea of travel? There might be a compromise to it all.

"Lucy, I know this sounds mean, but is there a chance we can exchange these tickets for somewhere else?"

"What!?" Lucy seemed a little hurt as she grabbed the tickets back and held them like a life line. "Where else could you want to go that isn't the number one vacation area in Fiore?!"

That was a surprisingly easy answer for me.

"I want to go to Sun Village."

Everyone stared at me, but I looked back at Natsu. "I think it's time to finally see that clue we picked up from Bora before Lucy and I entered into the guild, which means going to the town of Giants."

* * *

A little later, Team Valiant and I were up in the air with Ignis.

"I want to travel like this all the time!" Natsu screamed at the top his lungs before he tilted downward and landed freely on the back of Ignis' custom made saddle.

I ended up laughing while holding out the map. "It must be nice ridding something that doesn't give you motion sickness, isn't Natsu?"

"What are you talking about, Kain? Ignis is a friend, not a transport."

"True, but sometimes, he's treated as the best transport Fairy Tail has." I rubbed the head of the red wyvern as he gave a lazy growl.

"I dunno, there's just something… right… whenever Ignis flies us on his back." Natsu said as he inhaled deeply.

"Hey what about me?" Happy pointed to himself.

"Oh yeah, I appreciate it, but the thing is Ignis reminds me so much on those times Igneel let me fly on his back," Natsu said as he looked outside of the saddle and to the endless green mountains, hills and villages, the sun shining in the sky, and how things that were around our size looked almost like ants. It was so beautiful that it was humbling. "Every time I got on his back, I could feel his great warmth beneath me, his large heart pounding with great power, how the wind around us felt like it was lifting him further and further into the sky… and when he decided to start diving! You guys have seen Ignis do it, but Igneel made it such a rush like nothing in the world could ever hope to copy—Oh wait, Ignis you really are darn close at capturing it though, buddy! Good job!"

Natsu's giant, excited smile became a little smaller. "It was one of my absolute favorite things growing up with him, ridding on his back." He put his hand to cover the sun. "To me, that was a moment full of magic without actual magic—does that make sense?" He then gripped his fist and smiled, as if determined now more than ever to find him.

There was a feeling in the air that even I could detect. There was something about Sun Village that gave off the impression there might actually be a clue to where Natsu's dad is.

And maybe… just maybe… a way for me to get back home.

When we were closing in on Sun Village, I didn't know what I was expecting to see since it was a town of giants.

But for some unexplained reason, the word 'giant' completely slipped my mind. I say this because the Village was small only in numbers, all buildings were so large, even Ignis could barely fly over them and we were like airplane levels high in the air!

Not only that, I found out why it was called Sun Village: in the center of the town, there was a massive flame that really did give off the impression it fell off the sun itself.

When we finally got off at the village entrance, we had found out by the town giant guards that ride animals were to come along with us because there really was that much space in the Village of Giants. This meant that there was no need to find a stable for Ignis this time since he would hang out with us.

But I cannot even begin to describe what was beyond the giant gate doors that made me feel like a character from Toy Story.

Sun Village felt a lot like New York, the large buildings as far as the eye could see—just without all the darn ads you'd see every other time you turn your head and the electric billboards everywhere. But that wasn't what made this place so amazing.

It was the beings! Yes, beings, not people! As far as the eye could see, I could spot so many other mythical races! I saw two Ogres wearing armor similarly styled to those warriors of World of Warcraft, they were even green as well! I noticed a group of dwarves working steam based gear on top of a giant's stand. I witness lizard people slithering around in a pack of sorts and eyeing anyone looking at them too long—

This was the place that reminded me I really, really wasn't on earth anymore. Giants, Ogres, Bird people, dwarves, centaurs… You name it they were all—wait. I don't think I've seen an elf though. Okay so most fantasy races did exist here in Earthland; it was so cool!

"I heard rumors of the Giants opening up for the public, but never like this." Gray said as Ignis closely followed behind us.

"I've never seen so many different races in one place." I managed to say as I kept trying to see if I could spot an elf among these different races. Weird, elves are usually the first type of creatures you'd imagine in a fantasy world.

"The same here, Fiore was mostly a human country, so to see the other races here in Sun Village…" Lucy gasped as we also looked around.

"Sun Village is a mixing pot of all species on the planet," Erza began. "When Sun Village opened up, every species from across the globe wanted to see what one of the few publically open Giant towns had to offer. Even though they technically live in Fiore, the Giants are independent of both the Kingdom of Fiore and the Human Mage council."

While I was listening to her, I didn't look to where I was going and I ended up bumping into something big.

"Oh whoops, sorry—" I paused as I realized what I hit was really hairy…

To my utter surprise, I had run into a Tauren—an actual version of the tauren creatures you would see in the world of Warcraft. His fur was black as coal, his horns were long and sharp with his right one seemingly cut off long ago, but he was wearing get up that looked much like Nab's style; Native American like with feathers and head bands… and a notable runic battle axe.

"Do be mindful of your surroundings, human," He breathed in a heavy voice before turning towards Ignis and seemingly staring into his eyes. "A crimson wyvern?"

The humanoid bull looked back down at me and started stroking his beard. "Human, show me your right arm."

What? How'd he—I ended up showing him the gauntlet and as it shined off bits of the sun, the white eyes of the different species seemed to widen.

"I have had dreams," He began as he looked back at me with a rather serious look. "Dreams that even the spirits cannot make out, yet they scream the same words to the image of the crimson wyvern all the same: Do not go home."

Wha?

"Excuse me; you're making our friend feel uncomfortable." While I was still processing what he said, Erza finally stepped in between us. "I apologize, but please let us leave."

The large humanoid bull eyed Erza carefully before nodding. However, as he started to leave, he gave one last look at me. "I'd listen to the earthen spirits, boy. Their messages are always important."

"Kain, are you alright?" Erza turned to me as she put a hand on my shoulder.

"I… I don't know." I didn't realize I was holding my breath until after I gasped those words.

Do not go home? How did he know how to say that? What did he mean by that? Earthen spirits?

Spirits.

I turned as fast as my neck could allow me. "Lucy, what do you know about the Earthen Spirits?"

"I-I ah uh," The blonde celestial mage seemed to panic when I suddenly looked to her. "I um don't know what he's talking about?"

"But he said spirits, and your technically a spirit expert!"

To my shock, Lucy shook her head. "I've studied _celestial_ spirits like the ones in the constellation. He described _earthen_ spirits. And considering he's a Minotauren, he has a completely different pantheon of spirits that I'm not aware off."

Minotauren? That's what they're called here?

"I sensed weird magic coming off that guy," Natsu said as he looked in the direction where the Minotauren walked away.

"Use your brain, Natsu. Minotuaren aren't mages, they're shaman. It's against their culture to use magic." The resident ice make mage corrected.

This new bit of information surprised me. "Shaman? How is that different from being a mage?"

Erza was the one who answered next, "Mages and Shamans are fundamentally different. Mages rely on magic, as in the power within to draw out and affect the world around us. Shamans are basically the opposite in where you must pledge yourself to the world itself and it gives a shaman powers through gifts of the world. Shamans gain their power through prayers and rituals where as mages must hone their bodies, mined, and inner energy."

I absorbed that information. In a sense, magic here was modernized like technology, but Shaman mysticism was seen as the real unexplainable magic to mages here. That was very interesting.

But then, if there was a form of supernatural connection for shamans in this world… what were the spirits trying to tell me when they said I shouldn't go home? What did they mean by that? I wished I asked him what they meant more by that.

"It's getting late," I heard Lucy speak out and snap me out of my thoughts and made me look at the sun setting behind some of the large giant buildings. I never noticed it was setting because of how bright the main fire was at the center of the city.

"Yeah-yeah we should find a place to stay for the night." There was a throbbing in my head that made me put a hand on where I felt it. I had no idea what to do, but maybe it was best to put that bizarre message away for now.

* * *

Was it weird to be in a serious doll house? Let me rephrase that, in Sun Village there are no Motels, just toy stores—well they might as well be considered toy stores.

The place was called a Monument Moment, and by some info we learned, this was where non giants were allowed to sleep.

Now this next part was super cool: a giant with magic greeted us and lifted us to a table with wood, stones, trees, and gave us a quick rundown of what was to happen.

We had to either describe, or show a picture of a place we wanted to sleep in like a house, or a tree house, or a castle—he would actually make human sized houses for us and depending on what type of place we asked for, we'd have to pay the price for it.

"What should we base it off? Can we describe any place we can all fit in?" I asked as I turned to the rest of the team.

Natsu was the one to speak up. "No need, I've got a picture of Lucy's room right here. Just use that and make an extra big space for Ignis."

"Why do you have a picture of my room!?" Lucy's voice rang out when she glared at our resident fire dragon slayer who was holding out a picture of Lucy's room.

To my surprise, Erza spoke up next. "What? We all have one. See?" Gray, Happy, and she then pulled out a picture of Lucy's room.

"THAT'S NOT NORMAL GUYS!"

I put a palm on my forehead as the giant used a special tweezers to take the picture from Natsu then use a special magnifying lacrima glass to see the thing on it.

"So just this place, but bigger to fit you all, eh? No problem!" The giant began much to the protest of Lucy.

Still it was really cool to see Giants could also use magic. I guess that made sense considering all the other people here and their abilities. I wonder what kind of magic is really out there in Earthland? Man it sounds exciting just thinking about it!

Which reminds me, one of the complaints from my friends said that Fairy Tail originally had horrible world building devices. But here I am wanting to learn more about the world I'm currently in. I wonder why? Maybe the author couldn't really capture what a real world is supposed to be like?

Real world…

My home…

…

But seriously though? Why was I warned not to go home?

* * *

Lucy pretty much claimed her 'old' bed when the room was made. However, instead of her usual view, we were pretty much put on a shelf. I will not stop saying we were like toys because we were like toys to them. Toys that paid them to this but you get the idea.

After a nice sleep, we all decided to split up to fully explore the village in the morning.

Natsu, Happy, and I were going to ride Ignis and head towards the Eternal Flame in the center of the village. The flame gave a weird scent ever since Natsu saw it.

Gray was going to look around the bazaar for anything interesting, which I argued if everything was giant-sized it was automatically going to be interesting.

Which left Erza and Lucy try and talk with some of the giants in more residential areas.

We decided to travel by air, the group I was with. While there were other species that seemed to have their own idea of flying over the crowd, we soon made our way towards the Eternal Flame which was heavily guarded.

All the while we were getting closer, Natsu started sniffing the air more and more. "Kain, we need to get closer! It's faint, but I think I have Igneel's scent!" He said as he pointed excitedly towards the flame. The last time he smelled his dad's scent was in the Isle of the Undead when he fought a younger phantom of his father. So there's a high chance of him remembering what his father's scent was.

However, there was a problem as there were many giant guards protecting a large building where the flame could be seen behind an elaborate, big—by even giant standards—glass dome. It looked like no one could get in.

"The Eternal Flame is the Giant's sacred flame of the village. They're not letting any non-giant near it." I responded as I recalled the few small brochures that was placed in our newly constructed room as a form of exposure.

Natsu just pointed back at the flame. "But I can smell something like Igneel even form here! We gotta get in somehow!"

I had Ignis fly over to some of the guards. "Uh, hey? Can we see what's inside the dome please?"

To my utter surprise, the guards did not react. Was this just like Buckingham Palace where the guards are told to never react under any circumstances?

"He asked you a question, you oversized punk!" That was my cue to get Natsu to calm down and try to explain to him that they were just doing their job.

"But we gotta get in there!" Natsu repeated.

I felt for him, I really did. "Do not forget, we're technically in International Territory, Natsu. If you try anything violent here, it won't just affect the guild, it'll affect the human race when it comes to political relationships with other species and races!"

Natsu grunted, in layman's terms it basically meant he was not to destroy anything here like he would have in a normal town, even more so than usual.

"Wait," A loud voice made us look back to one of the guards surrounding the dome. He looked surprised as he asked us again, "That name, repeat it once more small, brown-haired human."

Was he referring to me? "Do you mean… Natsu, Natsu Dragneel?" I repeated with utter confusion. But my stupor only grew when the giant's eyes widened further after just hearing his name.

"Watch them, I'll get Ithca." The guard said to others nearby before leaving quickly at a pace. The other guards were watching us with wide eyes as if we were something we had never seen before.

Felling weird at all this new attention, I turned to Natsu. "Have you done anything to giants before today?"

The fired dragon slayer shook his head vehemently. "What no! This is the first time I've seen Giants too!"

"But why do they seem to know your name?"

There was a loud stepping noise as we turned our attention to see an even taller giant than the guards protecting the flame. He had big blue eyes the size of satellites and hair and beard as white as Gandalf's.

"Natsu Dragneel?" The elder giant asked as he looked over towards us.

The fire dragon slayer raised his hand. "Oh me, old man!"

"Natsu!? That was rude!" I screamed at him automatically. "You need to be more respectful!"

"Ha! It's fine, tiny!" The elder bellowed with booming laughter. "You four come with me. We'll go through a different route."

The elder giant went ahead and I got Ignis' reins ready and flew after the elder. "How do you know Natsu, sir?" I said in a loud voice near his ear.

"Ha! Call me, Ithca. As for your question, I don't but a very special guest has told us you were coming." The way he said 'special guest' made it feel like there was an inside joke only he knew about.

"Special Guest?" Happy and Natsu looked over to me as I shrugged my shoulders.

Eventually we were lead to a giant's house and ended up being lead to an underground route that was lit up by torches that were the size of normal buildings.

While flying for some time, we eventually came to the end of the large tunnel and saw stairs leading back up. As we followed Ithca up those giant stairs through Ignis, we found ourselves in front of the very, very bright Eternal Flame of Sun Village.

"Oi! You stupid freeloader!" To my utter surprise, Itcha was shouting at the flames as if it was a person. "You've got guests!"

"Freeloader?!" If I was surprised by Ithca's action, I became dumbfounded when a large voice echoed around us in response. "I helped built this damn village in the first place! To me, you're the freeloaders!"

Suddenly, the flames seemed to start to move—revealing a demonic like fire face, large wings and a tail made of pure flames, and a body…

"Natsu…" I whispered as the image clicked in my head. Even though I've only ever seen pictures, my mind was still coming to the conclusion that I was absolutely seeing the real deal. "The Eternal Flame of Sun Village is a fire dragon!"

"Whoa!" Both Happy and Natsu seemed to gasp as they looked towards the now formed Fire Dragon lazily lying around inside the giant's dome.

The fire dragon slowly tilted his head towards us. I was surprised that this dragon was just as big as a giant. "Natsu Dragneel, it's been a while hasn't it? Or is the proper term, yet?"

"What? We've met before?" Natsu tilted his head in confusion.

"Yes and no." The fire dragon began. "Hmm, let me introduce myself, I am Atlas Flame, the last of the fire dragons."

I quickly asked something off the dragon. "What do you mean, you've met Natsu before? And what did you mean by… yet…?" My mind was a huge fan of sci-fi shows, the use of future vocabulary was tickling my mind with something even more far-fetched than being in a magical world and talking to a dragon while riding on a wyvern.

"I don't quite know how it works," The Fire dragon's voice echoed around us at the time. "But I met Natsu through the use of time travel. I can sense that this Natsu Dragneel is younger than the one I first met in your immediate future."

I slapped my head. "Time Travel!? Really!? That's a thing in this world too!?" I shouted as I turned to Natsu. I was already getting headaches on a weekly basis, and to find out one of the most logic-destroying plot device exists here and **will** happen to us was horribly annoying.

"Wait, we're going to meet you again in the future?" Natsu asked the flame dragon.

"That is all I can say on the matter. The few things I do understand about time is that it's best not to reveal everything otherwise some things may not end as well as they could have." The Fire dragon began. "So, Natsu Dragneel, to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you before our pre-determined meeting?"

The fire dragon slayer swallowed. I could tell there was something about him that I never saw before. He was hesitant. So far, coming to Sun Village seemed to be his best clue so far, but was there a part of him that was just afraid that this would be another dead end?

"Hey Atlas!" Natsu began, trying to find his usual courage. "Where's Igneel!?"

The Fire dragon became oddly silent before he sighed. I instantly knew the answer before he even opened his mouth.

"I'm sorry. I do not know where my friend, Igneel, went into hiding."

The look on Natsu's face was one of utter defeat. It must have been heartbreaking to feel so close to his dad than ever before… but find out he was still right back at the beginning.

However, I was not going to let this happen to him. "Natsu, wait. Something Atlas said caught my attention."

I turned to Atlas next and asked with a loud voice. "You said hiding! And I just now realized you were hiding your existence as well! The fact the Giants have opened their village to the public… you've created a political web that practically prevents anyone from attacking here without risking the wrath of many other species!"

I shouted again, trying to drive my main point. "Why are all the dragons hiding in the first place!?" I got the impression that dragons here were something like gods, powerful, natural creatures that practically controlled the elements. So why were they near extinct and those few remaining were nearly impossible to get to?

Atlas's head lowered before he seemed to look towards Ithca.

"I'm bloody curious too about why you never left this damn spot." The giant said.

After a rather strange amount of silence, Atlas Flame looked back up to us. "That is a long story… and our greatest shame."

I signaled Ignis to land on the ground, this was going to be a long story, so I didn't want him getting tired flying all the time.

"I would like to ask a question towards Natsu before I begin. What has my friend Igneel told you about his life?"

"Huh?" Natsu did not expect such a question. As he thought about it more he started to realize something. "Wait… he never really talked about himself."

"I see." Atlas seemed contemplative with Natsu's answer. "I do not blame him in all honesty. I shall begin the story of how dragons, once many and easily the strongest race in Earthland, were hunted to near extinction and now must hide like rats in fear of their everyday."

I looked towards Natsu and Happy. We were about to find out something very big.

Everyone stayed silent as the fire dragon began a very, very ancient tale.

* * *

I shall start at the very beginning. In the world of Earthland there were only two species: the dragons and the elves.

Dragons were the elements: raw, untamed, powerful.

Elves were considered the spirit of the world. They had mind, culture, society, and potentially everything the other species now have.

However, because of our differences, the Dragons and Elves soon went into ageless war that shaped Earthland to what it is today.

Igneel and I were newborns during the last leg of the Dragon-Elf War. Eventually, even we grew up preparing to fight the elves.

The dragons had been fighting longer than even the oldest of us could remember, and we could live a very long time. But it seemed like the Dragons were finally winning. Dragons would kill elves faster than elves could kill dragons. Eventually it finally caught up as their numbers started dwindling very fast.

With one last push, led by Igneel himself, we destroyed the last Elf Kingdom and razed it to the ground, making the dragons the sole winners of the war and by rights of victory: we had owned all of Earthland.

I believe that was our first mistake: believing Earthland was ours after defeating our life-long enemy.

For a time, Dragons practically lived as kings. Taking whatever they wanted whenever they wanted and the only time they would be crossed would be if they accidentally crossed another dragon.

However, your father, my friend, Igneel hated this. He hated how the newer species born from the endless fighting between elves and dragons, were treated even less than what they were.

You need to understand. When we were young, we had dreams of joining the main broods and crushing the elves beneath our feet. Igneel was the cockiest of us all and the most talented.

However, when the two of us finally saw how fighting was to be in actual war, Igneel was disgusted with himself. He was forced to fight not mindless drones who wanted to destroy us, but living breathing beings with friendships and ideals like us.

Yet… it was either them, or him. He loathed fighting despite being the strongest of us, he hated every second of that war where he had to kill so many elves…

So when he tried to get dragons to treat the lesser species with respect, he was met with scorn. Some of the dragons believed him, but that might have been worse.

There was a split between the dragons: some that wanted to defend the lesser species, and others who believed they had won the rights to the world and they were not sharing after years of hard battling.

Igneel's quest for peace… had ironically started a civil war between dragons. It shattered him in those days and I had never seen him so despondent and defeated.

However, it only grew worse from there.

Some of the dragons on Igneel's side tried giving their magic with a human kingdom. It worked too well.

… Forgive me, am I scowling? I apologize: that particular memory always stokes my anger when I realize that there was a traitor among the dragons Igneel trusted. If that bastard didn't die during the dragon civil war, I would have hunted him down and bit off his neck myself!

*huff* *huff* I am sorry.

I will explain. You see, Igneel was elsewhere—he was trying to get me to join his cause of protecting the lesser beings. I was actually Neutral on the subject. I had no desire to truly care for the lesser beings, but I was not foolish enough to join the other side to fight against Igneel who was far stronger than me. But while we were having our arguments, the other dragons in Igneel's side were tricked to teach their magic to their chosen humans without his or Igneel's other trusted lieutenants' presence.

This was orchestrated by a dragon no one trusted—I even begged Igneel to reconsider letting him join his side, but damn him and his gentle soul! He was willing to give that bastard a chance!

Excuse me… please. Just remembering what he did… it was always too much for my friend.

I will continue. The dragon's name was Logos. He was the last of a rare element even among the dragons; he was a Dragon who could eat souls. The elves had long ago hunted the soul dragons to extinction. However, Logos was convinced that none of the other dragon broods bothered to save his people and that they let the elves kill of his brood as a form of jealousy. This idea made him hate all the other dragons with a passion.

I was always convinced that he only joined Igneel's side because it would allow him to kill the most dragons.

It was him. It had to be him. While Igneel and I were still arguing, one of Igneel's scouts came to my lair and had said that the enemy dragons had found the Igneel's army resting near a human kingdom they had been stationed, I forget the name or I never bothered remembering it. Igneel was sure he had scouts to make sure they weren't tracked, but in the back of my mind, Logos more than likely gave the message to Igneel's enemies to where his army was stationed.

As we came back, Igneel and I saw it: war between dragons. It was horrible… to see even dragons once from the same brood fight each other as if they were strangers. Igneel must have felt the worse. He wanted to unite dragons and lesser beings, not tear them apart like that.

And that was not the worst part. Logos had done something to the humans with dragon magic. They became far more unstable, and one among them killed the rest of them and took their magic for his own.

It was the human Logos taught his magic to. That particular human despised dragons almost as much as Logos did and the human started using Logos' soul magic to drain his defeated allies to gain more powers for himself! With more and more dragons dying, Logos's student stole more and more souls until he himself became powerful enough to turn into a dragon and start massacring all the other battling dragons.

Igneel, against all my cries, flew in towards Logos' student with a desperate attempt to save everyone.

I flew in after him, but not before…

Igneel's soul was ripped from him.

I was able to save his mind and body from being fully taken, but Igneel was weakened… and crying… I had never seen my friend so weak in that very moment. I never wanted to again.

I had to get him out of there. While Logos's student was attacking more and more of the dragons, I escaped with Igneel against his wishes.

I hid him in a safe zone outside my lair before I raced back to find Logos myself. I was going to get back at the bastard that did all of this.

To my utter frustration, Logos was already dead—WITH A DAMN SMILE ON HIS FACE!

*Huff. Huff*

I'm sorry. Did my burst fire hit any of you? No? Natsu handled it? Forgive me.

As much as it pained me to admit it, Logos had won. He created a human that hated dragons so much, he became something like a god with all the powers he stole that day and now hunts all other dragons into extinction.

I… and seemingly Igneel now hide from Logos' student, who I now hear goes by the name, Acnologia. And some time later, I was able to hide myself by turning myself into a giant flame to hide my dragonic presence. Then the founders of this Village found me on a winter season and built refuge near me.

The rest is in this village's history.

* * *

Atlas's tale… it was not what I had expected it to be.

"Igneel…" I looked back to see Natsu with an unreadable face. "He wanted peace?"

"He tried so hard for it. He didn't tell you his past because I believe he didn't want you to inherit his sins." Atlas responded somberly.

There was also something else that was unsaid but felt by the two touched by Igneel. A sense of pity and heartache that someone they both saw as so strong... would have such a guilt-ridden past.

This was obviously a lot for Natsu to take in. He never knew Igneel's history and now he knew it. Was it better that he never knew? I didn't know… but to know you father was technically one of the causes that dragons no longer exists… that must weigh heavily on him.

Through the silence, I started to make a motion to start talking again. "Thank you for answering our questions." It wasn't necessarily where Igneel was, but finding out why he is might have been the next best thing for now.

"Anything for the son of my brood brother." Atlas said. "Now, I must ask you keep my place secret. No one must know that I am here."

I nodded, understanding what it would mean if something far stronger than the Dragon Race itself were to catch wind of a surviving dragon in a densely populated area. "We understand," I looked back at Natsu who seemed deep in thought. "Thank you for your time."

"No, thank you. It's been a while since I've used my real body." The fire dragon said as his form started to turn back into a normal flame. "And I do enjoy better company than these blokes."

"Tch!" Ithca scoffed before looking to us. "Alright, tiny folks, go on! Get! Even a few giants know there's a secret route to the inside of the dome." The giant motioned as I got Ignis' reins and made him fly again.

However, there was something that I thought I heard Atlas mutter before we left. It was really faint, but it sounded like something like 'the end'? Considering what just happened though, I'd just have to keep my ears open for something like that.

Eventually we left the area, but Happy was still worried for Natsu. The blue cat looked at me as if I could help somehow. I really didn't know how, but maybe…

"You okay, dude? I can tell that was a lot to take in." I spoke out as I started to direct Ignis towards the Giant Bazaar and find Gray.

"I just… never knew Igneel was like that. He was always so… strong and sure of himself…" Natsu began with a look that was never usually on his face, doubt. "I never knew anything about him."

I frowned at seeing the usually boisterous, proud, and brave friend of mine look so lost. "That was his choice to hide his past from you. Whatever you do with it is your choice, but if you'll take my view? I think he was ashamed of his past. I don't think you should hold it against him for hiding it."

Natsu looked down with obvious contemplation. "Let's find Erza and the others. I'm hungry."

"Yeah… lunch does sound good right about now."

As we flew towards the Bazaar, we were surprised at everything seemingly going to hell. Magic I hadn't seen before was flying all over the place and some of the giants were trying to move other non combatants around the area.

"What the hell!?" I cried before I made Ignis swerve to the right to avoid a magical construct of a giant bird trying to eat us. "Ignis, move!"

The red wyvern started moving faster as we flew past the chaotic bazaar area.

"Aah! Kain, down there! Near that giant fruit stand!" Natsu pointed as I followed. It looked like some dwarves, ogres, and snake people were fighting, but among them? I spotted Gray with some blue haired girl fighting off some of the other species.

I fished my pockets quickly and put on my flying goggles and shouted to Natsu and Happy. "Both of you hang on to something! Natsu get ready to grab Gray!"

With that, Ignis dove down at insane speed as I yelled out, "GRAY, HEADS UP!"

The ice mage looked up then quickly said something to the girl as he grabbed her waist—making her squirm before we swooped in and Gray grabbed on to Natsu's hand as we then flew out of there before more fighting could break out in that area.

"It's great to see you guys!" Gray sighed in relief as he and the girl who seemed flushed and very familiar were helped onto the saddle by Ignis.

"M-My beloved Gray touched me…"

"Huh?" Natsu and Happy looked at the girl before they pointed at her in shock. "Aaah! It's Juvia of the Element Four!"

"What!?" I yelled as I looked at the girl. But before I could even ask why Phantom Lord was here, Gray quickly caught my attention.

"Guys, chill! She's not here to harm us! She saved me when I was attacked!"

"Oh! Gray my beloved! Standing up for me already!" I raised my brow as I swore I saw hearts in her eyes when she looked at our resident ice mage.

"Wait," I began as I looked towards her. "What do you mean attacked? Who would be stupid enough to start a fight an international neutral area?"

The stripper of Fairy Tail rubbed his neck. "I have no idea, but it was some guy with a metal jaw who seemed to be looking for Erza."

"What? Gray, start from the beginning." I said as I started to motion Ignis to get away from this place quickly and head towards the area Lucy and Erza left.

He explained while he was still just looking around the place, Juvia came up to him with intention of wanting to join Fairy Tail. Juvia explained that even with Phantom Lord soon getting back together, Voyu Carliso told her to 'follow her heart' and she did.

That explained near nothing but then Gray went back to saying that while they were talking, some large man wearing green with a metal jaw and an eye patch walked up to him demanding to know where Erza was.

"He was with a guy who looked really blocky and then they seemed to get a telepathic link that they had found her. I wanted to stop them, but then they opened fire on me. I instinctively avoided the attack and the blast hit a Cobraum—those snake folks—and they reacted violently and assumed I was the one who attacked them. The bastards got away when the fighting started to escalate."

"Why are they after Erza!?" Natsu asked with obvious anger.

There was another bad feeling in my stomach as I remembered the words of the Minotauren Shaman. I really hoped this wasn't related. "I have no idea. But I have a bad feeling about this! Ignis faster!"

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Hey everyone! We're starting a completely new take on the Tower of Heaven arc!**

 **Haha. You guys know the drill by now: things are going to be different than in cannon. I've got some fun ideas I can't wait to show this time around.**

 **Here's the first one since it might be hard to notice: I changed the location of the Tower of Heaven.**

 **I don't think it's really ground breaking, but I thought about it for a bit and I wanted to change locations of the Tower of Heaven. It's closer to Sun Village now and I gave it a good reason why it's there now. (I hope)**

 **Plus it kinda mixes things up a bit so that savvy readers won't completely guess what's about to happen. (I also hope)**

 **Now there's a lot about this chapter I want to discuss. Let's start with the introduction of the other races.**

 **I'm so excited now that I've finally brought them in.  
**

 **My favorite magical worlds are the ones with more than one race! World of Warcraft, Starcraft, even some of the Lord of the Rings, there are so many other species than humans that are just as interesting to explore. (And yes, I might explore the Machinas species here eventually. Though that's down the lane because I don't really know how to tackle them for now.)**

 **Okay, I'm moving now to the next point: Atlas Flame and a new take on the Dragon King Festival.**

 **What really can I say about this? For one, I have established a completely new lore here in Muggle Among Mages. One involving my take on why the Dragons ruled so arrogantly: they did so because they defeated their lifelong enemy and believed themselves the deserving winners of that war. I think that gives them more reason why they area against CO-existence than their cannon counterparts. Why share something with someone less when you worked hard to earn those rights?**

 **Elves now 'exist' and I have a lot of ideas on these guys and why they were considered the opposite of dragons.**

 **What else? Ah yes, the introduction of the character Logos, The Soul Dragon. The Civil War between dragons has always interested me. Yet there's barely anything much about it. In fact, my wiki visits showed me that there's more darn focus on the "Human" side of that war with Irene, Erza's mom.**

 **So I retconned it somewhat. I put more focus on the dragons instead of Irene since I firmly believe humans aren't all that.**

 **As I was constructing the new story, an idea formed in my head when I read somewhere Acnologia had somehow stolen the souls of Dragons—how? From what little I could gather, he might have been one of the humans who was chosen to be the first of the dragon slayers. But considering how much he hated dragons, who would teach him or who would he be willing to learn from?**

 **What if… Acnologia met a dragon… that hated dragons as much as him? Logos was then created, with the power to potentially be the strongest of dragons, and the one to help Acnologia into killing all dragons, he didn't care if he was going to die as long as he brought his entire race with him.**

 **What do you guys think? I've been talking with you guys more often with my thought process, because I've been told that some people like my ideas. I thought by explaining more of them, I would give future writers some ideas in their story as well.**

 **Now… Atlas Flame. I always thought of him as a very interesting character. Before he was killed off by Gray's dad (Bull Shit! Gray's dad wasn't even that tough dammit!) the idea of a real dragon existing that wasn't one of the seven hiding in the slayers was amazing.**

 **He's also considered a friend of Igneel, and sometimes considered like a brother for Igneel or an uncle of Natsu.**

 **So, I wanted to explore that relationship. What if Atlas Flame and Igneel truly were brood brothers? They are both fire dragons so I wondered how they could meet and imagining that, I sorta made Atlas Flame as Igneel's best friend. I might one day write a spin off about the two of them—might not—If I did it would include Logos and Acnologia and how they interacted and met in my brain.**

 **Wait. I should take a break in my thought process for now.**

"I was very heavily inspired to recreate the lore of the Dragon King Festival thanks to _MiraLake_." This writer wrote a very original story worth reading, _His Backstory_.

 **You guys should really read it and give it support. It's an original idea that deserves more credit than it has.**

 **I'm serious. Read it and support it.**

 **And… that was it. I tried my best to do a condensed version of what I did and why I did it. So here it is.**

 **Anyway, thank you all for sticking with my notes on the story. Thank you for reading!**


	20. Chapter 20

It had only been one day, but Lucy Heartifilia's neck was starting to get stiff by continuously looking up at the large buildings that surrounded them.

"I still can't get over how big this place is," Lucy began as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hand. "I think I finally know what it feels like to be one of my dolls."

Erza smiled at the comment before realizing something. "Ah? Careful, Lucy, Kain also made the mistake of being too distracted by the sights around him to notice the Minotauren in front of him."

The words of the responsible S-Class mage made the former heiress look in front of the path they were walking. Even though she was looking straight, she found the simple action rather hard as her eyes caught more groups or single individuals from exotic races such as the Cobraum, long-legged Trolls, the robotic magic species, Machias, the humanoid avian species, Icaruls, flying above them, and even some other humans as well, but with their clothes and skin tone, they seemed to be from other human kingdoms and/or countries.

It was then that a rather loud and young voice shouting out loud caught the attention of both women. While they both didn't know what to expect visiting the village of giants, neither imagined to spot a young preteen girl with vibrant red hair that gave the impression that it glowed like fire under the sun.

"Come visit Marita's Bakery!" The young girl was standing out in the sea of sentient races, holding a pack of fliers that seemed to promote a nearby giant's building that had the same name and picture as the artwork in the fliers she was giving out.

The girl looked over to Lucy and Erza and ran over to them excitedly. "Would you two like to enter into Marita's Bakery?"

The two couldn't help but smile at the energy of the girl. Erza turned over to Lucy. "How about it? I don't believe we've had breakfast yet."

Lucy nodded instantly before turning back to the younger girl with a smile. "We would love to go, miss?"

"M name is Flare Corona." She was more than happy to lead the two females towards the bakery in question.

The bakery itself seemed more like a café, but just giant sized. The girl Flare led both Fairy Tail mages inside where they had to climb up some stairs and walk past the view glass of the store. As they did walk, it was clever advertising to have customers walk through the viewing area to see either fake or real figures of what they had to offer. The pies and even muffins were large enough to satisfy the entire guild of Fairy Tail if not more than half at the very least.

"You know, instead of food maybe we could convince Kain to just buy giant's food and bring to the guild to feed." Erza half-joked as she looked at the bread-loaf larger than at least a dozen of their members.

"That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea." Lucy returned before Flare caught their attention and asked them to come around more.

The two allowed themselves to be led by the little girl and move closer to the window where there was a lovely view of the Sun Village seen and a sort of table area for the others to rest, a sort of miniature café area inside a café area.

"Let me get Marita over!" Flare said as he took a red hand bell and rang it. To Erza and Lucy, they didn't hear a thing. However, a few seconds later, they felt the presence loom over them to see a giant woman wearing a baker's hat and apron along with other baker like attire.

"Flare, sweetie?" The giant asked before noticing the small girl waving at her and smiled when she saw the two ladies next to her. "Ahh, welcome to Marita's! What can I interest you in? We have our hot selling Breakfast Cupcake guaranteed to feed four of your small ones for a day or two."

Erza looked to Lucy before looking back towards the baker. "Sounds good. What are the other options?"

"I'll let Flare show you the menu. I have some other orders to attend to," It was then the baker looked down fondly towards the girl named Flare. "I'll see ya again in a bit, luv."

The red haired girl practically beamed at the small goodbye and quickly tried to lead the two Fairy Tail ladies towards an empty table.

"And here we have the menu!" The young preteen happily said as she handed the normal sized items to the two ladies. "Have a great day!" The girl said as she quickly raced back down.

"Aww she's as cute as Romeo," Lucy smiled before she took the table nearby. "But I wonder why she's with the giants in the first place?"

Erza stared in the direction the little girl left. "Who knows with this place? But it does at least seem like they treat her nicely here."

With that, the two calmly began reading the menu they were given in high spirits. However, because of their positive encounter, neither woman noticed two figures heading right for them.

The two were too engrossed and curious about the menu and somewhat distracted by Flare's appearance that they were both shocked when someone had came up to their table and slammed a hand violently on their table.

Erza was first to react. "What is the—" And she was the first to suddenly freeze. Her subconscious instantly recognized the person in front of her, but her logical and conscious mind was firing thought after thought at what should have been impossible.

"Hello, _big sis_ ," A tan young man with blonde hair wearing a maroon tuxedo stood in front of a rather flabbergasted Erza.

Lucy got up as well, already picking up her keys and activating one of them by survival instinct. "What is your deal!?"

Unfortunately for the celestial mage, there was another person behind the young man. A girl with cat ears and face painting to resemble a cat had already fired magic of her own. The former heiress was already fast enough to activate the clothes of Taurus's Star Dress, but not fast enough to be able to act in them because she was instantly snared and fell to the ground, unable to break the binds and feeling disconnected from her own magic.

…

…

She also was tied up in a manner that accentuated her figure more especially wearing Taurus' choice for her star dress.

The blonde girl sighed. "Maybe Kain was on to something with that striper comment." She whispered to herself disappointingly.

"Sho!? Milliana?!" The red haired mage finally cried out after seemingly being snapped out of her stupor. "You're both alive?! And you're using magic!?"

The male addressed as Sho smiled darkly. "That's right. You're not the only one who can use it now."

"Meow!" The cat girl nearby Sho, assumingly Milliana, spoke up as the rope tightened around Lucy.

By now, some of the other species were looking towards their group. But it seemed like none of them were going to act and seemed more curious than worried.

"Milliana, stop that! Let her go!" Erza shouted in such a way that it almost seemed like she was begging. She was about to say more until a different voice spoke up.

"Hey! No magic allowed in the bakery!"

The owner of this voice was Flare Corona. Who was standing across from all of them in a proud but innocently oblivious manner and pointing to Sho accusingly.

"Beat it, kid, this doesn't concern you." Sho began as he started to glare.

This made Lucy of all people start to panic. Not wanting to involve Flare, let alone get her hurt from this, the celestial mage tried to use Taurus' strength to break free. Yet her struggles felt even worse than before, as if the rope was not only restraining her but limiting her magic.

"Sho, stop! Leave her out of this!" Erza raised her hand out towards the blond man but did nothing more. It briefly confused Lucy as to why Erza of all people was not already pulling out her blade to beat these people.

Flare pointed again, "If you don't drop whatever your doing right now, I'm calling Marita to kick you all out for disturbing the other customers!"

It was then that Milliana spoke up towards her ally after hearing the little girl. "Sho, we were warned not to catch the attention of the giants."

Sho seemed to understand that as he put his hand up and a card slid to his hands. The two Fairy Tail mages instantly noticed the spike of power.

Erza did not seemingly want to hurt her old friend and was obviously conflicted about trying to harm someone she had not seen in a while. However, Lucy was more than determined enough to not let that guy attack a young girl. While the rope seemed to be nullifying her magic, it didn't completely deplete it. The tied up young woman was able to access one magic left while still in that state.

Sho was about to use whatever magic on the girl until he felt a shadow above him. As he looked up, he was surprised and quickly got out of the way of a large battle axe appearing right above him and almost crushing him where he stood. The axe seemingly bounced from the first landing, then started flying towards Lucy. The celestial mage stood back up, and in a very impressive feat that shocked even Erza, jumped towards the spinning axe and tilted her body so slightly that the axe touched and cut the rope around her mid air which allowed her body to expand outward freely and catch the metal handle as the rope fell down and she landed back on her feet in one motion.

The celestial mage yelled as she ran up to Sho in surprise and swung the flat side of her axe at him, causing him to fly somewhat into a wall near the window.

"L-Lucy!" Erza cried out in shock that their resident celestial mage was able to pull of something like that. Yet she suppressed it in order to tell her something. "Stop attacking them, they're my friends!"

"What?!" Lucy was surprised at the sudden exclamation by her teammate, but before she could even question her, all lights disappeared from the room.

No one could see anything; this prompted the other bystanders to action as they felt themselves being attacked in utter darkness.

Among the chaos, Lucy didn't notice a tall figure right behind her…

* * *

I really, really was hoping this would also double as a simple vacation despite our major purpose for coming here. In hindsight, asking for that while I was with Fairy Tail's strongest and most trouble bound team was probably not the best idea.

Still though, "I can't believe we were attacked! It's usually the other way around with us instigating some douche bags in the first place that gets us in this kind of mess!" I said this as we continued to fly past the village, searching for any sign of Erza or Lucy and that we weren't too late.

"I don't think we always instigate things. Technically, Phantom Lord started the whole war against us," Gray pointed out before realizing our new companion. "No offense."

"Oh, Gray, my beloved! You already care for my feelings!" The way Juvia acted made me utterly baffled and strangely curious.

While ignoring how Gray was trying to ignore Juvia's attempt to glomp him, I asked our resident ice mage, "Gray, why is she like that towards you?"

Even though I asked him, the apparently former Phantom Lord mage didn't hesitate to answer for him with a dreamy look on her face and flushed cheeks. "Gray has given his heart to me! And we are promised to another!"

I felt my jaw slack when I heard that. "You mean to tell me while I and everyone else was fighting for our damn lives, you were seducing the enemy!?" I turned to Gray with a moderate glare. The hell!? Why did he suddenly decide to act like Loke in one of our toughest battles yet?!

"What no! It's not like, I swear!" Gray said to me while Juvia had another answer.

"That is exactly how it happened!"

Before things could get any further, Natsu came up to grab my shoulder and then pointed ahead. "Kain, over there!"

I followed his finger towards a giant's bakery that was currently on fire in the distance. As we raced towards the place, the bakery itself seemed to be in worse condition than I imagined as the fire was spreading wildly and some giants were already trying to prevent the flames from spreading around. Other smaller races were running around. However, Kain seemed to pay more attention to a giant woman in a baker's uniform looking around frantically beneath her.

This had the attacker's work written all over it and I quickly had Ignis fly near that baker giant. "Miss!? What's wrong!?"

"My—There's a little human girl with red hair that I lost among the chaos! Please help me! She's just a child!" The giant then looked back, trying to get back of finding any sign of the girl she briefly described.

I wanted to help her even if Lucy and Erza were in danger, but before I could even tell the others, Natsu was apparently sniffing the air and pointed once more inside the burning giant's building. "Kain, Ignis! Get in the bakery, now!"

I decided to trust Natsu, since I was still conflicted on what we should have done. Ignis flew through a giant's window but I found it to be a rash move. The building was far worse inside with insane heat, horrible smoke filling the air, and instantly making the likes of everyone not Natsu and Ignis cough violently. However, Natsu then jumped off, landing on one of the tables, but not before eating some of the flames on it.

Instinctively, I activated my armor. This move was actually a good idea since I was able to breathe again as the magical armor did have some form of protection to filter the smoke around me or something. I was thankful for the little mercy, but I needed to act fast. "Gray, I'm following Natsu! Ignis and you get the rest out of here! We'll meet you when it's safe!" I then jumped of Ignis and followed Natsu's trail of eating fire to clear his path.

I was able to catch up to him, only for him to curse. "Damn it! I thought I caught Lucy's scent here, but the burning food around here makes it impossible for me to pinpoint where she is!"

A large cracking sound coming from above us caught our attention. Instantly, both Natsu and I fired our own long range attacks at a chunk of debris about to crush us. While it did blast the boulder into tiny pieces, the table beneath us started to crack and shake, meaning our time here was more limited than we imagined. But that was the problem, we had no idea where Lucy was in all this smoke and Natsu couldn't' eat the fire fast enough. Even if he could, there was still the smoke around this place, preventing us from seeing her if she was just a few feet away from us. We could be going the opposite direction with this limited sight.

"Natsu! Kain! Over here!"

Natsu and I turned towards the sound of that voice. "Loke?" I questioned before Natsu bolted towards the sound of the voice. We didn't have time to talk about it as we ran until we spotted a burnt up, giant's loaf bread and beside it was a noticeable mop of blonde hair.

"Lucy!" Natsu cried as we both ran to her, but to our momentary surprise we saw that Lucy was holding tightly to a red haired girl—it must have been the girl the giant baker was looking for.

*CRACK!*

"Natsu, pick them up! We're getting out of here!" As I said this the cracking noise came again, only this time it came from beneath us as the wooden table seemed to have finally snapped as was starting to give way.

Natsu carried Lucy while I handled to care for the little girl. We just ran as the table started collapsing and thankfully, both of us were able to spot another window in the distance as we both raced for it.

Unfortunately for us, a giant debris fell in front of us, barring our path and started making us fall.

"Kain, jump!" Natsu cried as he jumped on falling platforms, to get higher. I would have enjoyed knowing what it would have felt to be like Super Mario if my life and the life of another literally didn't depend on it.

However, as Natsu's leg reached the other side, the pressure of that corner cracked and Nastsu began to fall. Unfortunately for me, I was moving right towards him before he fell and we both ended up falling back down without any nearby debris for us to jump on.

However, to my surprise, Natsu threw both girls to me and fired a fire whip that looked similar to Macao's and tied the three of us together before using his other hand to shoot another fire whip to catch the edge of the window.

With a powerful scream, Natsu tugged on both opposite ends, launching all of us upward and landing near the window.

"Catch them!" I was acting before Natsu could say that and caught the little red head while Natsu got Lucy. The area was just about to collapse, which left us no choice as we both busted through the window and started falling from a height that only giants would see as small.

To my relief, Ignis had swooped in and caught all of us as we fell. No sooner than we landed, Gray motioned the flying wyvern to high tail it out of the collapsing building.

* * *

Sometime later, after returning the little girl to her surrogate mother and letting Lucy explain what had happened, we raced after the assailants who took Erza. Natsu could still pick up her scent fomr where we were and we followed by riding on Ignis' back.

However…

The more we chased, the more we found strong, heavy wind currents that forced us to land to the ground for our safety. Not only that, there was something horribly unnatural about a thunderstorm all around the mountain ranges we seemed to follow them towards.

"The Zeus Range, an inhospitable area in Fiore that has mountains and mountains that are covered in endless thunderstorms," Juvia explained as we were forced to land or else get shocked by the many thunderbolts around. "I know about it because sometimes Master Carliso uses his portals to catch the random thunderbolts of this land and uses it against his enemies."

That was interesting to know, but at the same time it didn't really help our situation by that much. I looked to our resident dragon slayer, "Natsu, any sign of Erza's scent?"

The pink haired mage grunted after sniffing the air several times. "No! Damn it we lost her!" It seemed like the strong gales had mixed up her scent with the forest. Even Dragon senses couldn't get through with these conditions.

That obviously made everyone upset. However, I started to think. Whoever our enemies were, they were very confident they could pick up Erza from wherever she was and bring them along with her. If that really was the case, why would they bring her in this direction?

"Before we lost them, they were heading here. Juvia, is there anything significant around this area besides Sun Village being some distance away?"

The Ex-Phantom Lord mage seemed to think. "I don't believe so. The weather surrounding the Zeus Range is so bad, only Sun Village remains mostly untouched by the bad thunder storms because of their Eternal Flame."

"That explains why the weather seemed to get worse when we left the village. Their flame somehow stabilized their weather." Gray added into the conversation, realizing their home was more important to the area than he or any one of us originally thought.

However, I started to think about something. Even with the cold chilly winds around us, and the fact I was in a magical world, there was something tickling my subconscious just like when Natsu and I tried to find Bora the second time. Whatever it was there was just something about this place that didn't sit well with me.

I looked to Natsu and the others. "You guys can sense magical pressure right? Since we can't track Erza by smell, is it possible for anyone here to sense her magic?"

"Not unless she's fighting." Natsu quickly began before Happy agreed with him with his trade mark catch phrase.

It went unsaid how it seemed like Erza was unwilling to fight those assailants who she claimed where her friends as well. The forest area was also far too large and giant sized to try and find any tracks.

Wait, I'm going about this wrong: I'm trying to put sense in a world where people can perform super human feats on a near day to day basis. I have to stop trying to think in my world terms and start thinking…

In terms of a story…

I looked up towards the highest mountain in the range and stepped closer towards us. I felt everyone looking at me before I turned towards them.

"Juvia, that mountain over there, the one with heavy thunder storms stronger than the rest of the area, does that have a specific name?"

"I don't know. If Master Voyu was here, he'd probably know the names of each mountain."

I heard Lucy's voice out to voice what everyone else seemed to be thinking. "Kain, why that mountain?"

I turned towards all of them. "It's just a guess, but wouldn't the best place to hide be the one place no normal person dares check?"

Everyone looked at each other, as if trying to find someone who would refute my strange, yet simple sounding idea.

"We should go! It's better than just waiting out here." Natsu was quick to pound his fists together.

Lucy then looked towards the mountain in and the heavy thunder storms in the distance. "But even from where we are, it's far."

"I can have Ignis fly just above the trees. As long as we don't go any higher, we should be safe." After I said that, everyone got back on to the Wyvern as we flew towards the mountain.

However… as we came closer, I noticed everyone but me and Happy tense.

"Guys?"

"We just sensed a spike of magic we haven't felt before." Gray said as he looked ahead. "Kain, it looks like you were right on your hunch after all. They might have gone here."

"No, they did go here," Natsu affirmed as he sniffed the air. "It's faint, but I think I have Erza's scent again." He quickly went towards the right edge of Ignis' saddle and pointed over down towards the base of the largest mountain. "There! I see a cave!"

It didn't take us long to get there, but to our surprise, it wasn't just a cave, there were obvious signs that the cave used to be a large, ancient entrance—ruins. The traces of chipped and half buried stairs descending downward only proved it.

Natsu sniffed the air again. "Yeah, Erza's definitely in there." Of course, and seeing how the entrance led downward, it meant that we might be going inside this dangerous looking place.

I looked around, only then did I notice that I was in front of everyone, including the likes of Natsu, Gray, and Ignis. Instantly, I realized with Erza gone, leadership of the team instantly fell to me.

So now, I—someone not even of this world and has less fighting experience than Happy—now has to lead far more capable, but somewhat insane people down a scary and very hypothetical road to the unknown where literally bugger all could do us in.

"I drowned in the river and am in hell," I murmured to myself and inhaled and exhaled with much exerted effort.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I opened my eyes and felt more determined. "Alright, let's go save our knight in shining armor."

I took the first step forward into the abyss.

* * *

Even with Natsu lighting our way, it was dark to say the least. The thundering booms in the distance and the roaring winds from a while ago seemed like a dream as the more we descended the more silent our walk became.

… As silent as Natsu and Gray butting heads along with Juvia seemingly glaring at Lucy would be, but all things considered, their inability to be fazed by this was sort of welcoming. I wasn't really like them, able to shrug of things of lesser men, because I was a lesser man among super humans.

Still, even with The Morpher, it's really hard not to feel… unwelcome among all those other things and what the Minotauren said really stuck with me.

{ _Do not go home_.}

Not only was I feeling unwelcome here, but now I can't go home? … How did I get here in the first place, and why? Was it just random chance? Some stories have described people being summoned in a world's time of need or just as having more control of their second chance in life, but mine? I don't know why but it feels like…

It was then, I froze.

My sudden stop silenced everyone walking behind me and also made them stop in their tracks. "What's wrong?" Natsu's voice reached my ear as I stared deeper into the darkness.

I took a step forward, as I did I reached my hand out. My depth perception seemed to pick up something right in front of me as I ended up touching something just outside of Natsu's light.

I heard everyone else step forward and when Natsu's flame was in range, we all saw my hand was touching some kind of demonic tiki statue with large, wild eyes and fangs that grew out so long that they bent in different directions.

Lucy and Happy's scream made me turn back towards everyone else. However, when I turned back towards the tiki statue, I noticed something weird about it.

For a tiki statue in a supposedly old and abandoned ruin, it was unusually kept clean and in good condition.

"Natsu, please put more power to your flame." My dragon slayer friend did as he was told as he exerted more magic to the flame he was holding out.

As the light extended, I didn't even notice everyone else gasping as in front of us was a giant gate was in the shape of a strange dragon and lion like creature's huge maw with fangs all around the entrance and strange unknown symbols on all the many fangs around it.

I change my former statement. I didn't die and went to hell: I died and went into a _different_ hell.

Gathering what little remained of my courage, I put on my sarcasm mode. "Well, at least it doesn't have a sign saying, 'abandon all hope ye who enter here'." I tried to joke about an obscure Dante's Inferno reference before stepping into the maw of the beast.

No sooner than I did, I instantly notice the cave around us was no longer cave walls, but rather a large wall that seemed to depict pictures of some kind. However, most of them were faded and not at all recognizable.

"What was that, Gray!?" Natsu suddenly yelled towards the ice mage even though I was sure the ice mage said nothing.

"I didn't say anything, scaly!" Gray quickly butted heads with his elemental opposite.

"You guys, quit it!" Lucy sighed before she made a small squeak when Juvia was glaring harshly at her and muttering what seemed like… love rival?

Happy seemed to get back to normal as he was on top of Ignis' head and wondering if there was an pictures of fish.

It seemed like everyone was going back to normal in search of Erza.

* _Welcome back, my lord._ *

There was a chill in my spine as I felt a horrible need to turn to the ceiling above me. As I looked up, my eyes widened. I saw what seemed to look like a figure of some kind of god with how there was a bright yellow circle surrounding a humanoid figure with five eyes, pitch white and four arms sitting like the stance of the Buddha with elegant green clothes. Each of the eyes was the following colors: black, blue, yellow, pink, and red.

"Huh what's that?" It took me a second to remember I actually had the ability to think when Natsu's voice seemingly snapped me out of whatever trance I was in.

"Oh wow! I think that's a picture of Ankhseram, the great Mildian God of Knowledge and Death!" Lucy's over explanation caught my attention as I looked back at the strangely familiar picture. I was looking at a god?

"Isn't Ankhseram considered an evil god though?" Gray asked out loud.

Juvia seemed quick to answer. "To most of Ishgar, he is considered evil. However to nearly every other continent, he is seen as the creator of Earthland and of all things."

* _You must remember my lord, remember who you are._ *

I shook my head; there was this odd headache I felt like I was starting to get. "This is all really interesting, but seriously, we need to save Erza. I'll try to stop getting distracted by everything I see."

Everyone seemed to get back on focus as we moved along. However, despite my own vocal ideas, I found my eyes following the pictures around us.

I saw what seemed to be how the old people of these runes depicted how Ankhseram created Earthland.

* _It began so long ago, amongst the endless sea. You were a pilgrim of a land so grand and beyond that of mortal comprehension._

 _You spotted something while on your boat, which was later known as the moon by mortals: you picked up the Sun from the endless black along with all the planets of this solar system. One you picked up was so beautiful to your five eyes, Earthland—with it's beautiful blue and green color standing out amongst the endless black._

 _You decided to add more to it: you created the dragons to shape the land, the elves to create the spirit, to manifest emotions, and grant the mind._

 _However, when you did this… you gave your own life force in giving life to the world._

 _And so you slept, separating in to five while you fell upon the world you created._

 _Yet we knew that one day the five eyes you separated into would…*_

I blinked. I could no longer see any of the pictures. All of them were faded and unreadable and most of the major pieces seemed… destroyed? It was weird, even though they were just pictures… it felt like someone was telling me some kind of story, but…

"Kain, are you alright? You've been distracted for a while now." I turned towards the ice mage of our group. Not only him, but it seemed like everyone seemed worried for me—well except Juvia, she seemed curious.

I didn't really want to lie to Gray or the others so I just spoke out what was bothering me. "Sorry, it's just… what that Minotauren said the other day. I can't stop thinking about it."

"What, that you can't go home? You shouldn't believe him; Shaman are so vague in their messages that they can literally mean anything. I bet it's just saying you shouldn't head back to the guild because the paper work has been piling up recently."

"Yeah! Gray is right, Kain!" Lucy added into that fact.

Natsu raised his fist higher. "We'll definitely get you back home safe and sound, we promise! And Fairy Tail keeps promises!"

I ended up smiling at how far they were willing to go for me. "Oh really?" I gave a coy smile. "Like how you promised to behave when we all took that mission to Kalo-ni City and completely lost yourself to rage when the first guy spit in the path we were about to walk in?"

"That asshole had it coming!" Natsu quipped back, causing Lucy to laugh at our Dragon Slayer's outburst.

These guys… they really are like heroes in a story. Never giving up and being as brave as can be comes so naturally for them, yet for me? I always have to struggle with my fears.

I pushed those thoughts aside and said, "Thanks guys."

"No problem, buddy! We've got your back!" No sooner after Natsu gave a confident grin, we all heard a sound coming from the distance.

It sounded like metal cranking and soon we followed the sound deeper down the stairs until we finally reached some kind of end to the stairs. Natsu sniffed the air, mentioning something about oil before noticing a torch on a nearby wall. As soon as he lit one of the, the area seemed to light up other torches, revealing a grand, but old room with signs of constructed catwalks surrounding the area along with some suspicious looking equipment. In the center of the room there was some kind of metal chains that had this odd magical glow and they seemed to be reeling in a large platform elevator.

Natsu instantly sniffed the air. "I smell Erza's scent with some others. It's more recent." He said as he looked to me.

"I don't like this," Gray leered towards the platform. "It feels like a trap."

"How smart of you, Gray my beloved!"

Seeing as how Juvia's quirk was seemingly to be obsessed over Gray, I ignored her outburst and started thinking.

With how everything was left here, it was obvious there were a lot of people involved in whatever was here. With the light in the room, I noticed something on the floor and bent to my knees.

There were signs of foot prints and cart trails overlapping each other on the dust and showed they all came from that rather wide elevator. The most recent steps seemed to show a lot of people going to the elevator instead of from it.

"Who cares!? Those bastards took Erza, and we're getting her back!" Natsu pounded his fists together.

As he took a step forward, I grabbed on to his shoulder.

"Wait, Natsu, before we begin," I looked around the room before back to him. "I need you to sniff the area, see if you can smell any special recording lacrima that could be watching us right now."

I recalled from the Daybreak mission, Natsu was indeed able to sniff out hidden spying Lacrima that we avoided while nearby the mansion.

Natsu tried to sniff the air. Soon, we found and destroyed a dozen spying Lacrima around the room.

As we all dumped them to one group, and Natsu saying those were the last of them, I began again, "This means for sure they know we're coming."

"Like I said, it doesn't matter! We're kicking these guy's asses for taking Erza!" Natsu pumped up as he said this.

"Natsu," I spoke up again, gaining everyone's attention. "If I may? I would like to try something before we do a Plan T and take them by storm."

The salmon-haired fire mage grunted in annoyance, but to my surprise he folded his arms and looked to me expectantly. "What do you have in mind?"

I was surprised he didn't try to argue with me, but I shook my head and began by looking to our newcomer, one of the Element Four.

"Juvia, you're a powerful water mage correct? How versatile is your control over water?"

* * *

"Oh? So he knew right away that he was being watched?" In a dark room, there was a cloaked figure sitting on a throne. He was smiling in amusement while seeing several hologram screens that only showed static. There was a bit of soft laughter in him before he said this next, "That was well done. Salamander may have found those Spying Lacrimas, but he didn't even acknowledge they existed before the lawyer brought it up."

A figure standing next to the man in the throne asked, "Should we have more guards ready in the entrance to intercept them, milord?"

"No, no. I sincerely doubt any one of our foot soldiers can even slow down Fairy Tail… and surprisingly one of the Element Four." With a wave of his hand, the holo screens vanished and half a dozen more appeared with what looked to be a large platform where an elevator was to end.

The platform was filled with soldiers and dangerous looking beasts without eyes all lined up with magic enhanced guns to fire up at whatever came down from the elevator above.

The chains of the elevator started to crank, signaling that it was activated and indeed going down. As soon as it was, the platoon of gunmen readied their weapons and their magic to blast anyone within range if they came down.

Yet, to their surprise and to the surprise of those watching through a screen, there was a large amount of _mist_ coming out of the elevator that soon spread out more as the elevator went down.

The soldiers seemed especially surprised, but some of the tongued beasts they had started barking furiously towards the elevator.

"Men," One who was assumed to be the commander of this group shouted out. "Fairy Tail might be using the mist as the cover! Fire!"

However, it wasn't just the mist surrounding the area that blinded that man.

Back in the dark room, the man on the throne fought the urge to face palm and instead stood up and screamed, "Imbecile!"

The reason for this was that while it was a good idea to assume the enemy was using a smoke screen of some kind, the commander obviously forgot that they _surrounded_ the only elevator in the mountain. Therefore, instead of hitting their intended targets, they were literally shooting at each other.

Someone inside the throne room seemed to notice something in one of the many screens. " What's above them?"

The commander who made a hasty mistake, noticed a shadow descending on top of him and looked up—only to see the bottom of a Wyvern Claw coming down at an alarming speed—

* _BOOM!_ *

Ignis roared powerfully as he flapped his wings to clear a majority of the surrounding mist. With the wind faced, the forces were surprised to see already half of their men down, injured, and all of Team Valiant scattered around the area.

One of the soldiers, who was shot in the shoulder by his own teammates, started gaping in fear and tried to back up, only for him to hit something behind him. Though it was weird: he was sure he wasn't near a wall or barricade while backing up.

As he looked up, he saw that he had bumped into a man wearing red armor and a cape with a theme like a wyvern.

There was a gleam in the helmet's visor before the figure brought up his hand with his fingers pressed together. "Guys, clean up!"

As soon as he snapped his fingers, chaos resumed.

Those in the throne room watched as Team Valiant seemed to decimate what remained of the forces stationed near the elevator.

The one who originally sat on the throne started to laugh manically. "Hahaha! That was actually well played! The lawyer must have taken advantage of the fact Juvia of the Element Four was with them and asked her if she could control water and form into a mist as a smoke screen. Then must have activated the elevator but did not ride it, instead letting mist fly down and cover their area. Following that, they must have actually rode on their wyvern to dive down and start taking down the soldiers since they have at least one person capable of smelling where everyone was."

As he listed off what he had seen, the man relaxed into his chair and looked towards a board with pieces in front of him.

"I do believe that this is going to be a rather fun game. But that was just level 1, lawyer. How well will you do with the lower levels of the Tower of Hell!?"

He then cackled a mad laugh, it was one of elation, excitement, but of how futile this would all be for his opponents.

* * *

Erza, stopped in her tracks as she looked out a window, inwardly cursing herself for seeing nothing but darkness.

"Even though I escaped from Sho… to think I would be back to this damned place…"

No one knew that beneath the biggest mountain in the Zeus Range was far hollow than it seemed, especially at the bottom where it seemed to go down and down with no sign of an end.

Instead of nothing but thick stone and dirt, the bottom of the mountain held a giant, upside-down tower held together by ancient, large chain lacrima from an era long lost that seemed to hold the giant mountain together. No one knew where these giant lacrima chains came from, or who made them and how were they made, only that it seemed to hold together the tower like it was in a spider web, preventing it from falling into the abyss.

At the very top of the tower was Team Vailant and Juvia, fighting what was left of the welcoming party.

On the third floor to the highest, Erza Scarlet was seen making her way lower.

And at the very bottom of the tower, laughing away as if it was the end of the world, there was the supposed 'king' of (the Tower of) Hell along with his generals.

What was in between; however?

Well… that is where _**it**_ was stationed.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Hey dudes, welcome to the Tower of Heaven (Hell in this case) arc!**

 **Just like before, I have plans for this Arc besides the immediate changes you see. The physical changes you see weren't because I disliked anything—this arc is pretty decent to me honestly—I just thought I would mix a few things up for the sake of being unpredictable, but at the same time give them reason for them being there.**

 **I hope you all enjoy it.**

 **But really, I don't actually have much to say this chapter. I think I'll take a break from the long rants I usually do for this time.**

 **Thank you all for reading, see you soon!**

* * *

Deleted Scene #2: Gods, Mortals, Demons, and Liars.

(Context: I was originally trying to completely flip the script when it came to the Tower Of Heaven Arc. In the end, I decided to scrap it all together and keep most of the main plot points intact for the sake of it being easy and for the sake of consistency. Also, I thought of something I wanted to implant on the arc, and putting this now deleted scene just messed with everything, which is why I abandoned this idea completely.)

(However, I'm putting it here as to show the 'beta' of which direction I wanted to go with the arc at the time but scrapped completely. Maybe there's a small hint of what this was supposed to mean for the long run in this story? Who knows? [I do])

A long time ago, in an isolated tower where there were no heroes and hope was dead…

There was a boy, chained to a pillar of a dark room for attempting to rebel against cultists worshipping a dark wizard.

The young boy screamed in pain as his captors tormented him, but in an act of arrogance, his captors left him to rot.

This was where… something amiss happened.

"God…" The weakened child muttered angrily. "I don't believe there is such a thing. If there was then we wouldn't have to suffer like this."

" _Ăŕę ŷōů ɘʌḙṉ ăŵảṝḗ ṍḟ ṯḣḛ ḉṑṇƈēṗṫ ṑḟ_ _ **ḝṽḭḻ**_ _ḡṏḓṩ? Ṏṋề ẅọứḽḑ ḇḗ ɋṷḯṱḝ ṥḩọḉḱḝḍ ḁṯ ḫốẘ ṃảṅỿ ẚḉṫṳạḽḹẙ ẻẍḭṣṫ…_ " There was a distorted voice that echoed around the dark room, which instantly caught the attention of the small boy.

The boy snapped his head back up and tried to look around. "W-What!? Wh-Who's there?! Show yourself!"

"Ṁỿ ḋḗḁṝ ḉḫḭḷḋ!" The blue haired child froze when he heard the voice coming from his shoulder. He slowly turned his head to see a golden spider he had not seen before—which should have been impossible to miss with how bright it was amongst the dark room. "Ḯ ằḿ, **Ankhseram** , ṯḧḙ ḡṝẽậṯ ḡṏḏ ṏḟ ḹḭḟḗ ạṇḑ ḋḗảṯḧ!"

"A-Ankhseram?" The blue haired child looked at shock on the elaborate, gold spider. "You mean, the primary god of the old Midian Pantheon—that same one!?"

"Ḯ'ḋ ṳṩṵạḻḹẙ ḡḯṽḛ ả ẁḭṱṫẏ ṝḛṫọṝṯ ṭọ ṡṳḉḣ ẚṋ ọḇṽḭỏụṡ ǫȗȇȚȋȏȵ, ɓụᴛ ṡẽếịṉḡ ẏȏṻ ḭṇ ṭḫấṯ ṩṯḁṱḛ, Ḭ'ḽḹ ḷḗṭ ḭṱ ṧḽḯḋḙ." The spider jumped off his shoulder and towards the top of a bunch of crystals found in the room.

"Now, as much as I like using my real voice, I have the most peculiar of feelings that I'd be confusing you more than answering questions." The strange voice toned down into someone… with a posh accent?

"Wait… you're really Ankhseram?" The young boy asked.

"Yes and no. But I won't bore you with the cosmic details on that. I'm not here to tell you my life story—you'd die long before I'd even get to the juicy parts—no-no-no-no-no! I'm here because I was currently the only god willing to actually do something about your predicament right here, Mr. Fernandez." Throughout that semi-monologue, the golden spider danced around the crystals in a very animated manner.

"You're going to help me?" The young boy repeated in confusion.

"Correction: I'm here to help you… help yourself. Direct Intervention is frowned upon by the gods, and it usually has some heavy backlashes—it's why you almost never see gods directly among mortals. So I'm here to give you magic: everything else is up to you."

The young boy was strangely silent before he narrowed his eyes at the spider. "Will this magic power help free us at last?"

"Yes and no," The golden spider began again as he jumped to the floor and started making his way towards the blue haired boy. "The magic I'm giving you isn't exactly the same as your tormentors. In fact: there's someone else that's about to give you powers—albeit you're going to turn into their brain puppy and do their bidding for a while."

The chained boy could not make heads or tails of this very whimsical talking spider. Was he more injured and tired than he thought?

"Rude, Mr. Fernandez! You are injured, but I assure you are perfectly sane. And before you ask, I can read your mind. It's not all that hard really." The spider jumped on top of the boy's hair, much to the prisoner's unease. "Now… listen very carefully in this next part. Someone is going to summon themselves before you in the guise of Zeref. Pretend that he is and that I didn't tell you she was fake."

The prisoner wondered what that meant, especially when he said that the person coming was female. However, no sooner did Ankhersam said this the room around them grew darker that even the gold spider's sheen seemed dim.

(Context: Yeah, so there. I feel like it's important repeating but this has no relation to the main story anymore. Only I know which themes or ideas I'm keeping from this. This was a hint of what direction I wanted this story to go. What did you guys get from this? Anyway, thanks for reading, see you all soon.)


	21. Chapter 21

"And that's the last one." Kain said as the last of the foot soldiers fell, leaving Team Valiant victorious. Though their track record has shown that foot soldiers or henchmen did very little to slow them down.

While curious, Lucy looked around the great darkness surrounding them, except the giant, lacrima chains holding together the tower and asked, "Where are we?"

"Whatever this place is, it doesn't matter, we gotta find Erza." Gray spoke up before noticing something Kain was doing to the assumed commander of this group. "Kain, what are you doing?"

"Pick-pocketing him," The red wyvern rider began before fishing some kind of rainbow sphere from his pockets. "This looks promising."

The armored young man walked up to the only door like area of the platform and showed the glowing orb in front of what looked to be a scanning area. The door indeed scanned the orb, and opened itself for Kain.

The lawyer turned to everyone else. "Come on, who knows where Erza could be here."

* * *

Those inside the lowest level watched Team Valiant enter into the Tower of Hell.

"Hmm, I'll lead them all to the floor where Erza is," The man on the throne said calmly.

"Sir?" One of them asked with confusion.

"Not to worry, Vidaldus, all our opponents pieces are coming together. It's important to at least give our opponents the time to prepare themselves accordingly." As he said this, there was a board right in front of him.

10 pieces stood in the opposite side of four pieces. However, there was a piece in the middle of the board, a black question mark that seemed like it did not belong to either side.

"I have been meaning to ask, but what is that middle piece for?" The one named Vidaldus asked curiously.

For the first time, the one who sat on the throne gave a frown for the briefest of seconds before it turning to an opportunistic smile. "That, Vidaldus, is a wild card of our own."

* * *

Team Valiant and Juvia ran down the hallway, beating up any soldiers trying to stop them.

Natsu was in the lead, sniffing the air as he did. "Erza's scent is nearby!"

Gray added in, "I think we can sense her presence, she's fighting now but it feels like she's just swatting away goons like us!"

"Did she escape?"

Kain looked towards Lucy after she asked that, "While Erza does seem powerful enough to do that, why would her captors allow her to escape if they knew her as well as we did?"

Team Valiant saw a large door in at the end of their hallway, this prompted Natsu to set his fist ablaze and punch the doors down that were trying to bar their path.

As soon as they did though, they saw a large pile of unconscious bodies and a familiar red haired woman standing on top of them.

"ERZA!" Natsu, Happy, and Lucy screamed in joy as the S-Class mage came into view.

"G-Guys?!" Erza Scarlet seemed shocked to see everyone from Team Valiant run up to her, "What are you all doing here!?"

"Looking for you of course!" Natsu was the first to say.

"Go home!" Erza suddenly barked, looking towards Kain mostly as she said this because, she figured he would listen to her as he was usually the most sensible, and that he could tell everyone to follow him out the easiest. "This place is far too dangerous!"

"Wait, what about you?" Kain asked in return.

"You have to go!" Erza didn't bother as she repeated again.

"Why?" The celestial mage among them asked.

"What!? The guys attack us, and you're saying to let it slide!?"

"You must!" The S-Class mage shouted with an almost desperate look on her face after Natsu's cry. "All of you head back to the guild, now! This is my problem and doesn't involve any of you."

Gray was the first to react to that. "How could you say that!? Those guys attack us, take you, and bring you to this creepy place!? I'd say we're more than involved now seeing as we've beaten like a hundred guys to get to you."

Lucy seemed to try a different approach. "Erza, what is going on here? These weird ruins, those soldiers that looked like they were from a dark guild, and your old friends? … But I can understand if you don't want to tell us. From that little exchange when we first met them, you seemed very troubled even though they were your friends. But _we're_ your friends too! And we'd do anything to help you!"

"Yeah!" Natsu quickly concurred before Erza turned away from them and took a few steps away from them.

"Leave, all of you!"

Natsu was quick to grunt. "Okay, what's up? This isn't like you at all: you'd be like the first to say we should all go and kick the butt whatever problem you have in the first place!" To everyone's surprise, Natsu seemed distracted and started saying something else. "So we're staying here and we're going to help you! Gramps always told us that not even the strongest can handle things alone!"

It surprised everyone that Natsu of all people said something so profound. However, many agreed with him.

This seemed to finally get Erza's attention as she turned around—with tears in her eyes, which surprised everyone including Ignis who actually dropped his wyvern jaw in surprise.

"I'm sorry, but you can't help me now, the odds are stacked against me." She said in a softer voice. It seemed like she was about to say something next; however, when she eyed Kain, she quickly silenced herself, as if saying what she was about to say would be too much.

However, Kain stepped forward. There was something about her like this that felt far too familiar.

Perhaps if he actually read the Fairy Tail story, he would have known, but since he didn't, he was focusing on the time they were heading towards Galuna Island. While Erza was trying to cheer him up, there was a similar wistful and regretful look in her eye.

"Erza, I just remembered on our way to Galuna island, you once said you were envious of me because of my ability to never let the circumstances stop me from trying to help even though I had no power… you had a similar look then as you do now. Does that mean this was what you were thinking about?"

The S-class mage sighed before looking towards Kain. "It really is hard to hide things from someone as observant as you, Kain. Yes, back during our talk, I was thinking back to this place."

"Well, the more we're going to help you then! There are things that are just too tough to handle alone, and this obviously seems like one of them." Kain said with rising courage. "Erza, I'm going to pull a Natsu, and not listen to your order to go back to Fairy Tail, not without you coming home with us."

"Hey!" The pink haired dragon slayer then grunted as he realized starting an argument with a lawyer would not work in his favor.

Erza gave a small smile at the little interaction and gave a small smile. "I am truly blessed to have wonderful friends no matter where I am. … I'll tell you everything, where we are, why I'm here, and who it is I'm trying to fight."

And so, Erza began the tale of this place being called the Tower of Hell, or what was technically known as The R System.

A long time ago, she was a slave caught by some Zeref Cult and made to help build the tower. However, among captured with her was a young man named Jellal Fernandez, who never lost hope and always tried to protect others and get people out no matter what.

One time, when an escape plan failed, she was punished and tortured, but Jellal, without magic at the time, fought to save her and was able to do so until their captors actually used magic themselves. Then they just essentially traded places for torture.

However, this time Erza had had enough and inspired everyone around her to final rebel against their captors.

Among the slaves was Rob, an old man who was actually a part of Fairy Tail and a friend of Makarov. He gave up his life to save Erza and opened up her magic.

As Erza tried to save Jellal, something happened to him. He seemed possessed by something and became a dark and cruel man. Erza tried to reason with him, but Jellal was desperate to fix the tower once more, hearing the voice of Zeref himself.

She explained a side note that this ancient ruins always gave off a dark vibe and felt like some of the pictures of the old gods around here always felt like they were watching them, perhaps they were real after all and got to Jellal—not that it matters now.

Then Jellal did something, he made Erza leave on the condition that everyone else was going to stay. If she returned, he would kill everyone starting with Sho, the youngest of the friends.

Erza couldn't believe it. After a blast of magic, Erza found herself in a storming forest and wandered around until by chance she happened to be found by Master Makarov, and happened to remember the name from Rob.

This was why she was so desperate to stay in this hell hole. This was something she needed to finish.

"Again, Zeref," Gray spoke out after letting Erza shed a few tears. "To think Deliora and Lullaby—who are now Symphony—were both made by that same mage. And Jellal wants to revive him?"

"Why would your friend want to revive history's darkest wizard?" Juvia asked with obvious confusion.

Kain put his hand on his chin. "Didn't you guys feel it?" Then everyone turned to him, "This place… long before Erza and probably those cultists came here, this seemed to be some ancient tower. There's also—I don't really know since I don't have magic—but there's something about this place that just feels wrong to me. I almost swore I heard voices talking to me as we descended further down here. Maybe Jellal was possessed by a dark spirit wandering around this place."

"I have thought about that a few times, but no matter how much research I did, nothing really seemed to shed any more light as to what had happened to my friend. To me, he's practically dead now." Erza did look over towards Kain. "Yet, when I was in the process of being put in a cage, Sho let slip about how Zeref would make everyone that ever wronged them will be sent to hell for all their sins and afterward, they would rule the world."

"Isn't that super sketchy? Though then again, I guess having your chance to finally escape this hell-hole ripped away from you would make you believe anything in anger and disappointment." Kain muttered out loud.

"Huh?" Lucy looked to Kain with a confused look on her face, "What do you mean by that?"

"Seeing as how it was implied these guys never saw Erza since that event, and how Jellal in his insane state said how they were going to complete making this Tower, I can only assume after sending Erza away, he trapped everyone in this place and made everyone believe Erza did it."

At Kain's hypothesis, the red haired mage nodded. "That's what I thought too. Though it doesn't really matter now; none of it is their fault to being with."

However, Gray narrowed his eyes. There was one moment before she told the story where she was about to say something else, but when she looked to Kain, she stopped talking. Kain was their lawyer, out of everyone they knew, the displaced young man is the one guy in the guild trained to pay special attention to details and what people say. So it seemed like Erza was trying her best not to let something slip in front of their observant friend, but what was it?

His thoughts would have to be put on hold when footsteps came closer towards them, along with a disbelieving voice. "Sister, that's not true…"

Team Valiant turned over to see Sho, one of the people who had captured Erza originally, and the youngest of them seemed completely flabbergasted at the thought that all the time he had spent listening to Jellal was a lie. "What kind of spiel is that!? Why are you telling your new friends some kind of martyr crap like that!? What about what really happened huh? When you destroyed the only elevator out here and nearly caused the chains holding up this damn tower to crack and break! Jellal was the only one left to help organize us all together and save us from dying here!"

"Sho…" Erza began with a frown.

"Erza was not lying," A new voice said. Next to Sho, darkness started to appear around next to him, revealing three more people, one was a man who looked straight from a video game, a cat girl cosplayer, and a tall man wearing a turban that seemed like some kind of robot, middle-east themed guy with an eye patch. (This was Kain's first impression of all Erza's old friends that just appeared with Sho being the only remotely normal looking person among them.)

Out of all those three amazing people, it seemed like the tallest of them didn't seem surprised by the revelation.

"From the start, I've always believed in Erza, but I only played along because everyone else was under a slight influence spell of Jellal." He explained, much to the shock of the people that kidnapped Erza.

However, Erza herself looked to Simon in surprise, but Simon turned to her with a kind smile and said that he always believed in her, which was really heartwarming and reliving for the S-Class mage.

However, even though Erza's old friends seemed to be rekindling with her after learning that they were lied to all this time, Kain suddenly facepalmed hard. The slap noise echoed around the large room and made everyone look to him.

"Kain?" Erza asked in shock.

"I AM AN IDIOT!" Kain cried out as he put both hands on his face.

Natsu and the others nearby him looked to the young man with worry. "What's the matter?!"

Kain breathed deeply before looking towards everyone. "We broke cameras before we entered here."

"Uhh yeah? So?" Gray asked before he heard Lucy gasp behind him. The look of horror on her face signaled she instantly got what Kain was going for.

Kain elaborated what he was going with. "We only destroyed the cameras before the exit, I didn't even think about the ones watching us this very moment!"

Realization hit everyone. During all these emotional moments, they had forgotten the security system inside the tower was never touched during everyone's way towards this room.

"Now don't destroy these," A new voice echoed around everyone at this moment. "These things aren't exactly cheap you know."

Everyone looked in mixed shock and horror when the voice called out and seemed to surround all of them.

Kain, stepped forward and remembered something in Erza's story that tickled the back of his mind. "I can assume you must be the infamous Jellal Fernandes? By any chance are you related to a certain Siegrain Fernandes in the Magic Council and Wizard Saint?"

The voice around them scoffed. "He is my twin brother," It seemed like only Kain noticed something off when he said twin. "So yes, I am related."

To Kain, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. However, a small smirk appeared on his lips. "His twin brother? Does that mean you also have the same ugly smirk he thinks constitutes as something cool?"

There was honest laughter in response to such a passive insult coming from Jellal's end. "Oh a sharp tongue on this one! Too bad sharp tongues do little to hide the fact you're the only one in that room that is a sheep in wolf's clothing."

Natsu and Happy turned to their lawyer in dumbfounded shock. "Kain's a sheep!?"

Lucy put a hand on her head before answering. "Natsu, he's trying to insult Kain by calling him a faker since he's the only one among us who is incapable of magic."

At that, Natsu both understood and then got angry as he looked up to the ceiling. "Hey you bastard! Kain maybe the weakest out of all of us!"

The brown haired boy deadpanned towards his friend. Natsu didn't notice and continued by beating his chest hard. "But don't you dare call him a faker! He's proven time and time again he deserves to be in Fairy Tail, magic or not!"

That actually surprised the displaced boy. But he shook his head and turned back to the ceiling to focus on this bad feeling he was getting. By all means, Erza's friends originally worked for Jellal, but now that they've been told the truth—heck even Jellal was listening in and did nothing to stop Erza from telling her side of the story—he still seemed calm and confident.

"Regardless," Jellal began speaking again. "The pieces have all been set and the game can now begin!"

"Game?" Kain repeated in confusion.

"It's a rather simple game really. It'll be a free-for-all; your ten against my four pieces and me. If you can defeat us before The Magic Council can fire an Etherion Blast on all of us, you win."

Everyone but Kain seemed to gasp in horror at the name that was just mentioned; even some of Jellal's men seemed to momentarily question it before accepting their roles.

"What the heck is an Etherion?" Kain looked around before he was told what exactly it was by some rather distressed people. It was basically a magical laser nuke to the wyvern rider and it was about to be used on them.

Instead of actually panicking, everyone not from Fairy Tail were surprised to see Kain just sigh and put his hand on his head instead of seemingly panic at the thought of being practically erased from time and space. "So it's essentially another magical nuke? God damn these needlessly dramatic and rising stakes."

"How the heck are you not bothered by that!?" Sho of all people pointed towards the displaced boy with surprise.

"Sho was it? It's not that I'm not panicking… it's just… considering my circumstances, I always assume everything gets worse before some these adventures end. And I just so happen to be proven right in the wrong ways. Besides, he said that Era is planning to just nuke this place right? All we have to do is get on Ignis and fly out of here before that can happen." The young man said as he pointed a thumb at the giant red wyvern just standing behind them.

It was then Jellal's voice spoke back up. "Now what made you think I was going to let all of you get away that easily?"

Kain's eyes widened as he heard that. Before he could even warn the others, the floor suddenly gave a way. No really, one minute it was solid, and the next minute, everyone besides Happy and Ignis were falling right through as if it was just a magic circle they were all standing on and the room was just an illusion around them.

"Ignis!" Kain yelled as the Wyvern and the cat tried to make a dive for any of the falling people.

Down below, watching everyone fall through the tower, Jellal chuckled darkly. "Oh no, I decided to get my own animal sidekick when I saw yours," He then pressed a button on his throne. "Or rather, a dozen."

As everyone was falling, no one noticed doors on the walls around them slide open and over a dozen powerful and hungry roars echoed to everyone's ears.

Twelve fast figures shot out and—

"Happy, look out!" Natsu cried out in horror as he felt around a dozen creatures beeline right for the small flying cat.

Yet, Happy only had time to look to his right before Ignis' tail grabbed him and made both of them fly back up to avoid being chomped on by a group of creatures with a lion's body, large bat wings, and tails and backs of a scorpion.

"Manticores!?" Lucy yelled out but her horror only sky rocketed when she saw the dozen manticores roar and start to chase and ward both Happy and Ignis away from the falling group.

"Wait, was that why Jellal brought those beasts in?!" Milliana cried out.

Simon's eyes widened and looked over to the cat girl. "You saw these creatures!?"

The cat girl seemed somewhat nervous as all eyes went to her even while they were all falling. "Jellal said he wanted to try seeing if he could use manticores to help renovate new rooms into the tower!"

"Well it's obvious he brought them in to stop Ignis and Happy from saving us!" Gray shouted back.

"Natsu!" Happy yelled before Ignis was forced to fly upward from being swarmed all over.

The pink haired mage growled as he saw Happy and Ignis being chased by the Manticores. "Happy, stay with Ignis! We'll be fine!"

"Wait a sec, how will we be fine!? Only Erza can fly out of all us!" Wally screamed in a panic.

Before anyone could begin, Kain's voice caught everyone's attention. "Guys, has anyone actually bothered to look down!?"

Everyone followed his line of sight as a large black magic circle was placed right below them. Out of said magic circle, sharp, thorny spikes shot out with the intention to stab the falling mages.

Erza quickly acted and switched to her Thunder Empress armor. "Everyone, destroy it!"

With her command, every one prepared and launched their best long range spell in order to power through the spikes.

The combined attack worked—too well. The combined explosion that came after the attacks connecting reached the others who were falling into it quickly. The shock wave of the explosion pushed and split up the group. Jellal saw this and smiled.

He pressed more buttons on the side of his throne that opened up portions of the walls and swallowed each of the ten mages.

No sooner that was done, he looked up to Vidaldus. "The pieces have been set. You may go and begin the game, Trinity Raven."

"You'll let me?"

"By all means, it's still our turn after all." Jellal then watched Vidaldus exert a lot of magical power to transform from a calm and serious man into a heavy metal rocker/Kiss wannabe. Two more people followed after, a woman wearing a kimono and a large man with an owl for a head.

"Now then, pick your opponents."

As he said this, three powerful mages from Death Head Cacus bowed in response to their employer and quickly went off.

Yet even though those three left, Jellal looked wordlessly at the black question mark planted in the center of his board.

"I pity whoever gets sent his—their way. Though at least we came to an agreement he would not harm Erza before all this. I'm still curious if they will keep their word."

He shook his head and smiled. "Bah, it matters little, she told me he would. It's a shame she declined my offer to stay here, though in hindsight, not many would willingly stay in a future ground zero area."

* * *

Kain screamed as he slid down the slide leading him to who knows where? He instantly activated his morpher as he saw a light at the end of the slide.

"WAAAH!?" There have been less heroic screams than what escaped Kain's lungs, you'd simply be hard pressed to find them though as he landed on his newly plated tushie.

"Ow!" The red rider cried out as he stood up, only to hear two more doors opening in the ceiling around him, but hearing only one screaming in terror.

Two people came out of the ceiling, both landing on their feet to Kain's annoyance. But to his relief, one of the two people who landed with him was Erza. The other was the cube guy Erza briefly addressed as Wally.

"Kain, Wally, are you both unharmed?" The S-Class mage asked before looking towards the three holes on the ceiling closing. "It seems we've been separated from the others."

"I don't even remember this room in the tower." Wally began as he dusted his suit of before looking towards Kain, obviously not recognizing him in armor. "Who the heck are you? The striper looking dude?"

The young man instantly frowned at the comment, not that anyone could see his face while his armor was up. "I'm Kain. One of Erza's friends at Fairy Tail." The red rider exclaimed before noticing the room around them. "I overheard your name a few times, Wally, right?"

"Tch! Listen buddy, wearing some fancy armor doesn't mean you can call me buddy!"

"Wally, he's alright." Erza began.

Wally looked to Erza and he seemed to relax. "Was your story really true? Did Jellal really do all those things?"

Erza closed her eyes somberly and nodded once.

The cubed mage sighed before fixing his hat. He sighed before putting a hand on Erza's shoulder. "I lost one big brother once. I don't want to lose a big sister either."

Those words touched Erza as she hugged Wally as well. "Thank you."

"Dawww," Kain let one out, causing Wally to suddenly push Erza away with a flushed look on his sharp face.

"Quiet kid! That's the dandy thing to do! It ain't cute!"

The other two shared a small laugh before realizing something.

"Where are we exactly, Wally?"

The previous kidnapper shrugged his shoulders at Erza's question. "Beats me, I never worked in this area of the tower. The others and I worked in the upper floors."

It was then that a pair of torches lit up without any sign of being touch. The three looked at the two torches before more pairs of torches lit up, revealing a path in the dark room.

Erza seemed to tense and started walking ahead. "We need to find the others. Come on, let's go."

As the unlikely trio continued to move along, they eventually stopped at two elaborate white and golden doors. When Erza opened the two doors, they found themselves…

"You guys had a church here?" Kain asked in confusion as he noticed the pews, stained glass, and the altar in the very end.

"Like I said, I never saw this part of the tower…" Wally trailed off when the three of them instantly noticed there was someone kneeling in front of the altar of what looked to be of Ankhersam.

And then, from nowhere, it sounded like a choir of violins echoed in harmony and the doors slammed behind the trio and sealed themselves shut. "~ _The stars are blind my love, you will learn to crawl, under oceans above._ ~" A powerful male voice began to sing, coming from the one kneeling in front of the altar, " _~That force will fuel it's hate, when it drains your soul, it'll flood the gates.~_ " The man stood up and slowly turned, prompting the three to get into their battle stances.

He was a blonde man with piercing purple eyes and a large figure with brown skin. He wore something like a priest's uniform and took a step forward, with the music around them seemingly starting to come up with more tempo. " _~Fear is a device, so quiet and precise. It's not what I allow, not in my world now.~_ "

As the tempo of the music escalated, it abruptly stopped and was silenced, giving a bad feeling of in-completion and fear among the three, even Erza was starting to feel chills down her spine.

"You," The man pointed over to the S-class mage, making her tense. "You are Erza Scarlet, we were asked by Jellal not to touch you. The other two; however? We believe that will suffice."

"You work for Jellal?!" Erza screamed before preparing her sword.

His next word choice made Kain raise his brow in confusion and interest, as he realized he repeated that weird word more than once.

"We were hired for a job." That was all the man said before Erza decided to forsake any more of whatever nonsense Jellal had in for them and attack the stranger right then and there.

However, as she quickly closed the distance, her leg seemingly cut a string that she or Kain didn't notice with his heightened senses. As soon as it gut cut, a dozen old runic symbols quickly appeared in the air in front of her and suddenly froze her where she was.

"Erza!" Both Wally and Kain yelled before trying to get to the red head. However, to their surprise, the man that had stunned and paralyzed Erza jumped over her and landed in between the two men.

"W-Who are you!?"

"…We Are…"

* * *

Some days ago, there was a dark guild known for its brutal but successful assassinations, but second to how insane and inhuman the members of said guild were.

It was known as Bloody Corpse. In one of the most remote areas of north western Fiore, in a dark, dreary, and decaying forest known as Spiao Forest, this was where the guild was hidden.

And this was wear a cloaked figure had stumbled on to their hideout.

"Ahh, here it is." The cloaked figure said as they entered through the doors of the guild. To their surprise, the main lobby of the guild looked like a simple bar with tables, a wine shelf and everything, even a piano at the side that played old west styled music by magic.

However, oddly enough, there was no one there except the pudgy, bald bar tender who had his back turned and was wiping a glass.

"May I help you, stranger?" The bar tender asked as he didn't turn around and still wiped the glass he was holding.

"Yes, I'm here to hire some assassins of Bloody Corpse." The figure began. "Where are they?"

"They are around." The Bartender said as the music continued on. "What kind of job is it?"

"Are you one of them?" The cloaked figure countered the question with another question.

The bartender still didn't turn to face the cloaked stranger but put one glass down and started working on the other, "Yes, we are."

"We?" The cloaked figure repeated in confusion.

No sooner than they said this, something in the ceiling cracked. Then something had actually fallen and crashed through the ceiling and landed on the piano, instantly stopping it's melody with a horrible sound.

On top of the fallen piano was a man, who had a guild tattoo on his forehead that looked like a bloody corpse. As he looked to the cloaked figure, his eyes widened. "I-Is it gone?" He gasped with fear and tiredness.

"Hamiel Nustafar."

The cloaked figure seemed to watch as the bartender seemed to say the name of the man and instantly, make the mage look at him in utter horror that he instantly started to cry.

"NO! NO! OH GODS NO!"

The bar tender finally turned—the cloaked figure did not expect the eyes of the man to turn pitch black and smile far beyond that of a mouth was capable.

"Welcome home."

It wasn't one voice, but it sounded like a hundred voices of men, women, children, and elders all saying those two words in one tone, one voice, one being. It chilled the cloaked figure to the very make up of her blood cells and DNA.

However, it made Hamiel lose it. "NONONONO!" He frantically cried as he put his hands together to summon a magic circle and blasted where the Bartender was currently standing.

Or at least, that was what he hoped would happen.

Instead, the bartender swung his own hand towards the man and it suddenly extended and shot like a bullet, clamping his hand around the neck of the injured mage.

Before the cloaked figure could react, the bartender pulled the crying mage towards him and into his belly—then seemingly absorb the full body through his skin.

The sight of such a thing left the cloaked figure speechless. When they turned back to the bartender, the eyes of the person—if it was human at this point—slowly moved towards the cloaked figure.

"Now, what job was that again?"

"W-Who are you?"

"We," Again he said 'we' as if he was not even a singular being. "We are Bloody Corpse." Then, the bartender's face started to melt and a new face started to form: the man that was just swallowed into the skin of the Bartender, Hamiel Nustafar.

"We are all members of Bloody Corpse." It said again in Hamiel's voice, but now calmer and with an eerie lack of free will and personality.

"N-No," The figure began before removing their hood, revealing Ultear one of the magic council. "Who are you really?"

"… We are…"

* * *

To the surprise of all three mages, the figure spoke with what seemed like the combination of a hundred voices rolled into one.

" **We are The Wicker Man.** "

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Okay, not really proud of this chapter honestly. I was conflicted in how to do it all together since in the anime and manga, it jumps a fair bit between Erza and her friends and Natsu and the others. It was hard for me to try and string the scenes together, so I pretty much dropped Erza's side and focused a little more on the rest of Team Valiant instead.**

 **But thankfully, the hard part was over, the battles for this arc should be easier to right because they're fights. I'm more comfortable writing fights for some odd reason. Heck, somehow in my Pokémon Fics, I was able to write a story with sixty chapters worth of fights that didn't become repetitive weirdly enough. (If anyone was interested in how I made interesting fights there: I just completely forsook all forms of turn based combat in both game and Anime and made it flow more like a real fight mixed with tactics and such… kinda like the ones from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure… huh….)**

 **Anywho, shamless plug aside, I'm sorry for the slower updates. I wanted more time to figure out how I was going to do this arc and the future 'Fight For Fairy Tail' now that Laxus is the Guild master in this timeline/story. (I mean, I already have plans on both mentioned arcs, but the finer details are escaping me and that's where I feel make or break my style of writing.)**

 **However, I am very excited for a rather light-hearted Original Arc coming later than people expect. I think a majority of you will be surprised on what that Arc actually is.**

 **Any who thanks for reading.**

* * *

Non Cannon Omake: Oops.

Era debated countless times after countless times whether or not to fire Etherion.

Because of how close Team Valiant was getting towards Jellal, Siegran Fernandez had to rely on more desperate measures. He broke off the current debate and let everyone on a small coffee break to cool off from the shouting.

However, the clone of Jellal, along with Ultear, spiked the rest of the drinks of all the members to be more prone to drastic measures.

With every other member now under the influence, they restarted their debates.

"Siegran was right all along! We should fire Etherion!" Both Siegran and Ultear had to fight hard to not smile when everyone else agreed with one of the members.

"No!" Yajima exclaimed. The two who spiked everyone's drinks must have underestimated Yajima's reluctance to— "Etherion is too weak to take on this task!"

"He's right!"

It was then that Siegran and Ultear noticed something was off.

"We need to eliminate every single trace of them! Etherion is good, but not that good! Even their names of them ever existing in books should be gone!" One member barked so passionately, drool was coming out of their mouth.

Siegran and Ultear shared a look.

(How much of the drug did we put!?)  
(I don't know?!)

Their silent conversation went.

"I got it!" Councilman Org wildly pointed out. "We'll use Face instead! I wanna see magic DDDIIIIIEEEEE!"

"WWWHHHHOOOOOO!" The last two sane—and we use that word loosely—panicked at how well their plan was going.

"Let's vote, muther*****!" One council member actually started to strip in excitement while cursing.

Unfortunately, despite Siegran and Ultear's best efforts, even admitting that they drugged everyone, the council under the influence launched a Face bomb instead of Etherion.

In the safety of his own office room, Siegran/Jellal was banging his head on the wall repeatedly for screwing up practically 20 years of his life with one mistake he himself made.

(Moral of the story: don't do drugs kids.)

(Oh and since Face is known to kill magic, only Kain survives since he came from a world without it and had no trace of being born with it.)

(Kain: NNOOOOO! MY FRIENDS! THEY ALL OWED ME MONEY!)

(So yeah. Don't do drugs or else your friends who owe you money will die. _**The More You Know!**_ _ **ᵀᴹ**_ )


	22. Chapter 22

The ceiling exploded.

While Natsu did find out that his first instinct to stop himself from sliding did work, he was just as fast to realize that falling from the height he was dropped was not the result he was hoping for. Acting fast, and reminding himself to really thank Macao for the lesson in different fire properties, Natsu fired a flame hook shot on to an undisturbed part of the ceiling in order to slow his decent. With the threat of not falling to his death now gone, the fire dragon slayer noticed that the room he was in was surprisingly beautiful.

There was a long board walk that extended over a crystal blue lake with a large cherry blossom tree in the middle of the gigantic room. It was weird that such a place like this existed in a place that he heard nothing but horrible things about.

A muffled screamed caused Natsu to turn his head towards a wall as he saw one of Erza's old friends fall out of the slide and land nearby him from an opened wall in the ceiling.

"Oh hey… Shorty right?"  
"It's Sho!" The tan blonde quickly responded before getting back up and looking around the area. "W-Where's big sis Erza?!" He said in a somewhat panicked manner.

There was a sound of rocks falling into the water which made both young men look up to the hole in the roof where Natsu fell from.

"I guess we're separated from her." Natsu nonchalantly sniffed the air to see if he could find anyone else nearby.

Sho seemed a bit ticked. "How could you be so calm?! Big Sis could be in danger!"

Natsu either ignored or didn't notice the look on Sho's face and instead gave a big smile. "Erza's the strongest mage I know! If you weren't her friends, I'm sure she would have handled being kidnapped all on her own!"

"Wha—" Sho seemed surprised and was about to say more until Natsu then turned around and kept talking.

"Where are we anyway?"

Sho seemed to be annoyed but the question did distract him enough to recognize where they were. "We're in the lake area of floor six?"

"Why do you have a lake in a floor?"

Sho continued to look around. There was calm but very reflective stare as the young man gazed the area. "It was one of the first rooms we needed to reconstruct completely because it was one of the worst torture rooms in this damn mountain. Rob once told stories of a country with beautiful pink trees and crystal blue waters. Hearing all of his stories of the outside world, made us want to tear down this room and plant that giant tree in his honor…"

"Rob?" Natsu tilted his head at the name. Wasn't that the guy Erza met before meeting master Makarov?

"An old man with magic who basically singlehandedly defeated a lot of the more powerful oppressors when we finally rebelled," Sho looked down to the water. "He gave his life so that we could win."

It was then that the blonde card mage seemed to realize something and turned to look at the symbol on Natsu's shoulder. "Now that I look back, he had the same symbol on his back that you do on your shoulder."

The dragon slayer was caught off guard by that. He did believe Erza, but to hear a specific detail like that just validated what the red head just said.

"The same as mine?"

"I mean, I was young, but my mind seems to be automatically connecting your symbol and his even though I haven't seen Rob in years." Sho started to turn towards the large cheery tree. "I still can't believe it, Jellal overlooked the design of this room himself, so how could he use… huh?"

The flame mage noticed Sho seemingly looking surprised as he glanced at the tree. The fire mage did so, only to see what had distracted Sho in the first place. Or rather, who.

There was a beautiful woman with pink hair wearing a white kimono standing nearby the cherry blossom tree with a serene smile on her face. However, this made Natsu tense into a fighting stance because of two major reasons.

Even though he could see her plainly, he couldn't even get a single sniff of her scent with his acute nose, nor sense any magical presence with her. And since Sho saw her too, it was more than likely she was skilled enough to hide her presence in plain sight from a Dragon Slayer.

"Hey!" Natsu said as he growled towards the woman.

The woman turned with all the grace of a dancer, not even the tiniest of movements seemed dull or the opposite of elegant. Yet both men felt tense when they noticed the very long and elaborate sword sheath attached to her hips.

"Forgive me, I was admiring the room. I was told this room exists and," Again the woman turned to look at the tree in the center of the room. "It's very, very beautiful." There was something in her voice, like a sense of nostalgia from the swordswoman before she looked back at the two men. "My name is Ikaruga Ōkami, the current leader of Death Head's Cacus and Trinity Raven, I was employed by Jellal Fernandes to defeat all those against him."

"Death Head's Cacus!?" Sho seemed horrified repeating the name of the guild the woman just said. "That famous Assassin Guild that ended the Cabria War!?"

There was a slight frown on Ikaruga's face when she heard the two words, Cabria War. However, it seemed like neither of her two opponents noticed. The loud one seemed too dazed and struck realization to notice while the pink haired one was looking at the former with confusion, obviously oblivious as to whom they were.

"That… is we."

"Assassins?" Natsu began before glaring towards Ikaruga with one of the most disgusted of snarls. "People who kill for money make me sick!"

Ikaruga blinked at the accusation of the Fairy Tail mage before seemingly answering in a strange manner. "How can one proudly claim to stand on shallow waters, while they avoid the vast ocean beyond them?"

Natsu reacted to the deep poetic response to his insult as one would expect him to. "Uuuuhhhhhh whaaaa?"

Thankfully, Sho was there to translate. "I think she's saying that you have no idea what you're saying."

Natsu, while thankful to Erza's friend, snapped his head back at the woman assassin. "Well why didn't you just say that!?"

"I tried to use a quote of a western writer, George Rattleblade," The pink haired mage perked up at the name since he recalled meeting that guy as a zombie briefly. "I am quite a fan of his works, so here I thought it would be familiar to you if I used his words."

The assassin readied a hand on the hilt of her blade and her eyes, for the briefest of seconds, had a flash of anger in them. "I digress, it seems my poems and lyrics are wasted on your ears, yet one could still see artful beauty within a fight…"

"Now you're talking!" That was a language that the fire mage could get behind as he rushed straight for the swordswoman, much to the horrified shock of Sho.

However, before Natsu could even get in range, his instincts screamed at him to back off and he did so. He noticed the air a millimeter in front of him cut by a slash so fast, which was amazing since the dragon slayer didn't even see his opponent make the motion of drawing her blade.

"You dodged that I see," Ikaruga had her eyes closed as she re-sheathed her blade and took another style of fighting. If Natsu recalled, Erza once mentioned a type of sword style called Iaiijutsu or something else that he was unable to pronounce. However, he did recall his S-class mage friend saying that it was all about lightning quick draws with a blade. Considering what he saw just now, it was more than likely this was the specialized sword fighting he heard about. "I do wonder how a dragon does battle?"

And then the assassin slashed.

Natsu avoided the quick strikes and backed off again. However, he felt something on his chin and as he traced a hand to the area he felt, he noticed he was bleeding.

The dragon slayer growled before firing a powerful Fire Dragon's roar right for the swordswoman. Yet with one brilliant stroke, like that of a pen, Ikaruga cut through the attack like it was nothing, causing a vacuum that suffocated the mighty flames of its oxygen almost instantaneously.

Yet Natsu actually expected that for once. When the flame was cut, he was already charging in with his boosted White Flame mode, with the intent to deck his opponent hard. However, Ikaruga sidestepped the punch and judo threw Natsu into the lake, causing steam to pour out on contact that was more than enough to cover the battle field.

The pink haired assassin closed her eyes again and put her hand on the hilt of her blade when the steam surrounded them. She spun, pulled her blade, and slammed the hilt onto Natsu's chest, causing him to stagger back in pain from the blow. She then swung her blade, but the Dragon Slayer quickly ducked his head backwards then afterward unleashed another roar of fire in front of her, causing her to jump and land some ways away.

"You fight well. A bit rudimentary, but well."

There was a low growl coming from the pink haired mage. "Don't take me lightly, I'm just getting started."

Sho could only stare in shock. What the heck was this guy doing fighting someone way stronger than him? Bah, his main focus was on Erza, but Sho had a bad feeling that if he tried to escape, Ikaruga would try and get him with his back turned.

Still, another part of his mind wondered how the others were doing?

* * *

Meanwhile…

"I can't believe we were separated like that! Why didn't you warn us about that trap floor?!" Gray screamed to Simon as they both found themselves in some room with many hanging cages.

"I apologize. It seems there were things Jellal hid from us. I had no idea that floor had such a trap to begin with." The metal jawed man began. "We need to find Erza and the others once more, especially Salamander if we hope to defeat Jellal."

"Hey, whatever scale-shedder can do, I can do better a million fold." Gray began before he and Simon heard the sound of chains creaking loudly in the distance.

There was a loud thud sound as the two looked up towards a cage hanging above them.

"It appears you two are my opponents!" A large, muscular man with an owl for a head dramatically shouted out loud.

Both Gray and Simon stared with various levels of hostility and confusion as the man stood in an intimidating pose towards them. "What the? Who's that guy?"

The ice mage started to regret asking that when he saw the muscular, shirtless behemoth with an owl face pose dramatically with flexed muscles. "I am Fukuro of Death Head Cacus!"

Simon at this point was horrified and did not know he repeated the same words as Sho when they faced Ikaruga.

To the surprise of all, Fukuro pointed dramatically towards the ice mage of Fairy Tail with eyes of a hawk rather than an owl. "I've seen your files, Gray Fullbuster! Your days of indecency meet its end right now!"

Gray felt a nerve get struck before he raised his fist at his enemy. "Hey! I don't do that on purpose!"

"You show of your lustful body to innocent maidens by your subconscious!? Have you no shame, sir!?"

Gray grunted before turning into a fighting stance. "Oh that is it, bird brain! I'm beating you up, finding the others, and getting out of here!" The now half naked young man didn't hesitate to fire ice projectiles at his half avian enemy.

The assassin seemed to activate his jet pack and start flying with speed enough to avoid all of Gray's projectiles.

However, the ice mage smirked. One of his projectiles was cleverly hidden to be an Ice Sparrow shot like an Ice Lance. The speedy bird was already catching up to the jet pack user—

Then Fukuro spun and kicked the ice bird with enough force to shatter it.

"He saw through your attack," Simon said with rising panic. "We need to leave! Trinity Raven is infamous in their skill to take down anyone!"

As he gathered magic in his hand, Simon noticed Gray signaling him to stop what he was about to do. "If you're planning to make it dark for us to run away—don't. Our opponent is an Anthro* like your cat mage friend. You know people like that add animal features to their bodies, and this guy replaced his face with an owl. Those guys practically are hawks of the night sky."

"Ooooh?" After almost who-ing like an owl, Fukuro landed on one of the hanging cages with his arms crossed. "You must be the one I've heard with dark magic then. Considering Owls are nocturnal hunters as that stripper says, dark based cover has no affect on me. In fact, one of the reasons I changed my face into that of an owl was to perform night missions better."

Simon grunted. His magic was practically based on complete darkness. Someone who could see through it automatically cut his strength by half.

However, Gray something else out of that little exposition.

"Who are you calling a stripper!?" The half naked man said as he pointed to the half naked owl. "That's it! Prepare to have your feathers plucked, birdy!" He then jumped and gathered ice in his palms after saying that.

"A striper like you cannot hope to defeat Justice!" Fukuro proudly flexed before rushing to meet Gray.

However, while they were in a life and death battle, Simon had the strangest of thoughts come to him at the most random of times.

"Now that he mentions it, besides Erza and that young brown haired man, nearly everyone in Fairy Tail looks like a stripper."

* * *

Lucy did not understand why she felt irritated, but she was and very much so.

Perhaps it was because she found herself alone with Juvia, a former enemy, and Milliana, a former enemy.

… Maybe irritation might be better than fear or distrust.

"Are you two alright?" Lucy tried to start as the other two girls looked at each other with some level of unease.

"I'm fine, but where is my beloved Gray?" Juvia began before she paused a bit. "And the others?" She added that in like an afterthought.

It was then that Milliana spoke up. "We probably got separated. The others could be in different floors." Even though she said this, her body language and how she was a bit farther from the two showed that she hadn't fully trusted Erza's other friends yet.

"So," Lucy began trying to channel Erza in her leadership. "Where are we?"

The cat girl shrugged her shoulders. "I've never been in this area before."

The room itself looked like some kind of strange arena with an expansive roof that just felt ominous and unwelcoming.

Then there was a sound of a guitar being strung with heavy metal music.

"Wwwwwoooohoooo!" Someone jumped out from a high distance and landed in front of all three women. This man had pale white skin from the make up all over him that gave a heavy metal band member vibe. As he saw the three, he started playing music in his guitar in a rather impressive manner.

"Oooohhh Yeaahhh this is going to be wild!" The strange man continued with his guitar solo before doing an impressive finish.

"What?! Who is that creep!?" Lucy took a step back at how the mere presence of that person made her body shiver in both fear and disgust.

"The name's Vidaldus Taka and I'm here to send you to heaven, baby!~" The wild rocker then started strumming on his guitar.

Juvia, now completely annoyed that this man was in no way, shape, or form Gray Fullbuster, instantly locked their opponent in a Water Lock when she had first kidnapped Lucy.

"Can we go find Gray now?" Juvia unfortunately let pride get the best of her. Soon, the three had their attention brought back to the man as the water sphere around him suddenly started to shrink. It seemed like the water was seeping into his long hair before every trace of it was absorbed and the wild man could stand on his own two feet again.

"Wwwhhoooo weeeee! That's pretty good for the hair roots!" The rocker cried out before he smiled and started playing his guitar in an impressive manner. "But enough of that! I'm about to use music to soothe your souls! Yeaaahhhh!"

What the three didn't know was that this crazed fighter was going to be their toughest fight yet.

* * *

"Ignis, to your right!" Happy the Cat shrieked out before a Manticore was trying to pincer in the red wyvern while they flew inside the tower halls.

"Whenever we lose one, two more take its place!" Happy cried out on Ignis' head before the red wyvern turned to the right. However, there was one manticore pouncing right for the wyvern. Ignis unleashed a powerful flame breath on the mythological beast before its attack could connect. The fire exploded and warded of the creature. However, even while smoking, the Manticore got back up and tried to use its stinger to hit Ignis. The wyvern jumped back and started flying again, turning back from where it came and taking the other path in order to prevent being caught by the other manticores.

"How are we going to escape!?" Happy yelled out, he really was worried for Natsu and the others. But without Ignis, there was no way for either of them to get to any of their friends with all these starving manticore pursuing relentlessly after them.

* * *

"I don't care what you are! Let Erza go, you creep!" Wally didn't even hesitate to summon his blaster and fire right for the strange person standing right in front of them.

The figure tilted his head slightly, letting the blast miss him and hit the side of Erza's bubble before it dissipated on contact.

There was a flash of red as Kain had already sped past the strange being with a sword drawn out. It seemed like instead of attacking, the young lawyer was aiming to free his ally while their opponent was distracted.

*Clang!*

However, before his sword could hit the bubble trapping the S-Class mage, another barrier dome prevented the red blade from even touching Erza's cage. Kain looked back then backed off when several magic bullets where shot in his direction.

As Kain landed and looked back, he noticed the man—was now no longer a man. It was a beautiful blue haired woman wearing some kind of shiny armor he was unfamiliar with and she was holding up a glowing, blue heater shield and a sleek gold and white pistol.

"You have both shown me your skills, your tactics," The Wickerman now spoke with the voice of a beautiful woman, but there was that constant, eerie undertone of lifelessness in that new voice. "Yet I wish to see your character."

Then she started shooting at Kain. The red rider quickly backed off and then ran around to avoid getting hit. The Wickerman raised his/her shield to prevent Wally from blasting them again. Yet the gun they were holding started gathering light as the shield took in the blasts. The opponent of the two pointed the gun, but instead of firing the charged shot, over a dozen magical circles appeared surrounding the shift-shaper and fired laser beams all around the room. Kain acted fast and grabbed Wally before half a dozen beams pierced and melted through the floors and walls whenever they miss their intended target.

The shots kept firing, forcing Kain to continually move around to not to get hit. However, the wyvern rider didn't realize that all shoots were calculated and were strategically driving towards one area of the room. In one quick motion, the shape-shifter pointed the rifle in a direction Kain was about to move to. It fired a large laser at where Kain had no choice but to try and shield Wally before they were swallowed up by the attack.

"Wally! Kain!" Erza panicked as she saw the attack hit dead on. She quickly tried to force herself to move, but no matter how much she tried the spell held on to her tightly.

"Hmm," The Wicker Man began with interest as they looked at the gaping hole in the church wall. "It seems that armor is more durable than I thought."

That snapped Erza out of her stupor as she concentrated to find out she could still sense Wally's magic and hopefully by proxy, Kain was alright. "Please that's enough! Leave them alone and just bring me to Jellal!" She cried out.

The figure remained silent before turning towards her. When they turned, the face of the woman they were wearing was now scarred on the right side and the scar itself started moving, swallowing the beautiful woman's face whole.

"We will not. Our deal with Jellal states that we are to have any one of your friends." Soon the scar took over the whole body as the Wicker man turned into that of a bald monk with black robes and beads on top of one hand in half a prayer stance.

"What deal was it!? Money?!"

"Money?" The monk tilted his head. "We have no need for money. We want _personalities_." The way thier eyes glowed black the instant he said that word sent chills down the S-class mage's spine.

"P-Personalities? What do you mean?" The scarlet haired woman was soon about to regret asking that.

The monk shape momentarily dropped and out came this horrific, amalgamation of… of something like a black liquid tree filled with _human faces_ across its branches.

" **Very well,** " A conclave of hundreds of many voices speaking in unison with a monotone manner… this would no doubt even cause someone like Erza or Natsu to pale in horror at the sheer utter wrongness of it all. " **We can afford to tell you…** "

* * *

We… were once an 'I'.

This 'I', even we did not know who this I was. All the 'I' knew was pain, agony, and the many bloody corpses around us.

But being some survivor to an old war was not what broke us. Somehow, someway our singular being had lost all sense of self. That person didn't know who they were, but had nothing but magic.

The first of us, an old Veteran named Ziaga Sued, found us and with empathy took us in. He was vibrant, whatever room he walked into he was seen and heard instantly without saying a word. He was smart, he was funny, he was courageous….

While we were nothing, empty.

That emptiness drove us mad, so mad that our magic activated one random night while we were jealous of our caretaker.

Our magic, we did not understand it, but as we absorbed Ziaga into us, we understood what it was. We became him—memories, and personality and all.

Yet we were still so _empty_. Having him, knowing who he was… only when we absorbed him did we feel the sense of emptiness die. Eventually even his personality felt dull and we soon craved another vibrant soul.

Then another.

Then another.

Then another.

We have long lost track. We have kings, queens, tyrants, conquerors, peasants, conmen, warriors, scholars, beggars, handicapped, and madmen as a fraction of our collection.

But no matter how many take, we can never get rid of the emptiness of the first.

So we welcome more and more into our fold. One day we believe that there shall be a person that ends this emptiness.

* * *

" **And Jellal has promised that he shall help me find this one person.** " The conclave of voices decreed. " **Yet…** "

When they turned back towards the hole in the wall, Erza had this horrible feeling rising from her gut. The amalgamation of face all turned back with a hundred disappointed frowns.

" **So far, we have already collected people with similar surface attitudes and characteristics. Should they continue to disappoint us, we shall assimilate their powers but none of their personality.** "

Whatever Wally and Kain were facing, it was something far above their levels.

"Don't you dare!" Erza cried out in horrible realization. This—monster—thing! Whatever it was, it wasn't trying to kill Wally and Kain. It was far worse than she could imagine! The amalgamation was going to absorb them both into its conscious like the many deathless beings inside it! If there was a fate worse than death, Erza had just witnessed it and Wally and Kain were about to face it!

The Wicker Man turned back into a monk and seemingly ignored Erza as they started flying out the wall after the two younger men.

Erza trashed with every ounce of her might, trying her absolute desperation to free herself of whatever ancient seal was keeping her in place.

Yet, she couldn't even budge.

The S-Class mage screamed at the top of her lungs and started crying. Even now, after all this time? Was she still so weak?

* * *

"C…n! C…m…n! Ake… p! WAKE UP!"

The young boy gasped as he stood back up and found himself bumping heads with Wally. Kain noticed that they were currently on one of the giant chains that supported the tower, but he didn't know why.

A few seconds later, Kain had realized that he had tried to shield Wally from a high powered blast from that shift shaper.

"W-Where are we?" The young boy asked before he noticed that he was no longer in his armor.

"One of the chains. We're lucky we didn't just fall straight to into the void below." Wally soon got back up on his feet. "What the hell were you thinking dragging me along like that!? We could have taken him!"

The brunette paused as he recalled how easily their opponent fended them both off with relative ease. The young man did not like how the block guy was insinuating that everything was his fault, but there was far more at stake to play the blame game here of all times.

Kain looked back up to notice the hole they were blown, from what he could guess? They fell some ways down.

"Did the attacker follow after us?" Is what the young man asked instead of even acknowledging the implied insult.

"Huh, no? It must have lost us. We gotta go back in there and get Erza back!" Wally pointed up.

The two were in agreement for once. However, the fact that their opponent didn't chase them was strange. Was it doing something like bringing Erza to Jellal already? In that case they had to get back up there.

"Alright, how do we—" The young man's eyes widened when he noticed something fly out of the hole. Considering it wasn't Erza, he had to guess it was their enemy. "Crap, move!"

The young brunette stated as he ran a bit to the right where their view would be obscured by a higher chain between them and the shift shaper.

Kain looked back to his gauntlet and quickly hit item to activate his armor.

Yet…

To the surprise of Kain and Wally, the chain they were on started glowing red at the presence of the activated armor.

The blocky person pointed to the ground where the red seemed to be pulsing out into the single chain link they were standing on. "W-What the!? The chains have never done that before!"

On one hand, it did mean that this place was connected to the morpher somehow, but on the more important side, this meant that they had just given away their location.

"Wally, run!" Kain took out his blade and fired a Slash Wave towards a huge gust of wind fired their way.

"Why run!?" The dandy bock head cried out as his arm turned into a gun and started shooting blasts at the monk. However, each blast was easily avoided.

"Fine, here's the technical reason why we should: he can fly and we can't! One good hit and there's a less likely chance for us to fall on to another chain!" The plated knight pointed back towards the tower. "Keep firing at him to slow them down and head back inside!"

Now that time Wally couldn't argue and both he and Kain fired blast after sword wave to ward back their opponent while they ran for inside. The Wicker Man shape-shifted again into a colossal ten foot man with bulging muscles and war paint styled across his face and landed on the chain with a giant shock wave.

Kain saw this and knew that Wally could not out run that. "Sorry!" He said as he then activated his enhanced speed to grab on to the blocky person again and speed into the opening in the Tower of Hell before the shockwave could get them.

The two landed in a hallway and then they both started running.

"Ugh, I'm tired of running!" The dandy man complained. "All I need is one good shot and we can beat that guy and get Erza back!"

The wyvern rider sincerely doubted that, but at the same time, he was out of ideas already. "Alright, you really think you can get him? How long will it take?"

A little later, Kain found himself in a hard fought battle between him and his urge to sigh and slap his forehead for being a complete idiot in accepting someone else's plan.

"Oh sure, I'll be the one who fights him off while he charges his best attack. It's not like I saw how Piccolo and Goku versus Raditz went." The wyvern rider was really hating himself right now as he stood in the middle of the hallway with two blades drawn and had his senses feel a strong presence coming his way while Wally was some distance in the back.

In the distance, he saw the shift shaper coming in. They were now taking a new form of some knight with an elaborate crusader shield and a large broadsword that was easily lifted by one hand.

Kain tensed while also feeling sweat down his back inside the armor. He really, really wished he'd stop finding himself in situations where he had no choice but to face opponents stronger than him and fight them one on one.

In one instant, the Wicker Man closed the gap between the two faster than Kain expected. This made the spatially displaced boy hate his life significantly more than usual.

Wally charged his attack, watching the two go head to head, or rather, the wyvern rider avoiding a whole bunch of attacks that easily decimated whichever area he left.

There were times where Kain was hit—hit rather hard. And now he was just becoming somewhat of a ragdoll.

In one move, Kain tried to circle back, only to be kicked hard in the torso and be sent flying back near Wally's feet.

"I got it ready!" Wally said as he pointed a fully charged blaster arm right towards The Wicker Man.

"Hasta la vista, ba—"  
"You do not get to finish that sentence in front of me."

While momentarily distracted by Kain's dry comment, Wally fired off the attack of concentrated magic. The blast was so fast that it actually melted The Wicker Man's head off its shoulders, leaving a body with a smoldering and smoking top.

Seeing their enemy's head cleaned right off, Wally wooped for joy. "You see that? That's the dandy way!"

Kain may have been wearing a face plate, but he was looking in deadpan down on the floor. He was about to complain about how he had his ass handed to him for something so anti-climatic, but then he realized something.

The body didn't fall.

"Wally, wait. Something isn't right." The red rider cried out then quickly got back up.

"What? That guy is definitely dead." The black man stopped speaking when he heard the sound of a footstep walk towards them.

The body moved towards them without a head. Soon, a black like substance started forming around where the head was. It stretched out high and transformed into something large and encompassing before trying to crush the two. The armored rider whisked Wally away before the attack could make contact.

Afterward, the two looked back to see that it seemed like the shift-shaper had forsook all attempts of playing around. Instead of the body of one person, it had like a dozen different arms glowing with different magic and had unseen weapons of before. Two large spikes burst out of the back of the torso and turned into large, black, torn butterfly wings. And then a head reformed on the knight's shoulders, instead of a face, it was an amalgamation of a hundred eyes all focused towards the two.

" **We have judged. We have already had a 'dandy' man among us. Wally Buchanan, you are not welcome among The Wickerman.** " A conclave of a hundred voices declared with disinterest.

The sheer view of something so much more powerful and something so horrific finally hit Wally as he fell to his knees gapping horror. He could only gasp as their opponent brought a powerful spike of magical power that was felt all throughout the tower.

"M-Monster," Wally weakly gasped as the creature stalked towards him with the intent to make it as if he had never existed.

Yet…

To the block man's surprise, something stood in front of him like a shield. Kain, despite looking worse for wear, stood between Wally and The Wicker Man.

"Wally," Kain's voice began softly. "Get back to Erza and free her. I'll hold it off for as long as I can."

Those words sprung the block man into action, just not the one the red rider was hoping for. "W-What!? Didn't you see that-that monster!? It's impossible to beat! You barely lasted any time alone with that thing!" Wally pointed at the thing with obvious fear. What was Kain thinking? There was no chance of both of them winning whatsoever!

"I know." The young man still looked at their opponent heading towards them with another spike of magic. Kain may not have been able to sense magic, but he could tell that a brighter light meant that he was about to attack.

Wally didn't have a chance to respond to that as Kain then rushed blades first towards the monster.

The red rider was able to say two words before getting back into the fight, "JUST GO!"

The block mage didn't hesitate when the fighting restarted and ran for it as fast as he could.

* * *

Wally knew what floor they were in after seeing where he fell from, so it didn't long before he figured and found the room they had left Erza in.

"Wally?!" The S-Class mage seemed shocked to see that one of her friends had escaped.

"Erza, let's break you out of there!" The blocky mage cried out as he prepared his gun and fired on the sphere trap multiple times. However, it didn't seem to show any signs of breaking.

"Where's Kain?!" Erza cried out as she realized that it was only Wally who was here.

Instead of answering, there was a sudden quake that caused the tower to shake. A second later, a streak of red was seen shooting out of the floor and crashing into the ceiling. As the dust settled, the object fell from the ceiling, revealing it to be a rather beaten up Kain that fell into the floor like a thrown toy.

Before Erza could scream in horror, a giant black, liquid like hand shot out of the ground where Kain came from and slammed again into the floor as it motioned whatever it was attached with to move up. The wyvern knight weakly tried to stand once more, and in front of him the floor was practically split open in half as fire lit from below the gaping hole.

Even words like demon or monster paled at what had appeared before them. A behemoth being around twenty feet tall, a half dozen arms covered in black ooze but sticking out of all six arms like goosebumps was an array of powerful magical weapons, and most horrifyingly of all, a 'head' filled with pupil-less faces across its 'face'.

It was like facing a horror before the birth of a universe.

The unspeakable monstrosity spoke with a conclave of uncanny and emotionless voices. " **Your armor interests us, Kain Reynolds. Never have we felt pain from any other item crafted from yore that has forced us into this form before. Part with it now, and we shall leave you be.** "

Kain looked back to Erza and Wally before he summoned another blade and took another fighting stance.

The scarlet haired woman shouted again at the top of her lungs when she saw her clearly non-warrior friend face off against something that was clearly the scariest being in the entire tower. "Are you crazy!? Kain, stop fighting and run! You heard the thing awhile ago, it won't hurt me! Just run!"

"I," The red knight fixed his stance with all the strength of a newborn trashing its limbs around weakly before he took a step forward. "won't." It seemed like he was saying that to both his ally and enemy.

" **Why?** " The beast asked with a speck of curiosity. " **Why do you fight against us so desperately?** "

…

The red rider lowered his stance and stared back at the powerful opponent. "You really want to know? … I am not a really brave person. I'm really nothing without this armor, and I'm definitely not one of those people who can stare death in the face without a trace of fear." The young boy softly began even though he was heard by everyone. "But I do know what it's like to be scared; what it's like to feel as if nothing good is ever going to happen. I… I'm not standing in front of you because I'm brave. I'm more afraid of running away in fear and never looking back, I'm more afraid of my guilt haunting me for the rest of my life in saying that I let people I cared for down so badly."

Kain then raised his head once more. "I'm fighting you so desperately, because I fear living with failure and regret once again as I did before, and I did so hate it. However, if I keep fighting; if I find a way to beat you and do defeat you then—for the most miniscule of moments of my life—I might be able to trick myself in feeling like I belong with all of my friends here who are so much better than me."

"Kain…" Erza found herself whispering in surprise. She recalled how bad Kain felt before he could even activate the armor, and saw a glimpse of how self-loathing he was in his childhood. She always thought that the young man had pretty much overcome his past. How could she have been so blind? Kain had never overcome all those years of self loathing. He has always been fighting those thoughts of him never being good enough all his life and was still fighting it even now.

But Kain was always fighting, always trying his best to prove to himself that he did belong to stand with his friends. There were days that were easier than others, but whenever he was forced to fight for Fairy Tail? Those were the days that were so obvious to show how out of place he was, and it must have bothered him so much since he already had low-self esteem.

"That… that is why I fight so hard. I am afraid of you, but I promised myself, my family, and my new friends here in Fairy Tail, I can't give up! No matter what else you throw at me!" With rising determination, Kain shouted out more and more. His courage seemed to be rising as he said that as he took a blade stance, ready for whatever attack to come his way.

However, what came his way was not some unseen or unblockable attack, but a hundred pupil-less faces smiling twistedly.

" **Kain Reynolds, you have shown us a strong and vibrant character! We have judged: we welcome you as a future collective of The Wicker Man.** " In other words, the creature was going to turn Kain into one of the many faceless bodies it took over.

Even though he was wearing a helmet, everyone could tell the boy was narrowing his eyes at his enemy. "I decline."

In a burst of red, Kain moved in, slashing one of the arms before bouncing off in the air. The many faces screamed in pain while the rest of its body started firing multiple magical blasts right for the red rider mid air. However, to the surprise of the watchers, Kain was holding something blue when he usually had all red items.

Wally and Erza instantly recognized it as the shield The Wicker Man first used to prevent Kain from getting close to Erza and to block most of Wally's shots. Instantly, Erza wondered if Kain noticed the weapon from all the other weapons sticking out of its arms and then purposely attacked the arm first in order to pick up that shield? If so, she had to admit it was a well thought off plan to plan his offense and immediate defense.

The blue shield started to glow and summon a force field that instantly dissipated many of the attacks that hit it. The Wicker Man shot out a golden lance that instantly broke through the force field bubble and shattered the shield that Kain stole. However, the shield did buy the young man enough time to move mid air and catch the lance, then throw it back right into one of the faces of The Wicker Man, causing it to scream again.

The young adolescent landed and with another burst of speed, tunneled right for another arm and slashed it. This time, while the monster screamed, Kain had stolen a magical rifle and fired several times, unleashing a hail of bullets on the thing.

Yet this time, over a dozen magical circles appeared and blacked all attacks. A black goop tentacle had shot out and stuck itself on Kain's right foot and slammed the armored warrior into the ground.

"Kain!" Erza shouted while Wally looked on with horror.

The red warrior summoned a blade and cut off the liquid trying to get to him before backing off. However, as he did, he felt himself get punched from behind. The amateur warrior tried to roll and looked behind him to see a liquid figure holding an elaborate pole axe.

There was a humming noise that made the displaced young man jump before being cut in half by another figure holding a blade.

Soon, Kain realized there were a dozen or more liquid like figures with powerful weapons and all of them soon gained the face of someone he didn't recognize.

Then they all attacked.

The red rider put up a fight, but he was overwhelmed and out skilled by the many humanoid puppets that swarmed him.

"Aaah! Aaaahh!?" Wally panted for air as he saw The Wicker Man's clones stopped attacking and blasting their opponent when a flash of red light appeared, revealing that Kain was powered down and knocked down cold. Slowly, all the faces turned towards him, the horrific sight, the memory of The Wicker Man trying to kill him, and the fact that the one possible person who could fight that monster was now defeated, made Wally pant in fear. "AAAAHHH!?" The block man cried as he ran for his dear life.

"Wally?!" Erza yelled before she saw the man run away. However, the voice of The Wicker Man brought her attention back to her guild's lawyer.

" **Kain Reynolds…. welcome home.** " Black liquid slowly oozed towards the now unconscious and bleeding young man. Slowly but surely, he was being swallowed into the monstrosity.

"No! Kain! Wake up! Kain!? KAIN!?" Erza desperately cried out. Inside her mind, she was begging anyone, anything—save her friend.

And then… a blast came from behind her and exploded on the Wicker Man's face. The direct attack forced the black liquid off of Kain and a purple block came in and swiped the unconscious adolescent out of there and back near the captured Fairy Tail member.

Erza turned her head to see Wally had returned. His lower half was gone and turned into magical blocks flying around and his arm was in blaster mode. Despite him gasping for breath and how his blaster arm was twitching uncontrollably, he had returned.

The amalgamation slowly turned back towards its attacker. " **You?** "

"Yeah me! I'm back, and ready to kick you to the curb!" Wally declared before pounding his chest. "I was scared of yous, see? But that kid over there… he was right. It's worse to high tail it outta here when I still got friends that need helping! And this time? I ain't stopping till you're beneath my feet!"

" **What caused this change?** " The many voices pointed over towards the blocky man.

Erza was also curious as to why her old friend had returned. In actuality, she was half glad that Wally ran because it meant that he would be safe. Being here now meant that Wally was in danger again.

To her surprise, the man inhaled deeply.

"That kid," He made a motion to the unconscious Kain. "I thought of him as just some rather normal guy—like you would not believe how plain he is. Yet…"

{ _I promised myself, my family, and my new friends here in Fairy Tail that I can't give up! No matter what else you throw at me!_ }

At the memory of such a bold declaration, Wally seemed to relax and no longer show a trace of fear against the overwhelming opponent. "That kid was dandy. And there's no way I'm letting him outshine me!"

" **Curious.** " The amalgamation spoke before summoning a large amount of magic circles with the intent to fire. Wally panicked briefly but then steeled himself as he broke his body into blocks to avoid the blasts and whisk Kain's unconscious body away from the attacks.

"Wally!" Erza shouted from within as some blasts bounced off her trapped bubble. "You need to run! You can't beat that thing!"

While all the blocks were whizzing around, the young man's voice spoke out. "I can't do that, Erza. This thing, it's powerful, but it's not unbeatable. Kain here showed me an idea to stop it!"

Erza was surprised. She recalled Wally being much like Sho in that when they were kids, he always seemed to stay in the background. Where did this burst of courage come from? Or… was it always there just waiting for someone like her or Kain to bring it out of him?

Then to the surprise of the S-class mage, some of the blocks flew right for The Wicker Man beast. Instead of piercing through it, some of the blocks were getting absorbed into the creature, and soon more and more were done as well.

The Wicker Man increased the intensity of their assault, pressing even the remaining blocks to get blasted or even cut. The stress had caused Wally to reform back without most of both his legs and fall to the floor.

" **What is this grand offensive that you planned? In fact, the previous one had done more damage to us in one move.** "

However, Wally, even though he had like two three inch stubs as legs left, started chuckling as he started floating up with his magic. "Yeah see? Here's the thing. Before our first attack on ya, the kid briefly told me his armor is made out of something that disrupts magic, so of course it's gotta be the best weapon to hurt ya. But the more he and I attacked, the more we realized that direct attacks are impossible on you. Yet when Kain made his last stand, and after I settled down, I realized you had one major weakness!"

The room was silent as Wally gave another confident smirk. "How about I just show ya?"

His blaster arm turned normal as he then pointed it right for the Wicker Man. As he did, lights started shinning from _inside_ the Wicker Man.

The Wicker Man made sounds of panic as it noticed it was starting to glow everywhere. Even Erza could sense the spike of magic and instantly her eyes widened. "Wally, what are you doing!?"

"There's no way to win in direct fights against this thing!" Wally cried out before he noticed the beast trying to attack him. He circled back to behind Erza's sphere as cover. "But that's the same weakness! It's only invulnerable on the outside! And I just made him absorb all of my blocks which were charged to explode from the inside!"

Erza look in shock while the light around the Wicker Man started to glow brighter. "But those are your legs, Wally!? The amount of magic you're putting, it's enough to completely drain you! When it goes off, your magic will stop stabilizing you and it will be as if you're legs really are ripped from your body!"

If that was supposed to stop her friend, it didn't. Wally removed his glasses and gave Erza a proud and accomplished smile. "I promised not to lose another older sibling. A true dandy keeps his word no matter what."

Then he put his glasses back on and threw his hand out again, pouring out more and more energy. Wally ignored Erza's desperate pleas to stop before—

The entire Tower of Hell—the entire mountain shook and rumbled from a powerful explosion.

* * *

"Well I'll be damned. Wally Bunchanan was the one to defeat that monster. Wally? I can surely say that I never expected that to happen in a million years." Jellal said as he moved over to the table and knocked out the question mark piece and Wally's piece over. He then started a slow applause. "Well done, Wally, I was wondering how to get rid of that monster, and you did my work quite nicely. I might even forgive you even after all this is done because of how much you impressed me!"

Jellal laughed and laughed before deciding to see how the others were doing.

* * *

Erza instantly felt herself freed from the magical trap after the explosion went off. There was dust everywhere, along with pieces of black goop, but she didn't care about that. She needed to find Wally and Kain!

"Aaauuuh!" There was a painful half groan, half shout that came from in front of her. Erza quickly transformed into her Wind Empress armor and blew away all the smoke. Her heart sank as she saw Wally, lying down on the floor screaming in pain.

At the very end of where his legs used to be, the two stumps of what remained of Wally's legs were soaking red. His magic really was completely depleted and now he was bleeding internally since there was no open wound to exit from.

"Wally!? Wally, stay with me!" Erza cried out as she kneeled to her friend and tried to spot Kain. To her relief, Kain was dirty and unconscious, but still in one piece.

"Auuugghhh!" Wally groaned before trying to push out a weak laughter. "I-Is that thing gone?"

Erza looked around, thankfully, it seemed like there was no longer any sign of that massive presence. "Yes, yes it's gone Wally, you did it. You beat it."

"Ha… so I'm just going to… sleep for a bit… really hurts to stay…" Wally tilted his head to the side, falling unconscious as he did.

Quickly, Erza turned equipped her Flame Empress Armor. With tears in her eyes she lit up her sword, "I am truly sorry, Wally."

…

In order to stop the internal bleeding, Erza had to cut off what was left of Wally's legs and essentially cauterize him to save him from bleeding out. She wasn't proud of it, but she had one small mercy that Wally was too out cold to feel it.

However, she did set both Wally and Kain in a safe zone outside back in the hall. She opened up her space, and brought out something from it.

It was the Omni Tool she had received from Horus back in the Isle of the Dead. "Kain, when I first received this weapon, I felt completely unworthy of it. Even though I was given it, I felt as though I wasn't right to carry the First Wizard Saint's wish of wielding the blade for hope rather than war. It's why I didn't use it, even when Phantom Lord attacked, with all that I was I still felt as if I could not use it."

"Now?" She said before gently placing it in Kain's arms. "I _know_ I am not worthy of it. You are. I only hope that you can wake up in time and escape before Etherion fires. I must go and meet with Jellal now. Please be safe and live well enough to go back home, Kain."

Erza said solemnly as she left the two in the hallway, now more than ever determined to stop Jellal.

* * *

Fukuro, with uncanny speed coming from the massive man, got behind Gray and then pile-drove the ice mage into one of the cages. The move made the stripper flinch in pain before Fukuro got back up, used his jet packs, and then elbowed into the downed Gray with enough force to break the hanging chain they were on.

The bird assassin flew back up while Simon dove in and picked up Gray before the cage could crash down below.

As he tried to set him down, Gray got back up, more angry than hurt. "Okay, he's tougher than he looks." However, it didn't mean that the damage he received over the fight was easy to ignore.

"I told you, he's infamously powerful! We don't stand a chance against him in direct combat!" Simon cried out.

"Then you go. I'll handle this guy. There's no way I'm running away from a fight like this!" Gray cried out as he placed his hands together. "Ice Make: Swords! Ice Make: Octopus!"

Six blades were created as an Ice Octopus grabbed them and then started using the area around him as a form of jungle gym with its last two remaining limbs. Fukuro watched the ice animal move before he heard a humming noise coming back in front of him. He turned around to see Gray holding a construct Bazooka a few feet in the air in front of him.

Fukuro tried to move but there was a sudden stab he felt at his jet packs—making him instantly realize this was a two pronged attack where both where designed to distract and attack right after each other.

It was then that Gray unleashed the blast, firing the half naked wrestler with an owl head in the distance before the Octopus swung in and grabbed Gray's hand before he could fall and tossed him to a safe area.

"Ha! You talk about my stripping habit when you're the one without a shirt to begin with!"

From the distance, there was a loud owl noise before Fukuro landed again on one of the cages and then flexed dramatically. "How dare you! This is my uniform! Regardless, it's time I defeated you with my finishing move!"

Gray took another stance as he gathered magic. "Finally, something we can agree on." His constructs that included the Octopus dissipated, signaling that Gray was using a large chunk of his magic to finish this fight.

Simon was impressed; the two had been fighting even though the tower had started shaking uncontrollably for some time. However, even though that Gray showed he was indeed stronger than he looked, it seemed their opponent was just as tenacious.

Fukuro stood with both hands out in a grapple stance. " _Paragons of yore! Knights of war! This prodigal warrior asks for more!_ "

"That's a lost spell chant!" Simon cried out as Gray also recognized the rhyming incantation.

However, what the two weren't expecting was the entire room to fill with lights, images of Fukuro attacking previous areas that started to glow and create unique magic marks on wherever his attacks made their mark. And considering where they were fighting and for how long? There were a lot of them surrounding the entire area.

Gray wouldn't let a spell this powerful get unleashed. He fired an assault of ice attacks towards the assassin before he could pull off a spell of that magnitude.

" _There is an enemy before me I must smite! With the marks of our battle, I call forth—_ " The barrage of ice attacks hit Fukuro dead on as he raised his fist into the sky.

Gray did not relent, firing ice blast after ice blast right for where his opponent stood. After unloading a large chunk of his magic energy into blasting his opponent, Gray gasped for breath and stopped his attack.

" _Justice Might!_ "

Fukuro's voice pierced through the smoke with a proud and victorious voice.

The assassin shot out of the smoke with speed that far surpassed when he was using a jet pack. He was wrapped in golden aura and instantly punched Gray with enough force to launch him into the wall on the very opposite side of the room.

Simon could only gape as the assassin closed the distance on Gray and then dragged him upward while pushing his face on the wall while he moved. At the height of that jump, Fukuro started spinning with Gray's body above him. They moved so fast that they formed a circle and started falling fast towards a platform magic circle in the middle of the room.

When they made contact, the entire room shook in a way that forced Simon to take cover.

After the attack, Simon opened his good eye and instantly moved—to catch Gray's unconscious body thrown to him.

As he looked up ahead, he noticed Fukuro still wrapped in golden aura walking towards him, stepping on the air as if it was a floor.

"He should be honored I used my most powerful spell on him. Justice Might, it's a very unique lost spell. It grants its user temporary invulnerability against all magic, physical, and mental damage. However, it only lasts for ten seconds for every successful bare hit you land on your opponent."

Simon looked around to the areas he once saw magical marks. That was why the place started glowing when Fukuro activated the spell: it was tallying all the marks! But wait, Fukuro and Gray had been fighting toe to toe for practically minutes! Which meant—

"As you can see, I am currently invincible for I'd say three minutes at the least, five at the most. Which is more than enough needed to defeat you now."

Simon didn't even have a chance to blink before he felt his body be hit by a speeding truck. The man with a metal Jaw found himself clinging on to a chained cage by instinct before the cage actually snapped and he still went flying.

When he landed, he noticed he wasn't carrying Gray anymore and quickly tried to find him. To his relief, Gray was on a lower platform, but seemingly fine.

The same couldn't be said for him however.

Without any choice left, Simon covered the entire room in complete darkness, leaving only Fukuro like a beacon amongst the deep darkness.

"I can still see you in the darkness; did we not make that clear?" Fukuro's owl eyes tracked Simon and tried to unleash another punch. However, Simon was able to barely dodge the attack and land on another platform.

The man with a metal jaw started to hate himself while doing his best to stall out the time.

( _No one, not even Jellal, noticed the chains around the tower started to glow black._ )

Perhaps he might have had a chance after all had he actually entered into the fight with Gray instead of gawking in fear like some bystander.

* _This is all your fault, Simon._ *

It irked him so much that even though he had finally gotten the rest to believe in Erza, they were so easily split up and were now under attack by far more powerful warriors—perhaps it was worse of him to drag the others like Milliana and Sho into the fight in the first place and he should have been the only one to approach Erza and Fairy Tail.

* _They might all have had a chance if you didn't distract everyone into one giant area for Jellal to finish you off._ *

He thought if he could have been patient and quiet this past decade, he could have his chance to save everyone and Erza, but he was a fool! Jellal had been building his plan far more elaborately than him, even if Jellal kept an eye on them the entire time, he should have been able to know about the Death Head Caucus elite and warn everyone properly.

* _They will now all die, just because you let your emotions get the better of you. Just because you wanted to see_ _her_ _again._ *

Dang it! Dang it!

* _Don't worry, Simon Mikazuchi, all you need to do to fix this is to use a simple spell. Don't you remember? When you were first learning dark based magic? The one with the harmless and untrue label that said, "Forbidden Spell". After all, if it was forbidden, why did they put it down in that book you found in a random crack in these ruins?*_

He had no choice.

Fukuro momentarily stopped when he noticed something off about the darkness around him. "… What was that cold chill?" The assassin looked over to Gray, but noticed he was still out cold. "No, it's not ice… it's something… dark."

The Assassin instantly noticed the darkness get lifted. Yet when he turned his head around, he seemed to be surprised.

"Wait, you didn't!?" For the first time in the fight, the assassin with a bird face seemed to lose his calmness.

There was a wild roar as Simon screamed out like a pained beast. As he faced back to Fukuro, his eyes with glowing black, his eyes were dripping blood.

" **Dark Sacrifice!** " Simon screamed with a voice that sounded nothing like his own. And like six black spider like tendrils shot out of the large man's shadow and quickly moved towards the man's broad back.

Fukuro's owl eyes sharpened as he prepared for battle. "You damn fool!" Even before the last syllable left his mouth, Simon with his new found power had closed the distance between them and he threw his fist—and a three tendrils right for the assassin.

The assassin instinctively blocked and while he didn't feel any form of pain, he found himself rocketing across the room.

Flashes of memories started to come to Fukuro as he got back up.

( _"Watch over Ika-chan for me, please Kuro-nii?_ ")

"Of all the times to remember that damn war…" Fukuro jumped to avoid Simon smashing the cage he was standing on that instantly shot down and bounced through every opposite wall like a pin ball as it made its descent down.

As Fukuro jumped to safer ground, he noticed his glow was starting to flicker and wane. His momentary invulnerability time was running out.

"I've got at least a minute left." The Assassin said as he gripped his fist and looked back at Simon wildly charging for him. "For the sake of Justice, I must defeat you! … And more importantly,"

The enraged Simon fired all his tendrils and empowered fist right for the glowing assassin. The man with an owl for a head charged forward. But as he did the glow around him instantly faded and he was decked right in the face by a sting of dark magic.

"… For them!"

However, Fukuro was still holding on and while his body may have lost his glow, his fist was shinning like the sun. It seemed he moved what was left of his invulnerable state into this attack and launched his fist right for Simon's stomach.

"Redemption Punch!" The assassin cried out as the light exploded, covering the darkness and knocking Simon away right through a dozen cages and being forced through the thick wall that surrounded the room. It seemed he was fine afterward, seeing as Simon was now unconscious and laying inside a hallway with some rubble on him.

"You never surrender yourself to magic completely, my opponent, especially in front of me of all people." Fukuro sighed as he found himself looking upward. "Though, if one was that desperate to defeat me…"

The owl assassin flinched as the pain from the attack and the injuries he sustained from Gray finally kicked in.

"No, a Hero of Justice never shows weakness. The kids can't see me like this." Fukuro told himself as he got back up. However, he then sighed and scratched his head. "But… a Hero of Justice would also spot a large lie when they see one, and I do believe we've been bamboozled."

* * *

Glass shattered as Ignis flew through it without hesitation. Both he and Happy were now out of the tower, still flying with a herd of hungry Manticores pursuing after them.

"Why can't we shake them off!?" Happy cried out as the creatures flew after them, one of them getting dangerously close to biting, Ignis' tail before the red wyvern descended to avoid being caught.

It was then with Ignis, and only Ignis, the wyvern spotted something on one of the chains. A humanoid figure seemingly motioned to the wyvern with a wave of their hand. Instantly, Ignis flew towards the being in the distance.

However, Happy seemed surprised at the new burst of speed. "Huh? Where are you going!?"

The red wyvern only flew faster towards the chain before suddenly shifting his legs and his weight forward then stopped flying his wings. This led the red dragonic creature to fall and slide on the giant chains, but then Ignis started running on its hind legs after sliding somewhat.

Behind the dragonic cousin, the pack of manticores also observed their prey's movements, some chose to chase with land while some continued to fly. Yet, while in flight, some of the manticores were able to overtake Ignis while he ran.

Happy the flying cat expressed worry when one of the creatures in the front came diving right for them. The pseudo dragon's eyes sharpened as he slid to a stop again. As the first manticore came in close, Ignis threw his head back, causing Happy to fall backward and allowed Ignis to dodge the claw of the creature. However, Ignis then quickly snapped his mouth open and stabbed his fangs deep into the neck of the first manticore as it roared in pain.

At the same time, another manticore was closing in on behind Ignis and more importantly, zeroing in on the falling Happy. Ignis' tail moved like a snake about to strike and wrapped around Happy to take him away while Ignis' talon shot out and latched on to the second manticore's face.

Then the wyvern crushed and twisted with his talon.

"Ahh! That was brutal and kinda cool!" Happy half gasped and looked away after the move before he found out that Ignis was now already turning and threw both dead manticores in the opposite direction.

The remaining ten didn't even seem to care as they all tunneled hard for the red wyvern. Ignis now had his mouth glowing with flame as he then enflamed a circle of fire around himself to slow down the swarm. Three manticores flew through the fires, one with their stinger poised to strike, one with their fangs raised, and another with their claws gleaming. Ignis ran towards the one with a stinger face first before unleashing a blast of fire on it as it was launched at him. The burst of flame made the Manticore cringe in pain and slow down the stinger enough for Ignis to avoid it and chomp down hard on tail part of the stinger.

With great wyvern strength, the red beast swung his capture manticore over head to slam down the next hungry predator that was trying to bite him. Happy swore he could even feel their pain with how Ignis threw both bodies with such force to make both their bones crack loudly from the crushing impact.

The last one was coming in fast, but Ignis let go off Happy and tail whipped the two bodies right for the claw using manticore. The combined weight of the two bodies caused the attacking manticore to get pinned down by the combined weight. The wyvern didn't hesitate to burn all three while they were down.

Happy, while momentarily distracted at how hardcore Ignis really was in a fight, heard something and looked up. "Ignis, look out!"

The wyvern looked up before he was tackled down by two manticores that flew over his wall of fire.

The two manticores pinned the wings down of Ignis and dug their own claws into the wyvern's scales. They both lifted their stingers up, but then were distracted as Happy flew in and tried to tackle one of them in the face.

While he didn't do much, the manticores were distracted by the cat's action. Ignis didn't hesitate to unleash flame right in the face of the manticore to his right while his tail snaked around the other and crushed its neck before it could even act.

This allowed him to push both of them off and quickly take a few flaps to get himself right side up. Seeing the burned manticore still alive, Ignis shot out his talon to grab on to its face and slam the creature comprised of other animals into the strange chain and twist his talon hard.

Happy gave a thumbs up despite being still a little disturbed by the rather violent move by the wyvern. "We Fairy Tail animals gotta stick together!"

The red wyvern appreciated this, but then a large gust of wind completely sapped away the oxygen of ring of fire. The last five manticores roared and once more ran right for the Wyvern with no time to defend himself.

Ignis and Happy both flew in the air, prompting the other five to chase after them. The two Fairy Tail members separated; four went after Ignis while the last one went after Happy.

The flying cat started flying through the inside of the chains, causing a half zig-zag chase. The manticore was not all that smart as it continued to follow Happy. During one of its turns, the manticore suddenly lost sight of the blue cat but didn't notice the tail of Ignis snaking around his neck.

SNAP!

Happy and Ignis flew as the manticore body fell while the last four gave chase to the red wyvern and blue cat.

Ignis spun back, unleashing a wide spread flame that caused the others to split up to avoid more damage by flames.

For one of them, Happy appeared right in front of them and suddenly rode and blinded the creature with his wings.

This caused the blind manticore to trash around while trying to throw off Happy. Another manticore saw Happy and instantly tried to eat the small cat whole. At the same time, the blinded manticore was getting furious and by using his sense of feeling, reclined his stinger. However, Happy smiled and in the last second jumped off the manticore, allowing the other to accidentally bite his ally and for the first to launch his stinger and poison into the biter.

One of the Manticores saw that and dove for the flying cat. However, it suddenly found itself unable to move by something yanking its tail. When it turned around, it was greeted with wyvern flames.

The stream of fire was seen turning the head of the second to last manticore into ashes before it was dropped into the abyss.

The last manticore roared angrily as it charged for Ignis. The red wyvern continued flying place before suddenly spinning forward, whipping his tail right into the head of the last manticore.

The half lion monster landed on the chain, but as it tried to look back up, it only noticed a shadow off a talon.

Ignis roared proudly before it did its signature crush and twist, which was followed by a loud sound of something snapping like twig, but having a far more disturbing sound.

"That'll teach you to mess with Happy! The strongest Fairy Tail Animal!" The proud bleu cat declared as soon as all twelve manticores were dead and no longer pursuing them.

Ignis fought the urge to roll his eyes and just snorted and gave a few growls. If one was there, they could swear that his grunts sounded sarcastic.

The blue cat pointed to the red wyvern angrily. "MOMON IS NOT THE STRONGEST ANIMAL IN FAIRY TAIL!"

It seemed like one would be right to assume that Ignis was simply being witty.

Happy was not quite happy with the reference of the other animal sidekick in Fairy Tail besides him and Ignis.

At that moment, Ignis smiled and nodded emptily before petting Happy with his tail and motioned a wing back over to the tower.

"Grr! Fine! I'll prove that I am the strongest! I'll go find Natsu and the others and save them from whatever problem they're facing, you'll see!" Happy cried out as he flew back towards the Tower of Hell. "Momon can suck on my tail!"

The pseudo dragon shook his head but then tensed and turned his head around.

The figure that called him over was now standing right behind him.

*… I see. You are the Eye of the Flesh.*

Ignis growled softly in response.

The figure bowed in front of the wyvern.

*I am honored you know who I am.*

The red wyvern seemed to narrow his eyes before he gave a few soft roars after the strange phantom like being.

*If you are asking that question, it simply means you were not given that part.*

Ignis gave a powerful angry roar followed by snarling after that.

*I can also see which parts you were given. It seems you've been given the short end of the stick, my lord.*

It seemed like the crimson pseudo dragon was now tired of this conversation and quickly flew away, chasing after Happy.

The phantom figure continued to watch before he slowly started to fade.

*Hmm, this cycle seems most interesting.*

* * *

Lucy was starting to wonder what life would have been like for her if she wasn't a Celestial Mage and had a different magic instead. Perhaps is she had been this super powerful person, everything would go better and things would have gone well for her and everyone around her.

… Okay, maybe Juvia hit her too hard in the head with a water blast that time if she was now having weird thoughts like that.

"Ahahahaha!"

"Oh right, brainwashing magic." Lucy groggily muttered as she got out of the puddle she was currently laying on. Vidaldus—the total creep—activated his magic to ensure he could momentarily capture and mind control Juvia and turned her against both her and Milliana.

"I'm not done, blonde bimbo!" That half crazed shout caused Lucy to get back up and avoid a spike of water from hitting her again.

Lucy looked to her right to see Milliana, looking dizzy, wet, and a bit upset, but alright. It seemed Juvia seemed more inclined to attack her because of some nonsense about being a rival in love.

"OOOOOhhhhhh YEEAAAHHHH!?" Vidalvus cried out as he continued to play his guitar and cried out more and more to make their cat fight really hot.

Lucy was still starting to panic. How could she even defeat Juvia? During the Phantom Lord attack, it was Kain who actually defeated Gajeel, but even more so than that, Kain actually had to fight and protect her that entire fight! She was nothing more than a bother at that point, which was really annoying to her.

Wait a second! Kain defeated Gajeel with out of the box thinking, not overpowering him! Lucy may not have stood a chance against Juvia, but that might not what she needed to do!

While doing her best to dodge Juvia's attacks, the former heiress tried to think hard. Kain used Gajeel's own power against him. What could she do to turn this situation around?

Lucy looked around again, trying to list everything as she could. If only that idiot could stop playing his—

"That's it!"

The blonde celestial mage took out her key and in a bright flash of light, turned to her Sagittarius Dress.

"OOOOH BABY WHAT A FINE DRESS!" Vidaldus whooped in joy before playing his guitar louder.

Milliana turned her head in shame. "I can't believe my awesome big sis is friends with such a shameful striper!"

"I AM NOT A STRIPER!" Lucy yelled to the skies above and making a heavy mental note to demand her spirits to give her less revealing clothes after this was done.

"You'd probably be a great one though!" The assassin gave a thumbs up; though that was the opposite of what she wanted to hear.

"Shut it!" The celestial mage quickly snapped before aiming her bow at Juvia. "Sorry, Juvia, but I'm going to have to stop you!"

For some reason, Juvia seemed to get even angrier. "You will never have my beloved Gray!"

Before Lucy could argue that she wasn't aiming for that, Juvia started firing water blasts at her. The celestial mage ran and fired several arrows at the water woman, only for her to allow the arrows to pass through her liquid form.

"Ha! Your attacks are useless!" Juvia cried out, but Milliana noticed that Lucy was still deadly serious as she fired more and more arrows at her, each one passing through her body and showing no sign of slowing down.

The cat girl noticed Lucy smile before drawing one bow, dodging a water blast by sliding underneath it, the twirling back to stand up and fire another arrow at Juvia.

"Come on, bimbo!" Juvia laughed as that arrow phased through her. "Those attacks don't—"

Plunk!  
"GAH!?"

Juvia turned back to see that the last arrow she let phase through her had stabbed into the guitar of Vidaldus and was causing the musical instrument to crack, glow, and suddenly explode. The member of Trinity Raven cried out in horror as he beloved instrument turned to dust in his arms.

"I know," Lucy answered Juvia's taunt. "But I wasn't aiming for you from the start! I just need to make everyone think I was aiming for you from the beginning!" The blonde threw her hand out. "That last arrow was laced with a special spell that should disrupt the magic within another holder type item! Which means!"

The air around the guitar turned into a bright gold color and raced towards Juvia, after a bright light enveloped her, it seemed like she was back to her usual self.

"L-Lucy! You freed me!" Juvia turned in shock.

The member of Fairy Tail gave a thumbs up with the hand that had a Fairy Tail symbol on it. "What are friends for?"

The former Element Four seemed to smile at how her potential love rival still considered her friends.

"Noooo! My precious! My baby!" Vidaldus cried out as he started crying at the loss of his beloved instrument. He then turned towards the two ladies with anger in his eyes. "That's it! Babes or not, you're not getting away witWhy can't I feel anything?"

The assassin found himself tied up with a specialized rope that seemed to nullify his magic. The more he struggled, the more it tightened. It even made him lose balance and fall harmlessly on to the floor.

Juvia and Lucy looked over to a rather ticked off Milliana with her arms out. "Stupid jerk! Let's hurry and find big sis and the others!"

"What hey!? Come on, let me go!" Vidaldus began as he struggled somewhat to get free.

There was a loud stomp as the guitar assassin noticed a large red talon stepping hard on the ground near his face that seemed to have dried blood on it. As the rocker assassin looked up, he noticed a rather angry looking wyvern that then roared right in front of his face.

The sheer intensity of the roar made the assassin faint. The three girls looked over towards the wyvern with varying levels of surprise.

Happy, climbing on top of Ignis' head, waved at the three. "Lucy! Ignis and I found you!" No sooner than he said that, there was sudden blur of yellow.

It took Lucy a second or two to process how Milliana seemed to move faster than Jet and Kain combined to grab on to Happy and start cuddling the creature and repeatedly calling it the cutest thing in existence.

Ignis tilted his head and seemed to wonder how the cat girl snatched the cat of his head without his notice, but Lucy ran up to the red wyvern. "Ignis, did you take care of the Manticores?" She asked this a second too early before she noticed how bloody the wyvern's sharp talons were.

"I helped!" Happy managed to scream out before Milliana continued her onslaught of cuddles.

Lucy practically ignored that and turned back to the red wyvern. "You gotta help us find Erza and the others!" If anyone could find the others among their group, Ignis did have senses as sharp as Natsu's.

The red wyvern seemed to tilt his head up before turning his back and saddle towards most of them.

Lucy smiled before motioning to everyone. "We gotta go!"

* * *

Sho could only watch as the battle continued between Ikaruga and Natsu. Their fight had gone on for a while and most of the board walk was now destroyed because of Natsu's reckless use of power. Instead, Ikaruga and the dragon slayer were now standing on whatever was left of the board walk like miniature platforms. The swordswoman seemed to be the only one not bothered by the change of their battle field.

Natsu was seen standing on an uneven board, gasping for breath with cuts along his skin and clothes. He was gasping for breath while Ikaruga was still as clean and untouched as she first introduced herself.

"You are indeed strong and tenacious, dragon slayer," Ikaruga explained. "However, it seems my style of fighting completely counters yours."

"I'm not done yet!" Natsu cried out as he activated his white flame mode and quickly tried to round house kick Ikaruga in the face.

The move was fast, but the graceful swordswoman brought up her sword in her sheath to block the attack. While the attack was evaded, she was knocked back quite some distance. Even through that Ikaruga showed no signs of being bothered by the hit. Natsu followed after her again, but this time the swordswoman did something different, she unsheathed her blade to early.

Natsu fired a flame fist right for where she was, but his punch phased through her, revealing it to be an after image. One second passed, and then Natsu felt pain back in his stomach as it seemed like Ikaruga had slammed the tip of her sheath into the dragon slayer's stomach and pinned him down to the ground.

The dragon slayer was about to get up, but then Ikaruga motioned her blade close to his neck.

"The reason why I haven't killed you this instant is that I would like to say some words about being an assassin." She began coldly before he eyes narrowed dangerously.

"People who kill for money are scum; or something along those lines? Those are the words of someone truly oblivious." She dug her scabbard harder into Natsu's stomach. "I despise those words you just said, not because they insulted me, but rather the one who saved me."

For the first time, Ikaruga's hands slightly trembled as Natsu noticed in both blade and scabbard. "Since you showed signs of not knowing the Cabria War, allow me to tell you the truth as someone who participated in it. It was never a war, it was a revolution. Cabria was a cesspool of corrupt politicians and martial law, no one could stand against the tyrants in a direct fight… but my former master sought a different path. That's right: assassination."

She continued on, her calm façade now fading as her eyes no longer had the look of a composed assassin… just a bitter and angry person who lost someone dear unfairly. "My master was slandered, called a villain, had propaganda against them at every turn, but they were the true hero of Cabria! So how dare you call the person who saved millions of people including my own a scumbag!" Ikaruga lifted up her scabbard and pressed launched it hard.

The impact caused the platform they were standing on to crack and break through, forcing them both on the water. It was a lot shallower than they thought, but not shallow enough for Natsu to pant for air while still being pinned down. Ikaruga was not letting him out of there though.

"I demand you apologize!" The assassin barked viciously.

Natsu glared back at her, but it seemed like he was gritting his teeth. As he tried to gasp back for air, he answered her.

"Fine, your master doesn't sound like that bad a person." That still didn't change his opinion on assassins though.

Ikagaruga raised her blade at him. "Now apologize to them in the afterlife."

She then sta—

"Captain!" A loud voice cried out, causing her, Natsu, and Sho to look up to see Fukuro carrying both Simon and Gray on his shoulders.

"Fukuro?" Ikaruga and the rest were all equal amounts of surprised. However, then a piece of the wall broke down as Ignis with most of the girls on his back flew in.

"Natsu!"  
"Gray!?"  
"Simon!" The girls cried out different names while Vidaldus cried out for captain.

Ikaruga looked at all three parties and once more focused back at Fukuro. The assassin with an owl head nodded his head once before Ikaruga sheathed her blade and let go of Natsu.

"It seems my members would like a word."

* * *

"I can honestly say that I never expected this outcome." Jellal Fernandes stated as he watched from his throne. "To think Fukuro would be the first to see through my lie. Granted he wasn't the last or first person I would expect. I did really hope that the two teams would defeat each other before the Trinity Raven could realize they were being tricked, but what plan does go exactly as prepared, right Erza?"

In the other side of the room, Erza, who looked more pissed than usual was slowly walking towards Jellal with a blade in hand.

The blue haired mage stood up. "Your friends are much too fast, Erza. Etherion has only just begun being fired."

"That means my friends can get out of here fast enough." Erza said as she took a stance. "However, it's going to be a different story between you and me."

Jellal held a dark orb in his—

The blue haired mage's instincts screamed at him to duck before the air just above him was cut. He backed off as fast, finding a smile on his face. "My! That was faster than usual? And you had not changed into your armor yet." He then noticed a dozen special marks on the weapon that looked very different from the design of the blade. He then moved his thumb to his chin in an impressed manner. "So those are the rumored weapon runes? I heard reports that those are spells that prevented you from being completely overwhelmed by Alexandra Raphael during the Phantom-Fairy war. If memory serves, Rune Enhancements had the special ability to increase or give one special attribute to a weapon. Let me guess, is that one speed?"

Erza said nothing before turning into her speed armor with the normal blade. In less than a flash, Erza unleashed around a dozen slashes within one second after closing the gap between them. However, Jellal's body seemed to turn into black energy as soon as he was cut and some of that darkness was floating around the blade with a rune enhancement.

The S-Class mage turned around to see Jellal with his palms out. Erza quickly threw away her runed blade before it exploded, creating a giant hole in the room.

"You'd destroy the very thing you worked so hard to complete? What's the point?" The swords woman asked before rushing up to him and trying to cut him down where he stood. Her speed was slower now so Jellal could easily avoid her slash while it broke apart the board game near his throne.

As her opponent landed, he gave a callous laugh. "Why should I care about a pillar or two? They're just decorations."

"Maybe so, but the only reason why they're there is because our friends spent the last years building them for you!"

Jellal gave a sad smile towards his former friend. "How is it that you seem to find fault with everything I say? Though in retrospect, it is only fair that you direct your hatred towards someone other than yourself." The mage's eye started to change as he snapped his fingers.

Erza panicked and looked down, unable to notice that there was some kind of strange dark traces of magic beneath her. As soon as the fingers snapped, the darkness below her swallowed up and overwhelmed her.

"Is that it? I was under the impression that you had grown stronger. I even had to delay my plans to bolster my strength against you and just in case for Team Valiant." Jellal started walking around the orb.

Erza in the mean time was struggling against the magic of the orb. But as she did, a voice from her mind called out to her. It was the voice of her friends. Soon, memories flooded in about all the kind and caring people she had met and she believed that she truly was going to miss each and every one of them.

Jellal stepped back as he saw the orb being cut from the inside several times. As soon as it exploded, he gave a soft chuckle as now both of his eyes were starting show some odd runic symbol. "There we go. It wouldn't be fun otherwise!"

* * *

Fairy Tail, Erza's old friends, and Trinity Raven had agreed to a ceasefire and to get out of the tower before things got worse. Simon woke up early, and after exchanging a few words with Fukuro, volunteered to stay behind and get Erza, Wally, and Kain. Against all arguments, Simon only allowed Natsu to come with him while the rest would get out on Ignis before it was too late.

Now, both Simon and Natsu were hurrying towards the bottom of the Tower of Hell.

The fire dragon slayer smelled something in the air and soon led the two to some strange area in the second to the last floor.

There was an elaborate door that Natsu kicked down. Inside, both he and Simon found Kain standing over a table filled with papers while Wally was on a couch.

"Wally!?" "Kain!" Simon and Natsu respectively cried out to the friend they were closer to. Wally was out cold, but leg-less. While Kain was holding on to a golden staff that looked familiar to Natsu.

"Natsu… and Simon?" The young brunette asked with levels of surprise before he noticed the worried look on Simon's face. "Wally is alive, just out cold." Kain briefly mentioned how they fought a horrible monster, but when he woke up, Erza was gone and Wally was legless and out cold.

"Erza was with you two?" Simon was quick to notice the young boy say that.

"Yeah, but she probably went to go against Jellal. I tried to go after her, but I stumbled on to this room. I think it's Jellal's quarters." Kain then looked back at what he was holding: it looked to be blue prints of some kind.

"You two need to get back out. I was told you had some level of super speed. Take Wally out of here before the Etherion blast—"

The young wyvern rider blurted out, "It's actually safer here in the tower than outside the blast radius." He stated with dead seriousness.

Both Natsu and Simon paused at the sudden declaration.

Kain looked at Simon's surprised face. "You really didn't know what you were building, did you?"

Simon seemed actually unsure with how the young man phrased that. "We built the R System, a device meant to resurrect the dead black wizard, Zeref."

The young man showed both Simon and Natsu the blue prints he was holding. Neither of them seemed to understand though, so the young man elaborated. "These blue prints only show the structure, never the amount of power needed to activate it. However, instead of that, this entire tower and the chains are made of a unique absorbing lacrima."

"What does that mean?" Natsu asked in confusion.

The lawyer looked back to Simon. "You didn't just build an R- System, you created a specialized lightning rod that isn't designed to take electricity—but an Etherion Blast."

The sheer weight of his words just hit them both as if they were blasted with Etherion itself. Jellal actually planned to get hit by Etherion from the start!? The Tower of Hell actually was desgined to do something that amazing!? … Though… those eerie chains inside this mountain… if they weren't there, this statement would have sounded more unbelievable.

Simon could only gape at what he said. "Y-You can't be serious!"

Kain was about to say more until they heard a very large magical hum that came from all around them.

No sooner than that, Etherion came down like god's furry on the mountain, with Ignis and everyone in the distance watching in horror as the space/time nuke covered the area where Natsu and the others still were.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it was to write this chapter. I don't know why, but it really, really was.**

 ***Before I begin ranting, there's a small note I would like to make on the whole, Anthro, comment I made. As most fans of Fairy Tail know, there are certain people with animal like features in the Anime. None of them seem to be species, and no one really seems to mind them. Since there are walking, talking frogs, this story just addresses them as people that use special magic to grant them animal traits and such. I think it's like that mostly because Michello, or that old Magic Council man who was old, small, and a cat, had a granddaughter who looked super human. So I'm guessing their animal traits are just added for aesthetics and personal choice. Heck Fukuro has an owl for a head and no one seems to mind that. So, with how everyone in-universe seems to be not bothered by these animal traits in humans, I'm just going to assume that there is magic that allows people to gain certain animal features.**

 **Now for my rant.**

 **It was really hard to do certain things I wanted. Well, the easier part was to make Trinity Raven a bit OOC, just adding a twist to their personalities and characters. You know like giving them a back story? … I'm starting to remember why most of Fairy Tail's villains were so forgettable.**

 **Anyway, I actually wanted Lucy to lose as well since I was told by Warmachine375 that Fairy Tail does have a nasty winning streak that I intend to completely ignore in favor of the story. But I thought about it and Lucy does actually lose a lot.**

 **I mean remember that time in the anime when Lucy lost her potential to be something more than a fan service character?**

 ***Air horns blare in the distance***

 **So I gave her one win where she wins by herself. (I also notice that a lot of her victories are almost always because she had someone else help her out. Huh.)**

 **Anywho, thanks for reading this far. I do hope you're all enjoying the story.**


	23. Chapter 23

Etherion was a weapon designed to erase something not just physically, but also dimensionally. Comprised of many elemental magic, including temporal and spatial magic, there was a reason why such a weapon was to be used only in emergencies.

The idea of the Black Wizard Zeref reviving and terrorizing Ishgar once more counted for that emergency.

And so the Magic Council did fire the destructive weapon with the sole purpose of preventing that resurrection.

Unfortunately for them, they had no idea how much they just fell in to Jellal's plans… or how much damage they really did.

* * *

The Tower of Hell was now filled to the brim with crystals… no that was not right to say. The entire castle turned into a giant structure of nothing but lacrima that currently held energy of the Etherion Blast. It was filled to the brim with energy and every single corner of the tower was now filled or replaced with bright blue magic-absorbing crystals.

… Except in Jellal's room. Inside that area was a large golden sphere that slowly started to shrink into the shape of a shield held by a boy in red armor who was in front of three other men.

The red armored young man looked behind him, towards Natsu, Simon, and Wally who was being carried by Simon. "Are you guys alright?"

The dragon slayer and the rest nodded, before he looked back to his guild mate and pointed to the shield. "Hey, isn't that Horus' weapon?"

"Yeah, Erza must have left it with me for some reason. It's a good thing that the Omni Tool has its own magic to transform into any solid object. And it's also a good thing Erza let me try using it a few times in our practice sessions so I know how to use it." Kain made a mental note to remind himself to thank Erza—wait. AWW GOD DAMN IT!

How the hell did he forget about the reason why they were all still there?! "Erza! We need to get to her!"

* * *

Back in Era, the Magic Council was in panic. Not only did Etherion amazingly fail in annihilating their target, but it seemed like the Zeus Range seemed to be reacting as some mega sponge in absorbing the blast that had enough power to wipe out a kingdom off the map.

"What!? Since when can the Zeus Range do something like that!?" Some other people had varying levels of shock and horror at realization that not only was the R-System still there, but now it seemed to be powering up!

However, before anyone could move to organize everyone once more, the entire building was starting to collapse by the work of supposedly one of their own.

…

…

Just outside of the Magic Council building, a handsome man was watching, with the rest of the city, the magic council building start to collapse on itself as if it had suddenly started to rapidly accelerate in age.

Yet, unlike everyone watching in horror, this handsome man in a suit was casually drinking a soda in a foam cup and straw as he saw the long time building collapse.

As he did, he then turned into an alleyway and brought up a glowing, blue orb the size of a baseball. "Oshen, Fero, begin the operation. The Magic Council is incapacitated. You have six hours before they re-establish themselves, and 12 hours before the Custody Enforcement Units will resume border patrol duties."

"Roger, sir, Dagea and Bora will accompany us to the Principality of Veronica."

"Understood." Ryan turned off the device and hummed a tune while everyone around him whispered of horror and panic while watching The Magic Council crumble. A smile came across his face as a passing thought crossed his mind. "Hmmm I do believe that it's time I do some mountain climbing."

* * *

Natsu ran out so fast after hearing about Erza. Because of the sudden movement, Kain had no choice but to tell Simon to handle Wally while he went after the dragon slayer.

The two young men descended to the bottom of the tower, as they did they heard something that made them both run faster, the desperate cries of Erza.

When they arrived, the duo had spotted the red haired woman getting absorbed into one of the crystals. Natsu moved first and yanked her out. The move surprised the two who were there originally, which made it seem like neither her nor Jellal noticed the two coming their way.

"I got ya!" The pink haired dragon slayer told her after getting her out of the crystal. She was covered by some kind of curse that seemed to be restricting her movements. The fellow Fairy Tail mage set her down gently as Kain came up to them.

"Natsu… Kain…" The redhead weakly looked up to the two.

The dragon slayer gave a comforting and gentle smile down at his friend. "Geez, what are you doing hanging around with this loser? If we don't hurry and get back to work, Lucy's going to be mad at us about her not paying her rent! See Kain and I were planning to by one of those Lacrima Televisions for her room, and if she get's kicked out, we won't be able to watch movies there!"

"You told me that was for _your_ house. Does Lucy even know you're thinking of making changes to _her_ apartment?" The red rider looked over to Natsu accusingly.

Erza, while she was surprised, a piece of her did like how the familiar banter of her friends was calming her down somewhat. "I'm sorry, but I can't move."

"No way!" Natsu began before a devilish smile came across his face. Then he started to tickle her.

Kain, in plated armor, face palmed while he saw the childish action.

However, after a few seconds Erza turned back to a serious state. "Natsu, Kain, you both need to get out of here as fast as you can."

"I ain't leaving." The mage raised by a dragon firmly stated. "If you can't do the fighting yourself then I'll just have to do it for ya."

"You can't, he's too powerful." Erza began to warn them both about Jellal.

It was then that Kain spoke up. "Erza, this is Natsu we're talking about. That kind of talk makes him want to fight more when a strong opponent is involved."

Natsu threw a thumb at his friend. "See? And that's why you're our lawyer: you've got this logic thing down to like an art or something."

"Logic and I have this relationship where I expect one thing and then he drops me off in a completely alien universe with no way back home, leaving me to deal with bugger all." And there it was: Kain's natural sarcasm.

"I'm serious, you two, you don't even know him." The S-class mage tried to argue.

The lawyer of Fairy Tail was quick on the uptake. "I seem to recall that fact not stopping _anyone_ when it came to Lullaby, The Isle of the Dead, and Phantom Lord."

However, even Kain's sarcasm met his match when Erza started to tear up in one of her eyes. "Please, just this once: do what I ask of you." It didn't take much to realize that she was mostly asking Natsu off that.

Both Kain and Natsu were silent. The dragon slayer started to pick her up and grunted as he did so.

Erza was confused about this action until Natsu started speaking again. "Honestly, I don't think I know you as well as I should, but I can still!" The dragon mage then punched Erza hard in the stomach, surprising both Kain and Jellal, the latter who was still watching the three talk. "Take you down!"

"Natsu!?" Kain cried out as he walked closer to the two. To his surprise, the dragon slayer was already trying to hand Erza over to him. "I can tell that you don't like seeing Erza like that, but was punching her in the gut really necessary!?" The spatially displaced young man complained as he gently tried to carry Erza.

The pink haired young man gave a sad smile. "Sorry. Can I ask you to take care of her for me? You should also get back to Simon and the others."

"Now this is where I stop this little show."

Kain looked towards Jellal while Natsu seemed to refuse to turn around, still looking over to Erza being supported up by their wyvern rider.

"As fun as it was watching you all prattle on, I can't let you leave with Erza. She's still an important part at resurrecting Zeref."

Kain flinched at the words of the Siegran look-alike. Even though he couldn't sense magic at all, he could feel the air similar to when Makarov and Jose were fighting, and those two were practically the closest things he could imagine as super saiyans!

"Oh go jump off into the void!" Natsu calmly insulted, which was different from the usual hot-tempered reactions the fire mage would usually show. "Erza was crying."

After he said those three words, he gripped his fist so tight that it started to tremble while his flames lit up and were very slowly gaining temperature and ferocity. "She looked so weak and fragile. Her voice was trembling with fear. I don't want to see Erza like that. I've always looked up to her as a strong warrior. And when she wakes up from this nightmare, I want her to feel like her old self again." He then turned, his eyes snapped open with ferocity like that of an angered dragon—and Natsu was far scarier than that at this point. "If you wanna get to her, you'll have to go through me!"

Jellal only smiled and lifted a hand up. "Is that a challenge? Consider my interest piqued. I'm actually curious about the ability of a Dragon Slayer." However, just as easily, he moved his hand down and his smile faded. "However, I can't neglect the lesser Wyvern Rider who has the potential to escape."

It seemed like Jellal opened up his own Re-equip space and pulled something out, revealing some kind of hoop that was styled as a black snake with a brown belly biting his own tail.

The blue haired wizard saint narrowed his eyes towards the boy in plated red armor. "I've been studying Team Valiant for months by your reports. That armor of yours has a high magical resistance, but it seems like it can't affect the magic inside magical items."

Fairy Tail's lawyer thought back to those words, he did remember being able to use his magical gadgets with great ease despite his armor supposedly having the power to weaken and disrupt conventional magic. It didn't occur to him that he was still vulnerable to item type magic!

Jellal, who was now cackling madly, then threw the ring above them, "Go, Snake Cage! "

The ring itself, which now separated into many pieces, shot past in all directions. The pieces that flew enlarged and blocked all windows and entrances. They also turned into large snake statues that watched the inside of the ring. Behind them, a large barrier surrounded the floor, encasing all around the sides of Fairy Tail and their captor.

"This is one of the lesser weapons the Magic Council confiscated. This artifact came from a Cobraum criminal around two hundred years ago. It's called the Snake Cage. I found that it was most helpful in preventing anyone in the ring from escaping until one side's defeat." The blue haired madman briefly explained.

"Like I care!" Natsu was far from a state of friendly conversation right now as he positioned himself in a fighting position. "Get ready for the beat down of your life, punk!"

And with that, the dragon slayer was off fighting with ferocity that Kain had never seen Natsu pull off before.

…

However, despite his best efforts, all he was capable of doing was running Jellal's coat.

Said coat was thrown off after a fierce assault from Natsu which would have knocked out any normal person out cold for months, but seemed to do no damage to his intended opponent. "Was that it? I was under the impression that Dragons, along with Elves, where the first two species of Earthland and that both races were considered closest to the gods! … And then here you are with a pitiful display of power."

That was more than enough to provoke Natsu on to attack harder. However, Jellal now used a special spell of his own that was different from dark magic, something called Meteor that made him move faster than one expected to. Seeing the increased speed, Natsu tried to match it with his own White Flame mode. However, it seemed like Jellal was still faster than the boosted dragon slayer could match.

Despite Natsu's best attempts, the twisted wizard saint soundly beat up the dragon mage with lightning fast punches and speed that was too much for him. The blue haired mage then fired one of his most powerful spells at his weakened and dizzy opponent, " **Seven Star Sword: Grand Chariot!** "

Natsu looked back up as the attack went right for him—

There was a powerful explosion as the floor gave way, letting whatever was there fall into the void. It seemed like the Snake Cage didn't cover below them after all.

The dragon slayer found himself relatively fine and bamboozled at why he was fine until he looked back up to see Kain had intervened and swooped in.

"I guess it was too much to hope that he wasn't as strong as his brother." The red rider said as he formed the Omni Tool to that of a shield as he raised it and a copy of a red blade in his hands. It appears he wasn't there when he revealed that the 'twin brother' of Jellal never existed in the first place.

"Kain!" Natsu looked over to where the young man was originally to see Erza gently placed on the ground. "Hey, this is my fight! Stay out of it!"

However, it seemed like that it wasn't the time for one on one battles as something else caught the rider's attention.

"I had honestly forgotten you were there for a second." Jellal floated down as he looked towards the armored boy in red. "Since the Dragon Slayer was a letdown, how about you, Wyvern Rider? Even if you are a complete amateur, an old weapon from before the chronicle of history sounds just as interesting."

Kain remained in a fighting stance while in front of Natsu who was starting to get back up. Kain knew whatever chance he had at winning was slim, if there was any at all, but as he figured out some time ago, direct fights were never in his favor. "You know… a thought occurred to me just now after seeing that hole you made on the floor."

Jellal and Natsu were caught off guard by the strange declaration the spatially displaced boy made. "I found your room, Jellal, and I have to say you blue prints were really well thought out…" It was then that Kain tilted his helm upward, looking at the ceiling, "…except for one thing."

If one knew the lawyer well enough, they could feel him smirk smugly behind his visor when he said this next line, "There are no fail safes in case of a tower collapse."

Natsu pretty much blinked before noticing that Jellal's smug face was now replaced with one of horror and hatred. Why though?

"In other words, Natsu, he spent so much time building this place, he was never expecting it to be destroyed so quickly after its completion." It was then that Kain suddenly moved and fired a sword beam. Not at Jellal, but at the roof!

The slash quickly cut through upward, hitting like several floors up and causing an explosion. This made the ground they were on to tremble somewhat. However, as it did, Natsu felt a significant drop of magical energy from above.

Afterward, Kain spun his blade for it to lean on his shoulder as he stood back up. "So excuse me, if I steal your thing and end up breaking a building for the first time!"

Jellal looked furious as he saw the gaping hole in the roof and several roofs above. He then glared back at Kain with all the intensity of the wrathful spirit. "You dare!? I've spent years dreaming of this day, and I'm not letting two fools get in my w—!"

"Natsu, I'm only going to say this once! Let's bring down the tower!" The red rider ignored Jellal and fired again up above, breaking more walls and floors up above.

The fire dragon slayer smiled and then started launching his own spells upward and then punched the ground—

"Wait, Natsu! We're in the bottom floor—there is literally nothing beneath us!" After Kain said this, he was tackled into the ground by Jellal and was forced to drop both of his weapons in surprise. The blue haired psycho had his fist raised with blinding light.

"Now there's an excellent idea! Even I don't know if there's a bottom to this damn hollow mountain or not!" As he screamed this, the light of his fist suddenly expanded into the size of a disco ball.

"No, Kain!" Natsu cried out as he tried to stop Jellal.

However, the blue haired madman then punched Kain with every ounce of his strength. Not only did the attack hurt, but it was enough to send the red knight through the floor and start falling into the abyss.

"Kain!" The Fairy Tail mage cried out desperately as he saw his friend fall. All he could do was watch in stupefied horror as the spark of red became smaller and smaller too quickly… and was swallowed by darkness.

"K…Kain?" Natsu's sensitive hearing heard Erza's voice. Did she just wake up to witness Jellal getting rid of their friend?

"I can't believe it was that easy!" One could almost hear a blood vessel pop in Natsu's brain as he turned his head right towards a laughing Jellal. "That idiot was a bigger thorn in my side than I imagined, but that was all it took to get rid of him?! God I hate that piece of shit! I should have done that in the beginning!"

The dragon slayer found something wet on the back of his hands—they were tears. He also was starting to feel tired from his fight with Ikaruga and Jellal, but that feeling was getting replaced with another emotion rising higher than it did ever before his life. It was an emotion so strong that it wasn't even needed to be thought or explained, as if it ever did before.

The ground beneath Natsu started cracking as his hands curled up, cracking the floor beneath him. Jellal stopped his frustrated screams to look at Natsu who was taking chunks of the crystal… and eating it?

Erza cried out, telling Natsu that Etherion had more elements in it besides that of fire and that it was dangerous of him to do something like that. But it seemed like Natsu didn't even care at that point since he swallowed it whole.

That was when a sudden burst of magic exploded out of the Dragon Slayer. The power was so intense that it looked like Natsu's skin was now turning into scales and he had a presence like that of a real dragon like Gajeel during his battle with Kain... it seemed like Natsu had summoned his Dragon Force mode.

"What!?" Jellal screamed in surprise as he braced himself from the wind.

"JELLAL YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" At this point, Natsu wasn't like a dragon any more, but more like a force of nature as he instantly closed the distance between him and the twisted wizard saint and decked him hard in the face.

Jellal was taken aback by the sudden burst of strength shown by his previously near defeated and weak opponent. Where did this burst of power come from?

"Meteor!" He flipped mid air and regained his amazing speed and tried to zip back—how was Natsu already in front of him!?

"YOU'LL PAY!" Even words like wrath were too weak to describe this look of berserk rage of Natsu at the loss of a dear friend. He then punched the blue haired mad man with power enough for him to slam into one of the snake statues blocking his escape from the room.

Jellal was surprised that he actually hit one of the Snake Statues, but thankfully, the magical artifact did have another use. "Snake Gate! Cobra Shield!"

All the statues suddenly converged on the one Jellal was standing in front of. As Natsu came in, the statues formed a line behind Jellal and started to glow. When they did, a green, scaly barrier was erected that Natsu unleashed his attack on.

The barrier braced the attack, but Jellal could feel the shield trembling from that one blow.

"THIS WON'T STOP ME!" If possible, Natsu's fists exploded with more fire that started to turn white. He then started punching the force field with a flurry of punches with enough power to create a shockwave with each hit.

Despite how powerful the artifact was, it couldn't keep up with the power of a dragon as with each punch, the statues behind Jellal were starting to crack.

"Impossible!" The blue haired man stated as he watched more and more of the statues crack and even fail, causing the barrier to start to crack as well.

Forced to take a different approach, Jellal dropped the barrier and used Meteor to get away from Natsu by flying up the hole in the roof Kain had made. Natsu, pissed off like never before, ran after him breaking practically anything in his way to get to Jellal.

The blue haired wizard saint saw all the destruction and gritted his teeth. He landed in one of the lower floors and shouted over to Natsu. "Damn you! I did not come all this way to have my work destroyed and to be beaten by you!"

Natsu couldn't care less at for the monster in front of him. He hurt Erza—he **killed** Kain! He was going to make him feel pain like never before!

But… why was his smug smirk back?

Jellal placed a hand into his Re-euip space and smiled darkly. "I really should have used this sooner if I knew you were going to be troublesome, Natsu Dragneel."

And then, Jellal pulled out this strange scimitar that looked to be made of wood that had several spikes on its flat side. It was bizarre in the sense that within this odd wooden blade, there were cracks. Inside those cracks were not empty holes, but this strange glowing green energy that felt alive.

However, strangest of all was that Natsu's dragonic rage… it instantly died at the presence of the blade and he felt his body shiver despite being surrounded in powerful flames.

Jellal laughed darkly as he swung the wooden scimitar around. "Well that just proves this is the real deal! Guess what this is, Dragneel!?" He only pushed the blade forward, and Natsu could feel his body making him move back despite his emotions commanding him to deck him hard in the face until it could no longer be recognizable.

"W…What the hell is that thing!?" Natsu screamed in frustration. It was like his damn body was afraid of a stupid wooden object!

"This… this is an **elvish** weapon!" Jellal raised the blade high. The word he emphasized made Natsu look on in shock, yet that didn't stop Jellal from explaining what it meant. "Elves were considered the equal to Dragons, and even waged war with them for millennium! So of course, Elves created weapons specifically designed to kill dragons… like this one!"

A weapon designed to specifically kill a dragon? "You're lying!" Natsu cried out even though his body was sweating nervously against his wishes. "A stick is supposed to scare me!?"

Jellal was not at all fooled by Natsu's act. "It's made out the material of the oldest tree in Earthland that only Elves knew where to get. It's also laced with a magic so pure that it far surpasses even the entirety of lost spells before the Gathering War. Most traces of Elves were utterly destroyed by dragons, but this little beauty was kept deep within the vault of the Magic Council—even I could not believe what they kept in that damn place," He looked off in the distance, seemingly pointing towards the direction of the Magic Council. However, his look of interest stopped as he glanced back darkly at Natsu. "So it took quite a lot to sneak this toy out of its shelf."

Jellal smirked as he pointed the blade towards Natsu, "I will enjoy seeing how a true dragon slaying weapon works."

"That's not going to stop me from hurting you, you fucking bastard!" Natsu seemed to calm down somewhat over his body and launched himself right for his opponent.

Jellal used Meteor and then tried to slash Natsu with the strange blade. The dragon slayer felt his own body move back away a large distance away that was more than necessary from the weapon, which was really starting to get on his nerves.

Mad laughter filled the air as Jellal was back on the offensive, swinging the blade wildly as he tried to strike Natsu.

There was one point where the blade made a small scratch on Natsu's arm as he tried to back off.

When he did, Natsu's magical power instantly vanished and he fell to his knees screaming in pain and holding that little scratch as if he had lost his left arm. Jellal could only stare as cracks of green started to shoot out of the small scratch and spread through the Dragon Slayer's arm. All the while as it grew, Natsu's screams were loud and painful as he trashed around the floor like a child in a tantrum. His pupils shrunk as his mind felt pain so horrible, but for some reason it was not even letting him even a sign of fainting to shut down the messages his brain was sending.

It was an existence of pain he had never felt before.

Along with Natsu's screams of agony, Jellal's laughter of madness was mixed in as he looked at the elvish scimitar. "That was just a scratch! The elves truly did create anti-dragon weapons! It's a wonder why they were defeated at all if that was all it took to kill a dragon."

It was then that Jellal's smile faded as it seemed like the green veins appearing on Natsu's arm started fading and his screams became calmer until he just gasped for breath weakly on the ground.

"Now then," Natsu coughed as he felt Jellal's foot stomping on his neck. He tried to move his body, but to his surprise, all the magic he had used was suddenly gone. Not only did it inflict great pain, but was an elvish weapon capable of nullifying dragon magic? Jellal continued to speak. "About you breaking my tower? I do believe I want something in return for causing such trouble."

"Go…t… hell!" The dragon slayer weakly coughed.

Jellal closed one of his eyes and wagged his finger as if he was talking to a child. "A bit redundant considering where we are, but I was focusing more on the fact that I want you to suffer for what you did," He glanced over towards the elvish blade and smiled. "I really should have used this thing sooner. It's just far more effective than even I imagined."

Jellal then made the blade near Natsu's forehead and made a scratch.

Screams of horrible pain could be heard throughout the tower. He wasn't a sadist, but damn did that not sound like the greatest of music coming to Jellal's ears.

The mad wizard saint practically felt like it was Christmas all over again as Natsu seemed to writhe in pain at the smallest of scratches from the blade. With a horrifying smile, Jellal went back in to make another scratch.

However, a fist made of darkness punched him in the cheek and caused him to fly a bit after he made another small scratch on Natsu.

The Wizard Saint looked back up and his eyes sharpened at who appeared. "You people are like cockroaches!" He then got up and swung his blade. "I get rid of one, and more of you pop up!"

"Jellal, this madness must stop!" Simon declared as he stood in front of his former friend between him and the weakened Natsu.

"You're right," Jellal started to glow with magic. "This does have to stop." Obviously activating Meteor again, Jellal started speeding around Simon and Natsu, he started making cuts on the Dragon Slayer, causing Natsu to cry out in pain again while Simon received a proper beating with kicks and the flat side of the elven blade. After just one round, Simon was back coughing on the ground and on his knees.

"You'll have to forgive me, Simon, it seems torturing Natsu there must have awakened some inner sadism I didn't know I had, so I beat you up instead of killing you outright." Jellal walked up and grabbed the head of Simon and lifted his face up while his other hand held the elf blade near his last good eye. "I had a feeling that you were loyal to Erza from the start. After all, you had feelings for her as much as I did. It's just too bad that you're going to lose another eye because you fought for her again."

The gleeful wizard saint raised his blade, but as he did there was some kind of sound that seemed to reverberate through the tower. It almost sounded like a sonic **BOOM**!

Simon could only stare after falling on his butt as something shoot out from the hole in the floor and decked Jellal with enough force to shoot him with enough force to send him flying out of the tower!

As the dust settled, the mage with a metal jaw could not believe what he was seeing with his remaining eye.

* * *

The young man opened his eyes as he started to fall and heard the sound of Natsu's desperate cries becoming softer. Kain looked back down, only to see and endless black.

Kain tried anything to get back up, but the Omni Tool was dropped back in the tower so that option was a no. "Oh shit. What I would give to have the power of flight right about now."

*Do you wish it, sire?*

There was a voice… Kain heard a voice speaking to him! The falling young man looked around, but no sign of anyone! Yet… the strangest thing was that he felt like he heard that voice before.

Instead of questioning it, his subconscious practically labeling it as weird magic stuff, the young boy asked. "I would rather not fall to my death or fall forever!"

*You are The Herald of Flesh. Will yourself wings, and wings you shall be given.*

Herald of the what? The brunette was hearing bullshit… but a piece of him believed it?

It was his armor. There was some kind of untapped power in it. If he wanted to live, he was going to have to tap more into it somehow. Think! How did the blades happen first? Wait, his mind was flashing thoughts of swords before he was able to summon them by will… if that was the trigger the first time….

Kain thought of every time he saw Ignis' wings, trying to somehow ignite flight of some kind. However, no matter how much he tried, nothing was happening and he was still falling.

That did not work.

Okay he was getting really, really pissed. His friends were getting slaughtered up there and here he was falling to his doom! There had to be some way to access that power! Think again! What caused him to activate the ability to summon blades?! What instinctual thing did he do to activate those abilities?!

He needed to fly damn it! God, was he really this useless even with an armor that was supposed to be powerful!?

No—calm down. Calm down, self deprecation will not solve problems at this time. Damn it though! How could he fly like Ignis? Or maybe even Igne…

{ _It_ _was one of my absolute favorite things growing up with him, ridding on his back_.}

…

Herald… Flesh…

Flesh?

Did that mean he had to _feel_ the ability to fly? When he was fighting Gajeel, he didn't just see memories of the swords, he had felt them. He felt their handle, their weight, their movement… and when he was a child, after watching super powered people shoot beam blades from their magical blades… didn't he always pretend firing those when he was a kid, beating up the baddie and saving the day?

Kain breathe in and breathed out.

He had no idea how to fly, but he let his friends do it for him.

{ _Every time I got on his back, I could feel his great warmth beneath me, his large heart pounding with great power, how the wind around us felt like it was lifting him further and further into the sky… and when he decided to start diving!_ }

Instead of just falling anymore, Kain started to dive. He let the wind flow past him as his speed built up, more and more. The speed, the rush… the adrenaline!

Then the flashes of Ignis suddenly unfolding his wingspan came into the mind of the diving man, and with an instant—

The speed going down went going up.

Kain opened his eyes and found himself—flying! By god, he was actually flying! And… his cape! His cape formed into two wyvern wings! He could almost feel them as they flapped like they would on Ignis.

He could fly! He could fly! … There was a probably a joke in there somewhere, but he'll regret not taking it later!

And then the spatially displaced boy smiled a smile that would make even the Grinch feel uncomfortable.

He was about to show a certain blue haired man what _his_ idea of hell was.

* * *

Speed was built as Kain flew further and further back up. As he did, the sight of the tower came back to him… as well of the sounds of a familiar person crying out in pain.

He was flying fast but not fast enough.

Working with trying to feel, he felt all the times he used super speed, all the times he used strength… and combined it with his flight.

He focused everything on heading towards that sound and then his armor just blasted off.

The result was Kain momentarily becoming one of his favorite comic book characters and punching Jellal with a force of something beyond a locomotive while going faster than a speeding bullet.

The red rider turned towards Simon, who was in a bad state and in obvious shock at seeing the armored boy now flying in front of him. "You alright?"

Simon continued staring before he calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief before he pointed over to Natsu. "I'm better than him."

At the point, the boy from another dimension quickly turned to look behind Simon. "Natsu!" Kain cried out as he landed near him, his wings turning into his cape as he did. The displaced boy tried to help him up gently. "What the hell happened to you!?"

"K…Kain?" Natsu weakly gasped. "Y…You're alive?"

Kain depowered his armor for a moment, showing that it was really him. He looked worried, but he also tried to smile. "Yeah, I ended up unlocking a new power of the armor: flight. … While I am grateful as hell, I really wished I didn't have to be near death experience to gain new powers every damn time."

Natsu gave a weak smile at the complaint. It really was him. "Think maybe your armor has the power to heal? That asshole had a weapon that just fucking hurt like never before."

"I can see that. God, it's like he damaged your blood veins or something."

"It was an elvish blade." Kain looked back at Simon trying to get back up, but holding his chest in obvious pain that had this really ugly bruise on it he didn't see before. "I had no idea that Jellal actually stole confiscated weapons from the Magic Council and brought them here. The weapon wreaked havoc on Natsu here with just a few scratches. If there was even one direct wound…"

Natsu might have died.

Kain stood back up and powered up his armor. "Simon, take Natsu, get Wally again, go back to the last floor, and pick up Erza and the weapon I borrowed from her. I'll take on Jellal."

"Wait… you can't…" Even though he was practically unable to move on the floor right now, Natsu still tried to argue, even while Simon got back up and made some effort to pick up the downed dragon slayer. "Fighting… isn't your…"

The boy was painfully aware that Jellal had far better fighting experience over him. "I know. But out of everyone here, I have the best chance at distracting him. He needs Erza and the tower to win. And I intend to prevent that."

*Now, Herald, you must do me a favor. This time you will not hear my voice, but you shall be persuaded none-the-less. Say…*

"But I have one last plan." The boy holding an ancient artifact blurted out. It was odd, ideas usually came to him, but this one felt weird to him. Still, it was a really good plan.

The word plan made Natsu seemingly relax a little. "Kick his ass for me, won't you?"

Kain gave a thumbs-up to his weakened friend. "You did that for me with Erigor. I'll dedicate this one for you and Erza."

Everyone except Wally heard the sound of a mad scream… more than likely it was Jellal regaining himself from Kain's uppercut.

"Goddamit. I put a lot into that punch and he's still conscious?" Kain looked back and this time lifted Natsu up and handed him over to the large man with a metal jaw. "Get down stairs. I'll hold him off for as long as possible."

"Good luck, Kain."

"Thanks, I'll really be needing it." The young man nodded as his cape split and formed two wyvern shaped wings. With one mighty flap, he flew up and out of one of the holes and started flying up.

It was easy for Kain to spot Jellal. He was a bright yellow light in the darkness, funny enough that he had some light based magic. He spotted the light coming closer to him before stopping and glaring at the red rider with all the intensity of a vengeful spirit.

"I thought I killed you!" The mad man yelled with a look that was beyond livid right now.

Gripping his fist, Kain battled this horrible fear creeping up his back the only way he knew how, "Oh sorry, I didn't get the memo."

The boy from another world instantly noticed the scimitar his opponent was wielding. Before he was even ready, he found himself getting a closer look at it when Jellal came speeding right for him.

Alas, the blue haired mage's hopes were dashed when the red boy avoided the initial attack and dove right for one of the chains. When he landed on it, there was a vibrant red color coming from the chains but that was mostly ignored as Kain suddenly ran away from the tower.

Jellal, who currently had the emotional state of a volcano about to blow, flew after the red rider.

Kain could hear the Wizard Saint coming after him but this was where he would begin his plan. Here's to hoping it would work.

"That's right! Keep running! You're weak anyway!" Jellal cried out as he fired bolts of his magic at the red rider, Kain avoided each attack as they exploded behind him.

The rider made his wings summoned again and quickly flew to another chain. Jellal only followed suit, this time, attempting to use his power to land a heavy punch on the zippy person. "You don't even belong with Fairy Tail! You're just some punk who got lucky with an ancient weapon!"

It would be a lie to say that Kain didn't feel anything from those taunts. He kept trying to remember that powers or not, he was still friends with those guys. And they really did enjoy his company.

Jellal must have seen that bit where Kain admitted his flaws through one of his remaining cameras in the tower. It was stupidly annoying how much the boy from another dimension had to reveal to someone he hated.

Kain jumped again, moving from chain to chain as Jellal's attacks kept piling on and on.

"When I kill you, I'm going to kill Natsu and Erza and say how you did nothing to help them! How you were completely useless!"

The young boy gritted his teeth and tried to focus. He only hoped Simon had left with the others by now. If not, he would need just a little more time. Kain ran, flew, and ran, avoiding blasts and ignoring taunts from his enemy and running across everywhere that wasn't the tower.

However, Jellal was getting utterly tired of this game of cat and mouse and started gathering energy with a light that sucked in shadows rather than move them away. The brunette saw this and started to panic as this spell felt far deadlier than the one he tried to use to finish off Natsu in the beginning of their fight.

*They are gone. You are unburdened. Hurry up with the plan!*

Kain heard that strange voice again. There was something bizarre about how its tone was different from before, but he ignored it and saw his chance as he sped as fast as he could towards the very top of the Tower of Hell. Jellal saw this and noticed that and quickly went above him in case he tried to get back inside the mountain path.

"Oh no you don't! You're not escaping after all of this!" The wizard saint declared as a large amount of magic started pouring out. Anti-magical armor or not, the physical blow of this attack would surely knock the boy out of his armor and kill him.

However, Kain stood tall and drew his blade. "Jellal," He began. "Is there any chance that you can stop all this?"

"What? Is this some kind of trick you're planning? Distracting me for something?" The Wizard Saint smirked. He tried to sense around for any surprise attack by one of his allies, but he could sense no trace of opposing magic coming his way.

The red knight shook his head slowly. "It's not a distraction… it's just… when Erza was talking about you, I got the feeling that you were once a good person." He looked up towards the man who had put him and his friends through a horrible time and said with a voice that seemed filled with anticipation, "I'm asking if there's still one part of you that still cares for others."

That statement made Jellal pause for a second. However, he soon started to laugh again as if he had heard a stupid joke that was more stupid than funny. "That person was weak! And he didn't understand what the true glory of Zeref truly is!"

"And what is that glory exactly? To treat everyone the same exact way your enslavers treated you?"

There was a brief scorn that spread across the face of Jellal after Kain said that. "You really know how to get under people's skin, don't you?"

"I'm a lawyer, sometimes attacking people is what I have to do to win cases, even if it is practically a lie and is distasteful." He pointed a finger towards the man charging a spell at him. "But sometimes, when the threat of punishment comes, I can see how scared people really are… how afraid they are. How human they are."

"Human? Humans only serve as vessels of ignorance and hatred." Jellal darkly spat. "When Lord Zeref returns, he will purge this world with hellfire that they deserve."

Kain tilted his helm upward with a more confident movement. "What they deserve and what they need are two very different things, Jellal. Think back, before you met Zeref, what did you really want?"

That question… took Jellal by surprise. His memories, some were a little groggy, but he heard the sound of a voice he had long forgotten say,

{ _I want to be free! I want us all to get out of here!... And I don't want to see Erza cry anymore…_ }

Jellal removed one hand from his spell and put a hand near his marked eye. Why was his head throbbing now of all times!?

"Your…Your mind games have gone long enough!" The powerful wizard cried out angrily, even though a small part of his voice almost sounded… scared and regretful.

For a second, Kain's stance relaxed. Even though he was wearing a helmet that was covering his face, Jellal could still feel it soften.

"It's over, Jellal. You can stop now." The boy said softly but with firmness.

"Oh what!? Like someone as weak, powerless, and as useless as you stands a chance against me?!"

"I wasn't aiming for you."

"What the hell do you," As the wizard saint said this, he started to hear a large cracking noise echoing around them.

Wait…

Jellal's eyes slowly widened as he noticed something: all of the giant lacrima chains surrounding the tower had this large cracks on them. Some were still growing as seconds passed. It was then that he started to recall that Kain was running everywhere before he finally stopped and he remembered that all the time he was running, the brunette never went near the tower.

It was then that the magic-less Kain said, "I was aiming for the tower, or more specifically all the chains that helped suspend it in the air."

Jellal looked back to see the red knight already raising his fist and gripping it tightly. The boy was about to punch the tower so hard that the chains would no longer be able to support it and it would fall into the darkness below.

"NOOOOO!" The Wizard saint cried desperately and launched the attack to stop him.

But it was too late.

"I'm sorry." Kain was actually faking it out. He only had the strength of a wyvern, as powerful as that was, he couldn't punch a whole tower down into the abyss.

But a Wizard Saint like Jellal had more than enough power to do that for him.

Kain quickly activated his wings and sped out of the blast as it exploded on the top of the tower. The explosion was the straw that broke the camel's back, or in this case, the last powerful blow needed to break all the chains from all the strain they received from Jellal's reckless attacks.

*At last! We can begin!*

Kain tried to capitalize on the distracted Jellal and was going to unleash another powerful burst of speed and power to punch him back into the mountain. However, something happened that he did not expect in his plan.

The tower was floating.

The chains fell, their color started to fade, but the Tower of Hell was now floating mid air while all of its chains were now separated.

Now Kain could only look in shock at that before both he and Jellal heard a powerful humming noise as the tower started to glow with a blinding light that could even light up this dark void.

"Wh-What't going on!?" Kain asked as he shielded his light.

Instead of a quick answer, he heard the sound of maniacal laughter from Jellal. "I don't know how! But the resurrection has begun even without a sacrifice! Lord Zeref shall be reborn!"

Even though he didn't use it often, Kain had found out the word, 'Fuck' really couldn't encompass how much this situation has escalated beyond his understanding.

The tower then did something that made even Jellal stop his laughter as giant, white wings with red accents shot out of the glowing tower. Deafening cracking noises along with actual cracks on the tower showed that something giant was moving within the tower—or rather that the Tower of Hell was transforming into something.

It spoke volumes at how even the darkness around them seemed to be quaking under the pressure of sheer power that was starting to form.

As the cracks started to grow and as the light started to shine brightly, the entire tower burst open, causing both Jellal and Kain to avoid getting hit by the remaining crystals. The light faded, and the two turned towards where the Tower of Hell should have been.

Kain didn't realize that he swallowed his spit because of what he had seen. "I-I heard so much about Zeref, but I didn't know he was a _**dragon**_."

Right in front of him and Jellal was a gorgeous but obviously deadly dragon that was larger than even Atlas Flame in size. It was white all over with wings that almost looked like many spikes pieced together than actual wings and he had red runic markings all over his body that seemed like painted brush strokes.

It was unmistakable to the two that in front of them was a dragon from the early days of Earthland. However, it was just as unmistakable as Jellal's next response.

"Zeref **isn't** a dragon."

Kain really wished that his twisted opponent was still telling bad jokes as he glanced over to him. However, Jellal was sporting the same horrified, baffled, and utterly awed face that the wyvern rider had. That expression told the lawyer far too much about this situation: not a single one of them good.

"Then who the hell did you revive!?" Unfortunately, it seemed like even Jellal had the same exact question on his mind.

However, both men seemed to forget about their conversation when the reborn dragon roared.

" **ΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦ** **!** "

* * *

All throughout the Zeus Range, everyone heard the sound of something inhuman echoing and rumbling the mountains. It even attracted the attention of a certain someone in Sun Village.

In the air, which was clear because of Etherion stopping the constant thunderstorms, Ignis suddenly stopped flying after he, and everyone else heard the roar. "What was that?" The celestial mage and the others looked back towards the mountain.

Gray would have made Ignis flown back if the wyvern didn't suddenly do it himself.

Just outside the cave entrance, four people looked over towards the entrance, after just hearing that inhuman sound.

"Kain?"

* * *

After the white dragon roared, it slowly turned its head towards Jellal and Kain.

His eyes glowed red and he opened his mouth—then it was like a black hole was trying to suck the two in. The armor of the displaced boy started to glow, and Kain found it infinitely easier to move out of the way of the vacuum of the dragon that was trying to eat them. However, he looked over toward Jellal who seemed to be screaming in pain. It was then that his magic stopped, and Kain noticed something coming out of Jellal's body! It-It almost looked like another Jellal, but his body was more see through, and as this phantom Jellal was being sucked by the dragon, the physical body looked lifeless and limp.

It was at that moment that Kain remembered something from what he heard from Atlas Flame: A Soul Dragon.

Kain didn't know how, why, or what, but he found himself racing back towards Jellal and rescuing his body, and by proxy, interrupting the magic trying to devour his soul.

Jellal's phantom quickly shot back into his body with a gasp of breath that sounded like a new born breathing in for the very first time. "W-What was that!?" He then looked to Kain in surprise. "Did you… save me?"

The displaced boy was also surprised that he did that as well. The man was a madman, yet…

{ _The powerful wizard cried out angrily, even though a small part of his voice almost sounded… scared and regretful._ }

Kain said nothing to the question.

"You," A voice of utter power echoed through the void. Kain and Jellal looked back at the floating dragon with its glowing blood-colored eyes staring right at them. "red one, I'm surprised you were immune to my magic."

Kain let go of Jellal as he started to fly again.

"No matter," The dragon spread his wings further as a devlish smile appeared on his face. "I suppose I must thank you both for my second chance in life. As such, you shall both be devoured by me, **Logos the Soul Dragon**!"

Kain instantly recalled the name. That was the name of the dragon that betrayed Igneel according to Atlas. The lawyer remembered that Logos had died… but the R-system… it resurrected _him_!?

Unfortunately for the boy, the dragon then _started inhaling a massive amount of energy_.

"MOVE!" Kain didn't just shout that, the two fliers practically forgot everything except that one word before—

" **ṤṒṲḼ** **ḜṚḀṢḔṜ**!"

* * *

Everyone from outside panicked when they saw something around the same level of Etherion shoot out from inside the mountain.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the planet… there was a man wearing a cloak who simply sat in a cave brooding and waiting…

Then, he looked up. In the first time in centuries, his emotions of surprise and confusion came up as a word escaped Acnologia's lips,

"Rabbi?"

* * *

Of all the things he thought about in his life, Kain Obadiah Reynolds was starting to think eternal damnation in hell was actually tamer than what he was currently going through, which was dealing with a newly resurrected dragon with power he could easily see as totaling an entire country with little effort.

And said dragon was now trying to kill him. How grand.

"Jellal, what do we—" Kain paused as he realized something: Jellal was gone from where he was. He felt a shadow cast above him and looked through the hole that Logos blasted through and spotted Jellal escaping as fast as he could away from the dragon. "That son of a bitch! Why didn't I think of that!?"

The boy then snapped his head back and saw Logos trying to eat him whole. With his wings he quickly avoided being swallowed by fangs and raced up as well.

"Strange," Even as he flew away, Kain could still hear the voice of the white and red dragon. "You smell like a wyvern." And then he felt the air around him felt thick as if there was another gathering magic coming right after him. That was the young man's clue to speed out there faster.

Outside, everyone saw something fly out of the hole where the previous blast came from. No sooner than something flew out, the mountain around the new exit started to shake and crack. Out of the hole, something flew out with another, clearer deafening roar: a white dragon.

Everyone who was previously in the tower clamped their hands on their ears to protect them from the sound piercing the air around them then after the roar. They all looked in shock as a white dragon started to chase after a speck of glowing red.

"What is that!?" Simon gasped while still holding Wally's unconscious body over his shoulder.

Natsu and Erza were feeling much better as both of them were able to get back on both of their feet. However, they both knew what had just come out, and who it was chasing.

"Is that a dragon!?" Erza cried before glancing over to Natsu. "But why is it there? Why is it after Kain?"

"And where's Jellal?" The dragon slayer asked a more important question before they looked up on above with terror.

Logos was able to pin down the armored boy down his claw. Kain screamed as he felt his body being crushed. Even his armor seemed to be struggling to push a single claw off himself.

"You seem just as strong as a wyvern. I suppose that is somewhat of an improvement compared to most of the lesser races. However, wyverns are still lesser creatures." Logos unhinged his maw, revealing sharpened and old fangs ready to swallow the red rider whole.

The white dragon wasn't expecting blasts of fire, water, ice, and arrows to hit him at his back. Instead of injured, the now annoyed dragon turned behind him, still pinning down Kain. "An actual wyvern, hmm?"

Logos swatted his tail at Ignis, who dove towards the ground and tilted his body, signaling everyone on to jump off. Ignis sped towards Kain while Team Valiant and Juvia started blasting the dragon.

Trinity Raven in the mean time watched this from a distance. "So captain, what should we do?" Vidaldus asked carefully as he eyed the dragon easily swat Milliana and Lucy away while Gray, Juvia, and Sho tried to blast out more magic to have the dragon let go of their friend or acquaintance. Unfortunately, it did very little.

Ikaruga glanced over to Fukuro.

The owl man folded his arms as he watched. "The wise thing to do would be to not get involved and escape while we are ahead."

The captain of Trinity Raven sighed. "Fukuro, I am aware of your wording. Just because you said it was wise, doesn't mean we're doing it."

"I seem to recall us owing our previous opponents since our employer lied about us about the cause and what we were really fighting for and that we almost died for a madman." The man who had this face replaced with an owl gave out his reasoning. "And a Hero of Justice always helps those who are wronged."

"Hey, Fukuro, the kids aren't watching us all the way here in Fiore," Vidaldus pointed out. "You can drop that shtick now."

The owl man gave a small smirk. "Ahh, Vidaldus, I can't 'drop' the cross I have to bear." Suddenly, a magic circle appeared on Fukuro's back as his jet pack was re summoned, or he brought out a new one. It powered up, and with a burst of speed, Fukuro sped in and kicked the dragon in the eye, causing it to actually stagger and allow Igins to get Kain out of his grasp.

Ikargua looked to the guitarist. "Come on, Vidaldus, I order you to help out." She then ran towards the dragon as well with her blade in her hand.

The guitarist sighed before he then started screaming wildly and charged right for the dragon by using his hair to catapult forward and landing on its head. As he screamed wildly about heavy metal, his hair expanded and tied up around the dragon's face like a full muzzle.

Kain watched as even Natsu, Erza, and Simon came back up to help in subduing the dragon.

There was something kind of inspiring about having former enemies fighting together against a common threat. It was too bad the threat was far above all of them combined.

Logos easily dispatched everyone with not even a spell, but pure raw power, pushing everyone off of him.

"This scent," Logos seemed to sniff the air before looking towards Natsu. "Is that you, Igneel?"

That name made the dragon slayer pause briefly as he looked up to the dragon. "Who the heck are you!?"

Logos seemed confused as it asked. "What's the matter, Igneel? Don't you remember your old _friend_ , Logos?"

Kain panicked as he saw Natsu's pupils shrink at the name. The panic became even worse when he saw the dragon slayer trembling and gripping his fists harder. "You're… you're Logos!?" He screamed out to the white dragon in anger.

"I admit even I didn't expect to meet you once again, but I do admit, fate has a very twisted sense of humor to bring us together once more."

A burst of magic exploded from Natsu as he started to exert a large amount of flames despite his injuries from a while ago. Thankfully it seemed like the effects of the elvish weapon had worn off. "You bastard! You'll pay for betraying, Igneel!"

"Igneel?" Logos tilted his head. "Aren't you going to say something?" Kain noticed how weird that was. The dragon, it was like he was talking at Natsu, not to him. Why was Logos so convinced that Natsu was Igneel?

The fired dragon slayer was not as observant as he then jumped off with a proud scream, "My name is Natsu, you bastard! I'm Igneel's son!"

"Bah! Your silence doesn't matter Igneel!" The dragon raised his claw and curled it into a fist.

The son of Igneel suddenly exploded with powerful white flames as he reclined his fist back. "White Flame Mode: Fire Dragon's…"

Unfortunately for the human, Logos was also wrapping his fist in magic of his own.

" **ḹṂṔḀḈṮ!** "  
"Fist!"

The two attacks clashed—but just as quickly, Logos overpowered Natsu and slammed him into the ground with enough force to create a large crater into the mountain where everyone was battling on.

Even though the blow was powerful, Natsu was still awake somehow. Logos loomed over the dragon slayer.

"Devouring a simple human for my first meal was at best a snack. You, on the other hand shall truly fill me up for my first meal, Igneel. It's a shame my student absorbed most of your soul, but one can never be too picky on food."

It was then that instead of chomping on Natsu, Logos bite on nothing but air.

"Oi, red brat," Logos lifted his head to see Kain carrying Natsu again, signaling he performed another last minute save. "That is getting very annoying."

Logos then whipped his tail at a much faster speed than before. Caught off guard by the sudden speed, Kain threw away Natsu before he was smacked by something with the ton of a building and sent flying into the forest.

"Kain!" Some of Team Valiant shouted before they were interrupted with Logos making a move again.

"Oh my. That was fun," The giggle of the massive dragon only chilled the bones of people even like the likes of Gray. "Come on little ones, I wanna play before I eat."

* * *

Kain felt his head ringing as he tried to open his eyes. However, he seemed to be seeing three skies instead of one.

*Stab!*

It took a few more seconds, but as the young armored person's senses came back and he noticed a familiar wooden and green blade near his helmet.

He looked back up—to see Jellal over him. This wasn't good, his senses were back but pain was numbing his body still. He was a sitting duck at this rate!

However, to the surprise of the boy, it seemed like Jellal was saying something he couldn't quite hear—maybe his head was hit harder than he thought.

Seconds passed, and Kain realized that Jellal… he was gone and he left the Elvish blade near his head.

He tried to think back at What Jellal said, but he was distracted when, in the distance, he heard another roar from the mountain.

The young man wearing ancient armor forced himself back up, but even though he struggled to do so he found himself staring thoughtfully at the elf blade left near him.

* * *

Things were not looking good for Team Valiant and company. As soon as Kain was knocked away, the battle got even worse. Ignis was blasted and knocked out cold, Gray was swatted into rocks, Sho and Milliana fainted from a high pitched roar that would have busted their ear drums, all the fatigue from all his fights finally caught up on Natsu, Vidaldus was unfortunate to get caught by Logos' tail, which left everyone else tired and injured.

"Are you done yet? I am getting quite hungry." The white soul dragon yawned. It was painfully obvious that this was more off an annoyance rather than an actual fight.

It seemed like he was already bored. He picked up the person closest to him, both Sho and Milliana, and wrapped them around his tail.

"Don't you dare!" Erza huffed out as she used whatever magic she had left to summon another blade and strike the dragon before he could eat her old friends. She wasn't expecting the dragon to fold his wing and shot out it like a limb, smacking her back into the ground with relative ease.

Logos laughed with all the life of someone witnessing a hilarious joke for the first time. "I find it funny," He played with the two's unconscious bodies a bit in his tail as he looked back at those who were still trying to fight. "That look in your eyes suggest that you think you can harm me? Me? I have fought in two of the greatest wars this entire world has ever known. And in each war I faced the greatest of both of Earthland's greatest races: Elves and Dragons! The only reason why I died was because I became distracted, which I can assure you, will not happen a second time."

The white and red dragon then seemed to have his ears twitch then he tilted his head up towards the night sky. "I see you've returned. I don't know why, but I swear your scent feels horribly familiar. Yet I can't place why though."

Kain was silent before he shouted out to everyone still able to fight, "Move out of the way! I have another plan!" It really wasn't a plan and he just was praying his hardest this would work, unlike his last plan that brought this dragon out in the first place.

Logos only laughed. This little play of heroism seemed to amuse the far more powerful creature. Kain could only hope that ego of his would let him do this.

When it was clear, Kain dove down into the ground with a large amount of the armor's power he could muster. The result caused a shockwave that scattered dirt around the battlefield.

Kain acted fast, seeing glimpses of white and red in front of him and took out the elvish blade Jellal left behind.

He sped as fast as he could before taking out the elvish blade from his back and trying to—

Where did that tail come from!?

As the dust settled, Kain found himself snagged in the foot and lifted up in front of a now rather angry looking Logos.

Kain acted fast, trying to bring the blade—Logos then slammed Kain into the dirt with his tail motioned like a whip. It may have been a simple move, but Kain as well was too fatigued from the fighting and let go of the special blade. The only reason why his armor didn't power down was because he was struggling to stay awake.

However, Logos was no longer interested in the displaced boy and threw him nearby a weakened Natsu. "… An elvish weapon." Logos stated impassionately before he inhaled and blasted the weapon with his magic, leaving a smoking crater where the weapon once was. "That brings… memories."

Logos turned over towards Natsu and Kain. "It seems your rants about the lesser races were right after all, Igneel." He started walking over towards them. "I find it somewhat fitting that you are willing to die a second time for them."

Erza saw this and quickly tried to move again. "Kain, Natsu!" Simon reached out and grabbed her. At first, he was going to stop her and say it was too dangerous, but his attempt to grab her to stop her turned into him trying to catch her as she started to fall one she only moved her leg. Erza seemed to be having trouble even moving her body from all the fighting from the Tower of Hell.

The white dragon opened his maw towards the two with the intent to eat them whole—LogosSnappedHisHeadInARandomDirectionAndQuicklyTriedToShieldHimself—

And then the mountain exploded.

Everyone slowly woke up and realized that the entire mountain was set aflame. Natsu, seeing some of this, tried his best to inhale the flames around them. He felt his energy coming back, but at the same time, his brain recognized this great tasting flame…

"Logos," A very, very restrained voice spoke out from the flames surrounding everyone. "You're alive." The flames around them all started to gather and form in front of Natsu and Kain in the form of another dragon…

Atlas Flame was there.

"Two dragons!? To think, they were thought to be extinct." Ikaruga gasped at the sight of watching two natural forces facing each other.

However, Fukuro seemed to get a different idea and quickly glanced over towards the area the wyvern was knocked out. "We need to leave."

"What?" Erza looked over to the assassin.

"No," Simon spoke out. "He's right. One dragon was far too much for us, how much more would it be if two dragons fought at full power? We need to get the others and get out of here." Unfortunately for Erza, she didn't even have the strength to argue against him.

Natsu in the meantime, could only stare at the back of Atlas Flame. Even though it was a clear night, the fire dragon seemed to shine like the sun. "Atlas?"

Without looking away from Logos, who was getting back up and wiping away the soothe form his wing, Atlas talked to Igneel's son. "Natsu, take your friend and leave this place."

"What!? I can take him!" Leave it to Natsu to hate anyone butting in to his fights, especially when he's spent all his energy in one day alone. By this point, he's been fighting longer and harder than he did in the Phantom-Fairy Tail war.

"This has been my battle for a very, very long time." The dragon made of flames stated with a finality that made Natsu stop in his tracks. "Now, help your friend and leave."

The pink haired mage could only look at Atlas Flame before picking Kain up and heading towards where everyone else was gathered.

Atlas Flame felt Natsu leave towards a safer area. The next step he took towards the white dragon was one without any of the kindness and empathy he showed the young man.

"Who the heck are you?" Unlike before, all levity from the White Dragon was gone, and replaced with a rather dark and wrathful glare towards the presence of another dragon. Despite the obvious contempt, his voice still tried to remain calm and restrained. "I was sort of hopping my student would keep his promise and kill all dragons." For the first time since his resurrection, the white and red dragon seemed to be gathering a dangerous amount of energy that was obviously meant for someone he saw as a threat than a nuisance. "Daft dastard that he is, he probably had a harder time hunting the shrewd ones."

"This isn't about your student, Logos. This is about you and what actions you performed before you died." Atlas Flame returned an equally intimidating glare at the white dragon while gathering his own magic.

Logos laughed again, but this time there was a more mocking tone into his voice. "Oh what? Are you one of those survivors from the… what did the humans call it? Dragon King Festival?," The white and red dragon briefly commented on how humans were very good at naming things before continuing his point, "So is this about vengeance for a friend or two that my student or I killed? Maybe all of them?"

Atlas Flame could hear the sound of the wyvern getting up and carrying Natsu and all of his friends out of there. He was now in the clear to go all out.

"Yes."

In the days of the future, everyone would come to realize how words like 'wrath' or 'fury' were far too weak to describe the way Atlas Flame assaulted Logos as if he was the sun incarnate.

* * *

Even while in the sky, everyone on the wyvern could feel the earth shake as the two dragons did battle, destroying smaller mountains with missed attacks and tearing apart the eco system surrounding the mountain range.

"Damn," Vidaldus of all people seemed to be the first to speak up. "They always said dragons had the power to shape our world. Never thought I would see it firsthand."

There was something poignant about a heavy metal guitarist saying a line like that. It also led to similar line said by Simon next. "I don't think we were meant to see it again."

* * *

" **ḢẎḊṜḀ ḞḀṄḠṢ**!" Atlas Flame shot out a flame breath that split in to twelve different fanged heads with the intent to rip apart and burn the target.

" **ṜḔṖṲḼṢḜ**!" An orb of green energy surrounded the soul dragon to prevent the attack from reaching. As soon as the fire head attacked the shield, they were all absorbed into the field and then reflected right back at the flame dragon who only easily avoided his own attack.

Logos was panting for air. His hunger was an annoyance at first, but now he was feeling famished and weaker as the battle went on. He was not expecting to face another dragon so soon. And his opponent was unrelenting.

" **ḨḘḼḸ ṠṔḘẢṜ**!" Fire consumed Atlas' body before his speed dramatically increased, able to fly around like a swallow to a human and ram into Logos several times with the propulsion of his flames.

However, Logos smiled as when around the tenth time Atlas Flame came diving in, the soul dragon made a fast move of his own and was able to catch the fire dragon with his tail constricted around his neck.

Even though his tail was starting to burn, Logos gripped his tail tightly around the neck of the flame dragon. "I'll just eat you instead!" Logos cried out as he started to inhale with great force. Some of the flames and bits of Atlas Flame was starting to get sucked into Logos' power.

Those that Atlas had saved could only watch with baited breath as they saw the fire dragon slowly losing his power.

However, Logos wasn't expecting something. He wasn't expecting Atlas to laugh in this position.

"Oh, don't mind me," Atlas began as he stopped laughing for a moment. "It's just that I have dreamed of this day for centuries, and after all this time… you're far weaker than I thought you would be."

Suddenly, Atlas Flame unleashed a large amount of smoke coming from his body that covered the sky. This sudden burst of smoke made the white dragon loose track of his captive fire dragon and made him confused as to where his opponent went. However, Logos saw this skill awhile ago made by the human, this trick will not work on him a second time even if it didn't work the first—odd. Why couldn't he sense Atlas Flame at all?

The white dragon didn't realize that Atlas Flame didn't just exert smoke and ash… he transformed into it. A cloud in the shape of a dragon revealed its talons and stabbed them into the back of the soul dragon, causing it to shriek in pain.

As soon as that happened, the smoke ignited once more, allowing Atlas Flame to return to his flame and speed the pinned Logos into the largest mountain of the Zeus range once more with a powerful crash. As the smoke cleared, Atlas Flame's right talon was firmly clamped on Logo's head, piercing and burning it by the touch. Flame Hydras came from the flame dragon's wings that pinned down all the other limbs of Logos and were biting down hard on all of them.

"This one is for Igneel, you bastard! For all our kind that you and your student killed!" Atlas Flame cried out in vengeance as he raised his arm that started to take the form of a fire blade.

However, the word, 'Igneel', made Logos confused. However, that confusion was quickly replaced with a cunning smile. The Soul Dragon struggled a lot but opened his mouth and quickly fired a blast of his magic… in a random direction? Odd, it was slow to Atlas Falme too, so what was the point off—

Atlas Flame heard the faint sounds of screams and noticed the attack was heading right for Natsu and his friends! The wyvern was too injured to maneuver properly, which meant it would be hit dead on for sure! Forsaking his vengeance, Atlas Flame dropped his hold and sped fast enough to shield the human dragon slayer and his allies.

However, even though Atlas Flame easily evaded the attack, as the dust settled, Logos had made his escape and was no longer seen anywhere.

The fire dragon could only unleash a powerful, angry roar that reverberated into the night. He had lost his chance at vengeance.

It was very unlikely he would be so fortunate next time.

* * *

Man, my muscles feel like they're screaming at me to stop moving. I mean, it's only been like two hours since that stupid fight in The Tower of Hell, but seriously, why is going to the rest room at this late at night like another battle? I keep barely living through all those darn fights!

But soon, despite my sluggish pace towards the restroom, I was able to spot Erza looking out one of the giant windows of Ithca's house. Suddenly, my pain seemed to lessen a bit when I saw this wistful look on Erza's face that just looked to darn sad.

I sighed deeply before walking over to her watching the moon in her armor.

"Ithca was sure kind to let us stay in his house after we returned with Atlas Flame," I said, catching the red head's attention. "I was half convinced he would be angry at us too even though it was Atlas Flame who melted off the roof of the Eternal Flame. But I'm glad I was wrong."

I kept walking before looking out the window as well. Even for a place where buildings were as tall as skyscrapers, maybe bigger, Ithca's house was placed in a higher area than most, allowing him a beautiful view of the currently roofless Eternal Flame and Sun Village.

"This world has some amazing views. Makes me wish I saw the great views of my world, but I was always too busy to travel." I kept talking even as Erza was silent.

Seeing as how she wasn't going to say anything from that, I sighed. "I'm sorry, Erza." I felt her turn to me before I continued. "I… look… I thought that maybe, just maybe the old Jellal was in there somewhere still. So I tried to… forget it. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be." I heard Erza's voice and I turned to her, her eyes were that of someone unsure. "You truly are kind, Kain. _I_ had resolved myself that my old friend was long dead, but when he fooled my with his ploy of returning back to himself I…" She trailed off, not needed to say anymore. "Yet from what you told me, there were flashes of the real him that I couldn't bring out that you did."

I really didn't feel like I did that or anything. "You're blowing out of proportion. All I did was make him question himself. He really was too far gone."

"Yet… he had the chance to kill you… but didn't." I still don't know what Jellal was doing when he left that blade near me. Why would he do that when it contradicted everything he was doing a while ago?

Still, I was skeptical. "Maybe he just did to return the favor of me saving him?"

"The fact he even considered, let alone did it, speaks volumes, Kain." Erza said as she looked out in the distance. "… do you think…"

Do I think Jellal is still out there, trying to make another Tower of Hell? "I don't know. A piece of me wants to believe that when Logos tried to eat his soul, something that made him evil went away… but at the same time… it's never that easy or simple."

The S-Class mage gave a hollow laugh at my response. I had no idea if it was at herself or the situation… maybe both? "Would the universe die if it gave us a freebie every now and then? Things get… very hard to bear."

I felt for her, I really did. I turned towards her and gave her my best kind smile despite my body pretty much dying in the inside. "Look on the bright side. You're finally free of the Tower, and you've got your old and new friends safe and sound."

A smile came across her lips. "I suppose you're right. Along with victories, there are losses. … Kain?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. I cannot even begin to thank you and the others for coming after me."

"You're welcome," I responded. "I feel like I should respond with something like, 'we're friends, of course we will!' … but excuse me for being more of a coward when having to actually think before leaping into literal hell for someone."

"I don't think that's as bad as you make it to be," I looked up to Erza as she walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "It's because of someone like you we're all kept straight and remain humble instead of egotistic and stubborn."

Leave it to Erza to still say something profound. I ended up nodding my head. "Erza, don't forget you've done great things too. … And don't think I didn't realize you were actually planning to die with Jellal originally." The red head flinched when I said that. I folded my hands and channeled my father when he was disappointed in three year old me. "You hid it well, but I figured it out after I woke up! Really!? You were the most no-nonsense person I knew here and you were trying to become a martyr?"

She was about to speak until I actually interrupted her. "Oh no, you do not get to defend yourself from that! Erza, you're gonna sit down in under this beautiful view and listen to my rant on how much of a bad idea that was and you are going to listen to every single word I've been bubbling in ever since we've come back!"

I could tell by the look of Erza's face that she knew I had **a lot** of complaints and rants about to explode from this entire journey.

My smirk then started to turn into another kind smile. "And when I'm done, I will do the same and listen to every single one of your complaints and rants. I promise under no circumstances will I question or judge any of them unless you ask me to."

That seemed to make Erza look at me in surprise. "I may not be able to storm the gates of hell for someone, but I swear to whatever beings that sent me here that I will be there when someone is at their worst, patiently waiting with them until they feel better about themselves no matter how long."

I just spoke from the heart. It seemed like my words had an effect on the scarlet haired woman as I finally saw her smile after this hectic day. It was a small, but pure smile and I was glad I could bring it out of her.

Ah well. Like I said, the most I can do is just be there for someone when they need it. I do hope that was enough.

I inhaled. "First of all, I really, really hate how everyone keeps throwing desks around inside the damn guild. We literally have an empty field outside, yet no one can take the fight outside?!"

The day started with fires, destruction, long time sins resurfacing… the day finally ended with two friends complaining how much they both hated and loved their lives.

* * *

Things finally settled down after that.

Trinity Raven left as soon as they were dropped off in Sun City, saying a few goodbyes and apologizes before leaving. Fairy Tail found it somewhat odd that they found allies in assassins of all people, yet Kain was quick to remind everyone that Kageyama was a former criminal and current remember of Fairy Tail.

After their long battle, it seemed like everyone else could finally have their vacation. And boy did they enjoy it.

Team Valiant and Erza's old friends spent more time in Sun Village. It seemed like that while they were working for Jellal, they did ruin a few buildings and cause some disturbance with the different races. Ithca was able to tide down most of it by making Erza's old friends take blame and pretend they were drunk. It seemed like they were all off the hook from something really politically nasty thanks to Ithca's quick thinking.

Seeing as how they did cause a lot of trouble, Simon was easily able to convince the others to help around for attacking and causing trouble in the first place. But it really wasn't that big of a deal for them, even if everything else was much bigger than them.

Erza never looked happier, spending time with her long lost friends. Wally lost his legs, but thanks to his specific magic, he could simply float around easily. Erza apologized profusely for having to cauterize him then and there, but Wally claimed nothing was wrong and he was glad they all came out mostly unscathed.

She wasn't really the only one playing catch up though.

Natsu seemed to gather courage to talk to Atlas Flame again. This time, instead of questioning about where his dad was, he started asking about what his dad was like when they were young.

Oh boy did Atlas have stories! Some about the volcano they both grew up in, the time that Igneel got them and two other fire dragons lost because he had no sense of direction, and some rather embarrassing and stupid stories that Natsu would have never known about his adoptive father. The fire dragon expressed his own joy about finally being able to talk to someone and exercising his social skills in decades.

The human dragon slayer realized that while he might not have found a clue to where his dad was, finding something like an uncle was really the next best thing for him. There was something uplifting about finding things about his father that he never knew. Some of them weren't good, but he was glad to learn them none the less.

Gray and Kain had a talk with Juvia about joining Fairy Tail. The water mage expressed excitement and offered to go ahead back to the guild to be put in. There was some warning about their new guild master, but the lawyer of Fairy Tail believed he could get her in for sure.

Lucy found herself spending more time with that little girl she saved, Flare Corona—Kain found her name a little redundant, but even he had to admit it was cool how the human among giants seemed to idolize Lucy.

The rest of their vacation was surprisingly relaxing and fun like most vacations should have been.

... But things must always come to an end.

"Are you sure you guys have to go?" To say Erza was sad would actually be somewhat wrong and right at the same time. However, all her emotions went over the place as she and the rest of Team Valiant were seeing Simon and the others off and helping pack some things in a caravan at night, at the very outskirts of Sun Village.

"You can all join Fairy Tail of you want. I'm sure everyone would love to know about Erza's old friends." Kain added in as the rest also agreed, eager to have the four join them on their way back to the guild.

"I admit, the offer is very tempting." Simon looked to Wally, Sho, and Milliana before turning back to Team Valiant. "However, we've spent a lot of time inside that tower. I barely recall anything form the outside world, and that's less so for the others. So we've all agreed to go travel the world that we were once forced to hate, learn more about all what could have been and who knows? Maybe find some people we thought were long gone."

Erza looked over to Wally who just gave a smile and a cool salute to both her and Kain. The brunette ended up laughing at the action.

"If that is really the case, I have complete faith all you will be doing well." The S-Class mage spoke out.

"Uhh, Simon?" Milliana spoke up, there was look on her face that screamed to the man with a metal jaw to keep talking.

Simon seemed unusually silent before he turned to Erza and put a hand on her shoulder. "Erza, I would like you to know something: I believe you have found great friends. Cherish them greatly."

Kain could have sworn there was the slightest bit of hesitation in Simon's voice before he said believe. Sho and Milliana had this look on their face that seemed like they were both annoyed and frustrated for some reason.

Adding into these facts, and recalling how Simon never lost faith in Erza, Kain's eyes widened as he did a mental 'Oh.' sound in his thoughts.

Natsu looked at Kain in confusion. "Hey Kain, why are you glancing so quickly between Erza and Simon?"

"No reason." Kain quickly dismissed with a tone that signaled he was not going to talk anymore than that.

Erza ended up smiling and hugging Simon. The taller man was a bit taken back but returned the warm hug. "It's the same for all of you too." Erza told Simon, "Don't forget that."

There was a little laughter coming from Simon after yea heard that. "Not even a memory manipulating spell made me forget. I don't think I ever will." Simon spoke with kindness before he left towards the caravan.

"Simon!"

"Get inside the caravan, Milliana, the next city isn't going to be for the next three days." Simon easily ignored her.

The large man was surprised when he felt his hand grabbed by Erza and the man with one eye left looked over towards Erza in surprise.

In a bright flash of light, Erza transformed into a beautiful ornate armor and Kain noticed the rest of Team Valiant, even Happy and Ignis, stand up straighter than usual. "Before you leave, there are three rules that any member who chooses to leave the Fairy Tail guild must abide by."

"But we didn't join..." Wally looked over to to the rest of Team Valiant as if they could correct some misunderstanding. Yet by looking at even Kain's smiling face, he had a feeling she was doing this on purpose for a reason.

Erza still continued to speak. "Number one: never share sensitive information about the guild with anyone so long as you live. Number two: never contact any clients you worked for while in the guild for your own personal gain."

At this point, Erza stood proudly before declaring, "And number three: although our paths must stray, promise to live the rest of your lives to the fullest. That means you must treat every day as if it were your last in this world!"

Everyone of Erza's old friends were surprised by that last rule and even more so when Erza started to cry... with both of her eyes. "Never forget your Fairy Tail Friends. Treasure them for as long as you live!" Her voice was starting to crack as she said this. It wasn't hard to figure out she was speaking from her heart this time.

Erza threw the flag she was carrying to the sky and declared, "Let the Fairy Tail Farewell Begin now!"

And that was Team Valiant's cue. "Yes mam!" They all cried before Natsu fired his own fireworks into the sky.

"Wait a damn second, you can shoot fire works? Where the hell was a spell like that when I told you to break Jellal's tower?!"  
"Kain, shut up!"

Lucy was quick to stop Kain's complaints from running the moment too much. Erza didn't seem to mind as she continued on even then. "May all your journeys bring you joy!"

Everyone of Erza's friends started to cry except Simon who could only smile fondly as Team Valiant continued to make Fireworks with their own magic, Natsu, Gray, and even Lucy-

"YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO SHOOT A CONDENSED LASER THAT EXPLODES AND YOU DIDN'T USE IT ON VOYU OR ANY ENEMIES WE PREVIOUSLY FOUGHT!?" Kain's complaining seemed to have a much more lasting impact than the fireworks.

"Kain, it's not meant for battle!"  
"Do you think that stopped Voyu from turning something a simple as portals into the most broken form of combat magic ever!? How is a FREAKING LASER THAT EXPLODES not considered a proper battle spell!?"

It was at this moment, both tears and laughter were coming out of Simon and the others as they saw such friends arguing like fools while also giving a rather impressive and beautiful farewell.

...

Time passed as Simon, Sho, Milliana, and Wally were on the road and far away from Sun Village.

"Simon!" Millinana pouted hard. "Why didn't you tell Erza your feelings for her!?"

Simon could even feel Sho and Wally staring at him with eagle-eyes at the interrogation. "I just felt like it wasn't right. ... And I have a feeling she already knows."

Sho sighed. "Simon, you are such a coward."

The man with a metal jaw could only laugh sadly at that. "I can't really argue with that."

However, it was then that Milliana turned to Wally. "Hey Wally? You alright? You've been awfully silent."

"Never better, toots! Just still getting used to the fact I have to use magic to move now. And don't give me that look, I'd do it again to save Erza or any of yous." Wally cheerfully said.

"That is very brave of you, Wally. Perhaps I should learn a thing or too form you." Simon said as he continued to drive the horses down the path.

Wally smiled and looked back towards Sun Village. "Hey, I only learned this from that dandy kid they have, Kain." However, there was something off about his tone when he spoke about Kain.

{No one noticed that after Erza had left both Wally and Kain, there was a splotch of black liquid forming into the shape of a person. The humanoid figure stood over Kain and raised a hand that slowly started to extend and seemingly start to absorb the unconscious young man, yet after a while the figure stopped the attempt at absorbing and simply stared at the sleeping brunette.}

{" **… Kain Reynolds. You have not only shown a strong character, but you inspired a direct change in others, as shown in this dandy man's spark of bravery. We will not accept you into the Wicker Man as of now. We shall wait until you meet more people and changed them for ill or for better with your actions. Until then…** " The Wicker Man then raised and turned their extending hand towards the unconscious Wally.}

{" **We will watch you and wait patiently for you to change others into more vibrant people, Kain Obadiah Reynolds.** "}

To the surprise of the other three, Wally started singing a song that none of them heard before. " _The stars are blind my love…~_ "

* * *

By the time Ignis flew over to Magnolia, everyone in Team Valiant was glad to be back home.

"Finally, it feels great to come back here after another fiasco of almost dying again!" The spatially displaced boy exclaimed while feeling the familiar skies around him.

"This wouldn't have happened if you let us go to Akane Resort!" Lucy huffed in disappointment.

Natsu and Happy looked on with confusion before Natsu asked, "Huh? But it seemed like you made good friends with that Flare girl back at Sun Village."

"W-Well I enjoyed it there! But I'm still ticked about not going to the resort!" Lucy huffed and crossed her arms.

"Hey guys, check it out!" Gray pointed over to the guild. It was finally finished in it's reconstruction and it looked much grander yet sleeker than it did before.

"It seems as if the renovations are done," Erza spoke up with interest. "I wonder how it is inside?"

"Well let's find out! Ignis, drop us off at the entrance!" Kain asked off the red pseudo dragon as it descended into the entrance.

Lucy raised her hands up with a cheer after feeling the air of the new guild. It seemed like despite the obvious change, there was still something welcoming about the old guild. "It's great to be back!"

It was then that the large doors of the new guild started banging.

"They're fighting already?" Kain sighed as he put a hand on his head.

"What!? I want in!" Natsu, seemingly pumped up, started to make one step forward.

However, the doors then busted open and then three familiar faces were seen being thrown out of the guild.

"Reedus!? Nab!? Vijeeter!?" No sooner than Kain cried this, the rest of Team Valiant ran up to the three with worry. It was one thing to get rough as usual in Fairy Tail, but these guys looked worse for wear!

"G-Guys," Nab began as he looked at Team Valiant with surprise. "You came back."

"What are you talking about? Who did this to you guys!?" Kain asked before he noticed something, or rather, a severe lack of something, "Where are your Fairy Tail brands?"

Team Valiant quickly noticed that the three men didn't have their brands where they usually are. But at the mention of Kain's question, all three men grunted in pain and shame.

"And stay out!" A cocky voice cried out from inside the guild.

Natsu was the first to get back up as he and the rest of Team Valiant saw a group of mages they had never seen before with a Fairy Tail symbol on each and every one of them. "Who the hell are you guys!?"

One from the group of strangers, who stood out of all of them, gave a cruel smile as he pointed to his Fairy Tail brand on the right side of his neck.

"Why, we're Fairy Tail members of course!"

While Team Valiant was shocked, Kain had a much more different reaction when he found himself whispering, "God damn it, Laxus."

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **And this Arc is freaking done! I cannot tell you how hard this damn arc was. When I first planned this part, it looked simple as heck. When writing the damn thing, it was harder than all the other arcs before it combined!**

 **So yeah. First little note, I found the R-System to be kinda a letdown. Sure, Zeref was actually alive the whole time which mean that the tower was practically useless, but I kinda saw some really interesting potential with one question:**

 **What if the tower actually worked?**

 **That little question made me smile at the thought of the tower actually working, albeit in very different circumstances.**

 **I also thought it would be a good idea to start sprinkling hints about a very, very deep plot of this story. You guys should have seen it. It was very hard to miss.**

 **There is something I almost must address, I was looking back on the episode where Erza says goodbye, and I kid you not: Lucy shoots a powerful laser in to the sky for a firework.**

 **My reaction was the same as Kain's. Tell me straight to my face that a laser that explodes on contact or will of user is NOT meant for a battle. It can't be made using harmful energy? Natsu can change the properties of fire magic-heck any fire mage can! Why hasn't Lucy figured a way to weaponize something that F-ing USEFUL!?**

 **But by now, chronologically, you guys KNOW what arc is supposed to happen next. By this story's standards, you're probably wondering how that will go because of previous circumstances in this story.**

 **My answer?**

 **... Yep.**

 **Thank you all for taking your time to read this. See you soon.**

* * *

Omake (?)

Deep beneath the largest mountain of the Zeus Range, where there were traces of many hard fought battles, and many broken ancient chains…

There was something inside that unending darkness.

*It is done. The last of the Dragons have entered the stage. Soon this cycle will end and the next cycle shall begin anew.*


	24. Chapter 24

It was a day after he had been fired from Fairy Tail's position as Guild Master.

For some reason, he had always thought that the job was one of the most horrible experiences in his life, not counting his more devastating mistakes. So one would assume that no longer being master of Fairy Tail would be like lifting a burden off Makarov Dreyar.

Yet…

Unfortunately, he left on terms that were against his wishes. His grandson was forced to take his place and now the other members of Fairy Tail are forced to listen to his word. It didn't help that his idiotic grandson was going through what he hoped was a rebellious phase in his young adult years. The boy was getting to obsessed over terms of strength and pride, things that didn't truly matter in living a life, along with other useless ideas of fame or empty glory.

Still, he had hope. Laxus was nothing like Ivan—thank god for small mercies. Though if things kept going…

Bah, it was Fairy Tail's problem now. He didn't want to leave it all to his kids so soon, but he was just going to have to have faith that his children would pull themselves together in this time of trouble and not be split and cause some kind of miniature civil war while he was on his leave.

Makarov smiled and scoffed. He had to put some extra insurance so that his grandson wouldn't go too out of hand.

At this moment, there was a bell ringing that made the small old man look up.

"Attention, riders, our next stop is at Kale Town Station." The train speaker announced for everyone to hear.

The former Wizard Saint took note of this. It meant that he was almost towards his destination. It has been a while since he had met his wife besides letters. He wondered how she was doing?

It was then that the train started to shake violently. Makarov wondered what it was, but he didn't sense any spike of magical power nearby.

"Attention, passengers. Please do not be alarmed. We seem to have technical difficulties. We must stop and make repairs in Kale Town. Please accept our apologies."

The Wizard Saint sighed. It seemed like he had more time to think for himself.

Kale Town, despite being fairly small when compared to a grand city like Magnolia, was actually rather well known throughout Fiore and some nearby countries. It was located around the center mountain range of Fiore, over looking a large amount of the small country itself. Since it was near the Capital of Crocus, it was said that the Royal Family visited risked being away from the safety of their castle just to admire Kale's town famous sunsets and sunrises despite being so remote.

Hmm, perhaps he should have asked Kain and Ignis to drop him off at his destination before he left, it would have saved him some time and money.

Makarov shook his head at the idea and instead decided to do a little sightseeing.

It was morning, and he had heard that Kale Town had some of the best morning sunrises. The man walked out through the streets yet… he felt something off? He saw people going about their business in the city, but why did it look like everyone was watching him and everyone that came out on the train? Or perhaps he was just too paranoid after the battle with Phantom Lord?

Makarov still decided to reach towards Kale Town's famous view point, Horizon Park, a beautiful garden at the end of the cliff that looked out towards Fiore. The view alone attracted many people to this remote location and inspired the place to be built in the first place.

The old man breathed in that fresh mountain air as he saw the breath taking view of the country before him.

"There is something lovely about this place."

There was the sound of rubber hitting the ground that made Makarov look over towards a rubber ball bouncing towards him. He looked to the right and saw a bunch of kids coming his way.

"Hey, mister! Pass the ball back, please?"

Makarov handed the ball easily to the child closest to him. "Here you go."

When the child grabbed the ball, Makarov noticed the boy's face turn into one of fear after said child grabbed on to his sleeve like a life line. "Please, help us!"

"What—?"

"Kannan! Come on, already!" The other kids cried out before the kid with the rubber ball ran back towards his group.

"What was…?" Makarov didn't understand what was going on, but his bad feeling of this beautiful place seemed to have been confirmed.

Makarov was calm enough to know he couldn't just go about asking that child what that meant, or anyone for that matter. That behavior the boy, the one where for one moment that he seemed scared, it almost seemed like he was being watched at all times?

If that was so, did that mean there was some means of everyone being watched? As far as he could tell, he didn't know if there was a difference in camera lacrimas watching them or if they were just normal security systems.

But then again, he hadn't lived as long as 60 years (He's older than what he pretends to be) without picking up a few tricks.

* * *

"Bwahhahaha!" Makarov Dreyar was stupidly drunk in Kale town's bar.

The people around seemed to act normal enough, as in they could stare in confusion as he got plastered and sent the bill to the Magic Council—because screw them, he could still do that.

Everyone around him acted relatively normal.

Then there was the town announcement that everyone heard.

"Hello, Kale Town, we have received word that the train has fixed it's technicalities, and those visiting the town may now make their way back towards the station."

Makarov silently kept drinking his beer as he heard this. However, to his notice, he spotted at least three people walk up to him.

"Excuse me sir, your train is leaving soon. Would you like help in getting back to the station?"

The Wizard Saint may have been close to or was plastered, but he could still tell that these people were subtly trying to get him to leave.

After finishing his drink Makarov simply tried to dismiss the people. "Oh it's fine! I can just take the next train. This place has good booze!" And Cana Alberona knows nothing of this place which was a huge plus.

"But Kale Town is such a remote place, the trains come only every other day. You'd have to wait for two days before you could leave."

Makarov seemed to stop what he was doing when he heard that.

"Hmm, thank you for that." Makarov put down his drink… then promptly slammed face first into the table he was sitting on.

The old man would proudly say that was all part of his plan. No one would ever say they sincerely believed him.

Since Makarov conveniently missed his train, the wizard saint simply decided to rent a room in the local inn and simply sleep there for the night.

At least that's what he made the people around him think. Come the dead of night the Wizard Saint was up and about… also completely sober.

"Ahh," Makarov sighed as he stood atop of a roof top in the windy night with darker clothing. "I haven't done a stealth mission in decades. How nostalgic." He also didn't say anything about him being bad about those types of missions, but he digressed.

It didn't take him long to notice something fishy. There seemed to be a group of tough looking customers walking around the town that he didn't see during the day.

Makarov watched as they went door to door, knocking on each house. It seemed like whoever these people were visiting, asked something off the people they visited. Was it a ransom of some kind?

The 3rd guild master of Fairy Tail had his brow raise when he saw what the tough looking guys were collecting. It wasn't gold, jewelry, or even food. It was books and other written objects.

That was strange. Was Kale town being held up for it's books? But it was a small town, nothing that had a major library or something, so why would some bandits hold a small town for a bunch of books? Speaking of the object filled with written text, this cliffside town might not have had a proper library in the first place.

Makarov did notice that the thugs were collecting the books and brining it to the garden view that looked out to Fiore. It looked like there was an underground passage that was cleverly hidden by a trap door in one of the sidewalks. The thugs were bringing the books down below.

The powerful but small mage was able to shrink his size and follow after the people going in to the trap door.

To his surprise, there was like a large auditorium/storage facility underneath the town. It seemed like it was filled to the brim with books, chemical glass jars, star charts, maps, art, and other intellectually stimulating items.

Makarov had to admit out of all the bandits he's ever fought this group must have the strangest taste he's ever seen.

"Hey! Hurry it up!"

Tiny Makarov looked up to one of the higher catwalks of the underground area and saw someone he recognized Simon Cluarence, an A ranked criminal mage. This man with a red Mohawk and his refusal to wearing anything that wasn't ripped in some fashion was known for eluding even guild mages and the Rune Knights due to his ability of cloning magic.

Wait, that man was a thief that wanted gold and jewelry. Why was he stealing only books? Was he working under someone?

On one hand, he can slowly spy around and see whoever is in charge. On the other hand, maybe he should take out all the lackeys now. There would be less chance of these people escaping during the fight and harming the villagers above them.

The latter option sounded better. He would have to act quickly to mitigate whatever damage this fight would no doubt cause.

Makarov instantly jumped and used magic to turn back to his regular size as he jumped in front of Simon Claurance. Simon screamed in shock as he stepped back, only to be stopped by the catwalk bar.

"I am Makarov Dreyar of Fairy Tail. I suggest you and your men stop whatever you are doing and surrender!" The former master of Fairy Tail said with seriousness.

However, he wasn't expecting Simon to suddenly look… relieved? "Makarov Dreyar?! As in, one of the Wizard Saints!?"

Perhaps not officially anymore, but still, it's not like he didn't have the power of one. "Yes" Makarov nodded before Simon shouted out to everyone below.

"Everyone! We have a real live Wizard Saint here! We're saved!"

Makarov couldn't believe his ears as he heard cries of joys coming from the thugs. As he looked around, he indeed notice some people actually crying and falling to their knees.

That was definitely not the reaction he was expecting. Even the bandits were victims here? "What? Who is making you do this?"

"Not who! It's… it's..." Makarov noticed that Simon was about to answer, but then the cheers were suddenly silenced. Simon could only look at something _behind_ Makarov and there was this look on his face that even horror couldn't fully describe. It was like every ounce of hope the man had was replaced by horrible, horrible despair and futility as he even started to cry as the words died in his throat.

The Wizard Saint's mind was moving a mile per second as he saw those facial expressions. There was someone behind him? But he didn't sense any trace of magic!

"Makarov Dreyar."

The Wizard Saint turned around quickly. As soon as he did, his eyes widened when he realized the presence that had caused this strange circumstance.

"Symphony!" The old wizard saint half gasped as that word escaped his lips. He never saw the fused demon that Team Valiant fought, but the air around the masculine figure before him was similar, but more powerful than that of Lullaby.

"I was not expecting to meet one from the Fairy Tail Guild so soon." His smooth and calming voice made every other person in the auditorium feel a cold chill throughout every fiber of their spine. "But it appears my experiment has ended now. How interesting."

Makarov thought this was bad before, but Symphony's presence here had only dramatically increased how bad this situation really was.

In front of him was someone he never expected to meet now of all times, yet he has heard nothing but dangerous things about the presence of this person.

"What are you doing here, Symphony?"

From Team Valiant's reports, Symphony had powerful physical attributes, along with access to moon based energy which could greatly weaken other forms of magic. Not only that, his brats only beat him because Kain had unlocked the power of the ancient weapon and that he didn't fully understand how his body worked. It had been weeks since Galuna Island, who knows how much he mastered of his new body?!

"I am practicing." The demon with Deliora's old crown as a face began simply. "Ever since I came into contact with Kain, my mind has been opened to possibilities I could never fathom as both Lullaby nor Deliora. Traits like 'subtlety' and 'observation' turned into 'ambition' and 'manipulation'. Besides my powers, I sought out to practice my mind as well."

Symphony tossed his hand out to the many books around him. "I knew that destroying things with reckless abandon meant that sooner I would be found and hunted by things potentially stronger than me. I stole information and studied human society, finding great interest in the craft of criminal underworld organizations, the ability to perform a multitude of actions contrary to the law without anyone knowing. So I picked Kale Town, a remote place even though it's fairy easy to reach. I coerced it's inhabitants, taking advantage of the fact they were partially cut off from the rest of the country, and made them all swear not to alert any outsider to my presence or I would erase them all of the map."

Makarov leered. That was why one of the boys playing here warned him. He didn't really know or care if that boy knew he was a Wizard Saint, he must have been secretly asking people to help this entire time.

"Then came him and his… coterie," Makarov saw Simon scream, fall to the floor into fetal position, and cry uncontrollably at the mention of his existence by Symphony. "They wanted to loot the town after I nestled in. Needless to say, I wanted no attention to this place whatsoever, so I also convinced them to swear loyalty to me and now they, along with this town, gift me with all the books and knowledge they can possibly gather at relative peace."

The Wizard Saint knew 'convinced' was putting it lightly. However, the way Symphony said it was like he truly thought that convincing a rather infamous mage who was definitely not an amateur was a truly simple matter, not like something rather hard for normal or even some powerful mages.

However, another matter started to make the wizard saint start to sweat.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

Symphony's answer was simple. "So you wouldn't notice me preparing to kill you right now." Not even half a second after that was said, purple light surrounded Makarov and Simon.

Up above, the garden lookout exploded as giant wooden spikes busted through the earth.

Back down below, Makarov landed in the floor while carrying Simon with one of his arms. The old man dropped Simon and gasped as he held his shoulder which had a surface cut by the almost instantaneous wood spikes trying to stab him.

"Go!" Makarov barked at Simon. "Get everyone out as fast as you can!" The Wizard Saint said no more as he turned to look at Symphony standing on one of the wooden spikes and looking down on him.

Symphony watched the Wizard Saint as everyone else scurried out like mice being hunted down by a predator.

When it was fairly empty in the underground levels, Sypmhony spoke again. "It is strange. The human concept of pride."

Makarov was not falling for it again as he fired a bolt of light towards the fused demon who only jumped to the right as the spell pierced through the wooden spikes.

"Because of my pride in my newborn power, I lost to your followers." Symphony continued as Makarov summoned flames from his hand and threw a large ball of fire towards the fused demon. In retaliation, Symphony clenched his fist and punched with enough force to create a vacuum that instantly choked the great fires of their oxygen and made them turn to harmless ash. "And I noticed when I was the being Lullaby, you and you stronger allies simply watched as the younger generation fought me. You had faith that they would beat me."

"They did!" Makarov closed the distance between them and landed a heavy punch on the fused demon that slammed him into the wall.

"Defeat? Yes." Symphony jumped out of the wall with ease and created a make shift blade of moon light energy. "However, they didn't have complete victories and that is where the problems lay."

With a spin of the moon blade in his hands, Symphony cut through all other spells that were blasted at him from Makrov as if they were wet tissues. Even though Makarov was firing blasts at a pace that even a S-Class mage would have trouble keeping up, Symphony was even relaxing in his form as his arm was moving so fast it was creating after images of him cutting all attacks coming his way. "As I previously mentioned, when I was Lullaby, you and your stronger allies only watched as your weaker subordinates fought me."

Makarov dove in, trying to punch the demon only for Symphony to dodge the speedy Wizard Saint and kick him into the roof. As he landed, Symphony continued his point. "The fact that none of you deemed me a threat to face yourselves ironically meant that my survival was ensured. I feel that I should express gratitude for that action."

Now that the Wizard Saint thought back, it was foolish of him and his friends to underestimate a demon of Zeref, especially one that had grown so much in such a short amount of time! But staying in the past would not solve the problems of now.

The Wizard Saint got back up as his eyes started to glow. "Then allow me to correct that mistake and ease my children's woes by destroying you right now!"

Makarov was off as his fists were enchanted with glowing light. Symphony dodged the first few strikes, but Makarov suddenly whipped and stretched his leg, which caught the fused demon by surprise. The impact was enough to blast the rune demon out of the underground storage area and into the air above Kale Town.

Symphony recovered and his three eyes gazed over the city. He wordlessly raised both his hands and a large amount of energy started to gather with obvious intent to unleash it on the evacuating town.

The demon felt a large shadow cast behind him as he turned around and saw Makarov had grown to his giant size and attempted to slam both his hands on the demon before he could even try and harm the civilians.

There was a loud **KRACKOOM** as the attack made contact. Yet Makarov started to sweat as he felt his hands being pushed back.

Of all the things to happen next, the Wizard Saint was not expecting Symphony to grow and reach the same size as him. The growth made Makarov take a few steps back and that was when Symphony quickly stomped his foot on the ground hard.

Makarov didn't realize the wooden spikes behind him suddenly expanded and cut the cliff in a manner that made the ground both he and Symphony were standing on to start to slide and fall.

The moment he was thrown off balance, Symphony punched the other giant in the jaw. This forced Makarov to also adapt to his new situation as the garden platform he and Symphony were falling on was sliding down the mountain.

The two started a fist fight as giants while they were both falling down at an increasingly alarming speed. It came to a point where Symphony grabbed and locked both of Makarov's arms and suddenly four more hands, two from each side and both made of wood, shot out of Symphony's back and attempted to dent his head inward.

Yet in that same instant, Makarov vanished and it took a Symphony a millisecond to notice that Makarov had shrunk to avoid all his fists and was charging an attack even at the size of a thumb. The Wizard Saint was about to unleash his own powerful blast but to his surprise, Symphony had also vanished. The move surprised Makarov as he quickly tried to spot for any sign of the demon or any disturbance in magical energy he could sense. This time, it was the mage who felt a shadow cast over him.

It wasn't a boulder falling with them, it was Symphony who also shrunk his size!

( _No!? Is he learning my magic the more we fight!?_ ) It wasn't copying magic, there was something unique about the usage of the spell since Symphony was slightly two times his size. Makarov was about to dodge, but around this time, the fallen garden had made contact with the bottom.

If there was anyone nearby or miles away, they would have noticed the explosion at the base of the mountain.

Makarov, now back at his normal size coughed for air as he tried walking out. He got bounced around like a rubber ball when his body hit the ground, but thankfully, he was sturdy and light enough when he crashed that he didn't have any serious injuries.

As the dust settled, Makarov sensed a disturbance and quickly turned to see Sypmhony, now flying in the air. ( _This is bad, I can feel his spells becoming more potent and refined after each use. He must have the same ability as Goldmine did in evolving further inside a fight! I need to kill him now before he becomes a threat to everyone!_ )

Makarov clamped his hands together and started preparing for Fairy Law. The light of that magic shouldn't be affected or disrupted by even moon energy and demons were very vulnerable to light energy.

The Wizard Saint would do his best to fend off Symphony until the spell would be pulled… wait… why was Symphony staring at a random direction?

"₪₰ꙊӜ."

It was soon after Makarov found himself bounded by three energy snakes that were colored orange, green, and red. The snakes, after suddenly coiling around Makarov, instantly cut off his magic access. Soon after, all three energy snakes launched themselves and bit his neck. This caused the Wizard Saint to scream in pain before fainting where he stood.

Symphony slowly tilted his head at the stranger who intervened in their fight. "Will you attempt to strike me down too, stranger?"

"No," The figure stepped out, revealing a large, dark brown skinned man carrying a staff with a skull, tattoos all over his body, and white hair that was smooth as a blanket, and a get up like that of a dark mage. "I only came for the one I attacked. You on the other hand are free to go."

Symphony landed on the ground. "So you say, but I can tell there is more you wish to say."

The figure laughed. "It is true. It is not often one gets to witness two Demons of Zeref fusing together to make a force that can rival one of the strongest Wizard Saints who isn't one of the Four Gods of Ishgar. But I am not prepared, nor do I wish to battle with you."

"I see." The Demon turned around, obviously no longer interested in whatever was about to happen. The stranger watched as the demon flew off into the night.

Afterword, the stranger looked to Makarov's downed form and smiled.

"It appears fortune has blessed me with a gift I cannot hope to repay," The man began soft chuckling that soon grew and grew… "Aha…haha! AHAHAAHAHAHAHA!"

Symphony, even though he was traveling further away, could hear the stranger laugh an echoing dark laughter no matter how far he distanced himself.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **There we go. And that finishes like my third filler arc. Just so we're clear, this isn't the light hearted original arc I mentioned a while back. That happens later. I felt like this 'filler' needed to happen because I wanted to show that the consequences of previous arcs are still being felt throughout Fiore and possibly Earthland. After the last Chapter, I didn't want you all to assume that I'm just throwing plot points around all willy-nilly. I thought it was important to prove to you guys that what has happened does have an impact on the world across and not just Fairy Tail is affected.**

 **Unfortunately, it seems like this chapter came out too late as I've already had reviews saying that I have made too many undefeated villains, and they all started in the previous chapter no less. I do admit my folly in making a lot more villains than most people expect. However, I also wanted to express how much world building I really wanted to do: Fairy Tail is a world filled to the brimm with magic that has never been ever truly tapped into or explored everyone nearly has their own headcannon on the deeper roots and history of this world as do I. I wanted to show how expansive the world truly was by exploring more than just one party whenever a fight was involved. I know what I was making, and I understand that there are a lot of plot points I'm creating, but I believe it's reasonable for me to experiment as well. See how well I can really take on such an expansive plot if I hope to one day make my own original work. I'm not going in blind, trust me. I do have plans, I just hope that I can convey them great enough for everyone to enjoy.**

 **For example with this filler arc, I'm sure you all recognize the simple descriptions of the man who interfered with Symphony and Makarov's fight? I have made the mistake of accidentally creating plot points I never got around to making, but I'm learning from them.**

 **With that in mind I hope your day goes well after reading this.**


	25. Chapter 25

One could hear the hasty footsteps made by the boy from another world as he threaded on the wooden floors into Fairy Tail's Guild master office.

Kain sighed as he stopped in front of the door. He silently wished he didn't have to do this- that was some way he could just avoid this all together if he could. Yet that wouldn't solve anything.

It wasn't everyday where opening a door would be considered a very stressful action.

On the place where Makarov used to work, Laxus Dreyar was sitting there with a smile on his face that made it seem like he ruled the world. However, it quickly vanished when he looked towards the door after it was opened and it was soon replaced with a scowl when Kain came in.

"Oh, you're back." The fourth master of Fairy Tail seemed rather uninterested at the reappearance of the boy.

The young boy hesitated for a second, but only for a second as he spoke up. "Master Laxus, are there any leftover paper works from the completion of construction?"

The newly appointed master of Fairy Tail started to fish his drawer and placed a large stack of paper on his desk. "There are some other things as well in here you can get started on."

The brunette impassionately went up and picked up the file of papers.

With that… he politely said thank you and left office.

A scornful frown came up to Laxus' face after he left. "Damn, I can never read that asshole." He turned over to his right where Freed Justine was standing as a pseudo body guard. "I guess that means Fairy Tail's 'strongest' team is back." Even if someone was deaf, they could still notice the sarcastic tone in man's voice as he said that.

The green haired man said mostly nothing before asking, "So what is you intend to do, Master Laxus?"

"… I just think that those guys in Team Valiant should prove themselves."

* * *

… I kept skimming over the papers I was handed over. There was a chance that Laxus didn't care, but if he actually feared the Magic Council's bad side like his grandfather did, he would have filled out the necessary papers that report how many guild members entered and left every month.

While I was looking for this, I found myself heading back into the guild main hall itself. Dear God, this place feels so… alien now.

I mean, back when I first entered, it wasn't my cup of tea to live in such a hectic place, but the tension in the air right now is far more suffocating than the old guild ever was.

I mean, the construction team did a fantastic job, making the guild so much bigger and adding all those newer things, including those new specs I asked Makarov of before he left. It's just too bad that none of us can really enjoy any of the new perks of this place.

The reason why no one has been happy to enjoy the new guild additions such as the backyard pool, the second floor, a new game room along with the basement library is all because of the new members.

No, not Juvia. She's actually alright.

When Laxus was saying that we should get new members, no one expected _him_ to recruit new members. He didn't just do one; he recruited over a hundred new Fairy Tail members. And seeing who they were, I am convinced he only wanted them in for their power.

Pieces started to fall into place as I kept reading the papers. I could only start to grind my teeth in frustration for not seeing that ploy as soon as he said! Dammit!

Laxus is far shrewder than I gave him credit for. Before Phantom Lord attacked, the maximum limit the guild could house members was two hundred. Fairy Tail could only officially house two hundred members unless they petitioned to expand, not like Phantom Lord's country wide reach, but at least creating a new branch in a different city.

The fourth guild master asked everyone to try and add more mages to our guild while at the same time he added as many mages of his choice as he could! This now meant that the guild was now filled with two hundred plus applicants.

And that's where the damn problem comes in.

Because Fairy Tail's original member cap was two hundred, even though we have enough space to house that many and maybe more now with our new guild, the Magic Council will only recognize two hundred mages from the guild officially. If we don't match our original cap, the Magic Council will not hand us any jobs for giving false information on our membership numbers. Which means the guild won't get quest jobs if we don't lower our membership back to two hundred.

In other damn words, Laxus is using the rule of surplus membership to legally kick out mages he doesn't see fitting his new mold for Fairy Tail such as Nab, Vijeeter, and Reedus! He's using the legal loophole to properly kick people out without the wrath of the council or any tabloids for kicking out mages out right!

And that's not the bloody worst part! He broke the limit three days before we arrived. That means that already twenty members of the original members were kicked out by him!

I didn't know them well enough, but to think he got to them when I wasn't here… god damn it! I would give almost anything to have Master Makarov back in power.

"Kain!" I actually heard a whisper coming over from one side of the guild where most of the old members were huddled together.

I still can't believe that the guild was technically split in two. One side, like I said, had most of the old members I still remember from before the Phantom Lord War. However, on the other side, causing a ruckus like we normally would was the group consisting of most of the new guild mages.

According to Macao and Wakaba, they tried to be friendly, but apparently nearly all the new members besides Juvia are all cocky assholes that seem to think they're better than the old members. Great, just what we needed.

Most of all, the 'leader' of that new group, a rather bulky and giant of a man like Laxus' body build with a handsome face, clean, short black hair, and wore a bulky purple with yellow accents armor with a long white cape. This guy seemed to be especially out to get the old members. His name was Kohl Elpton and he was the same dastard that forced Nab and the other two out. I need to do some digging of him later.

Lucy had called me over, along with most of Team Valiant. Practically our half of the guild seemed to be waiting for me to deliver some good news.

I didn't have any.

"I can't believe Laxus is doing this to the guild!" Gray slammed his fist on the table. For once, even Natsu seemed to be in utter agreement with his ice counterpart. "I had a bad feeling he would do something to the guild, but this much? Doesn't he even care what his grandfather did?"

That reminded me when I was going over historic records for old files and I noticed the name Ivan Dreyar. Considering he has the same name as Laxus and Makarov, and how he's no longer in Fairy Tail with how Makarov says nothing about him, I can already piece together that Ivan is Makarov's son and there's some kind of bad blood between them. And with how Laxus sees his own grandfather in contempt… yeah there's some complicated stuff between them.

We were feeling bad already. However, my eyes noticed Erza move fast, summon a sword, and slash towards me—no. She slashed beside me before a table could hit my head.

This made everyone else in our corner of the guild stand up with obvious contempt. Thrown tables were once nothing new here in the guild, but this time there was so much more hostile intent in that one action.

It seemed like the side of the new guild mages were all looking at us like smug bastards.

One of them, Kohl Elpton was laughing hard with a near empty mug of beer in his hands. "Oh whoops, my hand slipped!"

"What is your problem!?" Natsu was the first to shout out with intent ready to fight, but I repeat once more, this time this brawl would not have any shred of empathy in it like all the others before it.

"Ooh my!" My attention was caught by someone else in the opposite side of the guild. It was a clown that said this, white powdered skin, a bright and colorful afro, pure white jester costume, funny bright yellow shoes, but what was different about this clown was the mask he was wearing that was covering his face. It fully covered his face with a laughter face one would see in a theater that was usually paired with a tragedy face.

What irked me most was that he had a black fairy tail symbol placed upside down on the forehead of his mask.

Despite what he wore, his voice tone sounded sincere and sorroful even though it was somewhat filtered because of the mask.. "Elpton, these are our future Guild mates, be kinder to them."

"Shut it, Clown!" Kohl barked before he went back to his drink. "Besides, Fairy Tail is known for their daily friendly brawls."

"I ain't your friend!" Natsu lit his fist on fire. "And what you did was different! Kain didn't even do anything to you guys!" The young man from another dimension didn't have the heart to tell the flame mage that they truly have started fights for even lesser and pettier things.

"He is a fraud." I turned my head towards the other new voice who said that. When I saw who was speaking, I raised brow considerably. It was someone wearing attire that looked like a nun which surprised me somewhat. I was very, very sure nuns were not supposed to have cuts on the front of their dress that showed of her leg thighs—also why the hell is nearly everyone I meet in this damn world have super model bodies? It's either one is too beautiful or too ugly! Only the civilians look darn plain! "It is sinful to associate with those unworthy!" The blonde, crazy nun with orange colored irises cried out.

Ah wait a second. I'm in an anime. Sense doesn't matter here even if I wish it did.

"Hey!" To my surprise, Macao was the one to speak up this time. "It doesn't matter if he has magic or not, he's an important part of Fairy Tail!"

It seemed like that alone was enough to prompt an actual fight between all the guild members and this time I had the feeling.

"Enough!" A loud voice obviously amplified by magic stopped everyone before it could begin. Everyone followed the voice to see Laxus and the infamous Thunder Legion I've heard about standing on the second floor looking down an all of us.

"There will be no more fighting! It was annoying that it kept happening almost every other day." The fourth Master of Fairy Tail began before I saw him smile in a way that reminded me of when he began telling us we needed more members—and that debacle only became worse over time.

"Now with nearly everyone here, I'd like to make another announcement. I have received word that Fairy Tail is over crowded in membership." Oh no, what's he up to now? "As such, I feel like there needs to be more of a change. Fairy Tail is known to be the strongest Guild in all of Fiore and I am to make sure we stay that way. As such, as guild master, I have a new rule for every mage in this guild. Every month, you must make 1 million Jewels total from all your jobs or else you'll be kicked out!"

My eyes widened as some people from our side started crying out. "That's not fair!" And "You can't do that!"

However, I knew that he could instill that new rule as active guild master. There was something more, while our side was complaining, the batch of newcomers that Laxus recruited bee-lined for the quest jobs. The original side stopped complaining for a second before realizing the entire bulletin board was completely empty for once.

"Well would you look at that? The board is already clear. It seems you all need to hurry it up and at least make a million Jewels." Laxus looked down towards our group with a sneer before he laughed and left the area.

"What!? I can't believe he's doing that!?" Many of the remaining people on our side started to panic. Some even turned to me and desperately asked if Laxus wasn't allowed to do that.

He could. But that didn't mean that I could try to talk him out of this.

"Erza," I began before looking to her. "Technically speaking, none of those other people can access S-Class quests. Those quests alone are at least 3 million Berry which means you can only bring like four people with you for you to exempt them from the rule."

The S-class mage looked worried, even if they could take those quests still, S-class quests were still super dangerous. Yet there was one more horrible thing that still needed to be addressed. "But what about everyone else?"

I looked towards everyone else, as they all looked at me for some levels of hope. "Thankfully, there's a second job request found in the town center. Those are more local than national, but for now those should give some income. You guys should head there before the other get smart."

At my words, most of Fairy Tail in our side left the guild in a hurry, leaving me with Team Valiant and Juvia.

"Juvia, sorry you joined the guild at a bad time. I'm glad I told you to send you paper to the council directly than Laxus." I spoke to the water woman wearing a new get up than before.

"Thank you for telling me that tip in the first place. I didn't realize that the current ownership of Fairy Tail would be so… tumultuous."

"It's a work in progress," I dearly hoped. "You guys should be careful though, despite being an S-Class quest, it is going to take you guys some time. You should head out soon."

"What about you?" Lucy looked at me with concern as with Happy.

"Me? I'm going to try and get Laxus to stop this. But before I can talk to him, there are things I need to prepare. You guys need to go though."

Erza placed a hand on my shoulder with obvious concern. "Be careful, Kain."

"You too, guys." And then they all left towards the second floor, leaving me practically alone in the guild main hall. There was this sense of wrongness now that the guild was emptied and silenced during the day time.

I sighed and went towards my room. There was paper work to do.

* * *

It was only two days later when I finally decided to go after doing some more paper work.

Unfortunately for me, my second trip there was more suspenseful than before due to the fact both Evergreen and Bickslow of the Thunder Legion were waiting nearby the master's office door.

The one wearing a full mask started to chuckle. "If it isn't the civilian with our stamp." Soon his 'babies' started mocking me and echoing their 'dad' as well, but I didn't really care for that. I filtered out what Evergreen was about to add in as well as I opened the door.

"Laxus!" I cried out before looking at the blonde man in charge of Fairy Tail. "What are you doing!? You're forcing the guild further apart by making everyone race for the quests!"

It was sometimes easy to forget how giant Laxus was in compared to me and I was just barely taller than Lucy in Team Valiant.

"So this is what finally gets under your skin huh? A bit of a late reaction though." Laxus had this smile on his face that really made my blood boil.

"Why are you doing this Laxus? Even if you didn't like the members of this guild, what you're doing is too much! You're practically torturing them!"

I probably would have been afraid to make the grandson of a Wizard Saint angry enough to obliterate me where I stood, I probably should have been afraid when Laxus had this annoyed look on his face that only grew into anger the more I talked. And I could have been down right terrified when he stood up and glared at me as if I was an enemy for talking nothing but the truth.

But I wasn't. I became a lawyer because I wanted to help people. I was aware of the paradox considering some jokes about being a lawyer, but I meant what I said in trying to fight for the underdog. And right now? Those were my friends in this guild.

Looking back at that moment, I think I would be proud at how I still kept my composure even as Laxus was starting to cackle with actual electricity. "So!? This guild was rightfully mine from the get go! It was co-founded by my great grandfather, my grand father led this guild, and now I do! This guild was once the greatest guild in all of Fiore, but we've let weaklings into our ranks because the old man got soft! Phantom Lord wouldn't have even dared challenge us if we were the old Fairy Tail!"

"Big talk from the group that didn't even participate in that battle! Even Mystogan fought for us!"

Okay, pissing off Laxus was one thing, pissing off him and the Thunder Legion while they were right there might have finally scared me enough back into some of my sanity again. Especially how I felt all three of them close in around me almost giving me no chance of escaping.

It was a surprise all three of them didn't cut me down where I stood since I was definitely only battle ready with the armor on. Yet the look on their faces couldn't match that of Laxus. The current guild master had this look that made the word 'livid' look weak.

"Looks like the magic less loser thinks he has the right to talk down to his superiors! That's definitely going to change in this guild!" In another flash of lightning, he stood towering above me. Again, just like before, there was this thought in the back of my head that recognized he could turn me to ash before I could even reach for my morpher. Yet at the same time, there was something in his eyes. I couldn't understand it, but there was just something my gut kept telling me that there was more to this on the surface.

"My grandfather disgraced this guild brining weaklings like you into it!" There was this dark look on Laxus' face as he said these next few words. "You're fired! Get out of this guild!" Before I could even react, I felt a light on the stamp I was given and I saw it vanish from the back of my left palm.

Now that it was gone, my hand felt naked being back to normal. I guess I grew attached to it as time went on. I was somewhat ticked it was removed so easily like the others, but I know that exploding in anger right now would be one of the worst things for everyone involved, not when Makarov asked me one last thing of him before we finished the papers.

I turned, started walking towards the room I was borrowing before I stopped at the door. Ignoring the looks the Thunder Legion was giving, I turned back to Laxus with a defiant look. "Makarov has never given up hope on you, Laxus. You really shouldn't have given up on him."

And before I could even blink, there was a fist coated in electricity a few inches near my face that looked like it was barely stopped from blowing my head off where I stood.

Laxus was practically snarling at me as his own mouth and face was twitching with almost uncontrollable rage that could rival that of Natsu's. Yet Laxus depowered his arm but kept his fist clenched—

Things went black as I felt my jaw go numb. It took me a second to realize I was punched into the wall by Laxus. And boy did that hurt!

It was then that I felt my collar being picked up. I noticed my blurry vision register someone who I thought was Laxus, but then my brain sent my somewhat numb and pained body signals that I was slammed into the same slightly broken wall—did he still hold back even with a normal punch?

"The only reason why I didn't kill you outright was because that would reflect poorly as guild master and that blood would be impossible to remove on wooden floors!" Brain still turning a bit. But I feel like I heard most of what he had said. "Listen here, smartass, this is all my grandfather's fault in the first place! Taking in anyone he thought and not any of the strong mages! People like you shouldn't even be here!"

Despite my consciousness seeming to struggle to stay together from just one held back punch, my subconscious took over my brain. That was not a good thing since one of my default defenses were…

"You do realize that I'm a lawyer!? Not a freaking mage!? Just because I've helped others in their jobs doesn't mean I even get some of the money they earn on quests! I handle paperwork in this fool-damned place!" At this point, I'm actually impressed that even when I'm in horrible pain, I can never stop complaining like a bitch. I wonder if there's some magic that can still get me to be an asshole after I die just to spite all my friends here?

Yet despite all those complaints, something else popped up. "What is it with you anyway?! Why do you hate weakling so much?! As a kid you were—"

My brain had healed enough only to recognize my entire body being thrown back on the floor like a Christmas present that a child abhorred.

"Don't." That one word was spoken with such anger that even the Thunder Legion seemed to be panicking at the air around their master. "… finish that sentence."

I probably would have been more afraid if I didn't cough a few times away from him and gasp for some air. Was I hit again without notice? My lungs feel like they're contracting.

However, being the glutton of punishment I so clearly was, I ended up struggling back to stand back up then looked back at Laxus not with fear, but with just pity. It must have irked him to no end that someone so powerless couldn't be broken or intimidated by someone like him.

I turned around and started walking back to my room. Even though I was beaten up, I didn't feel like I just lost a fight. I only felt like this was only the beginning.

{What the young Kain Reynolds did not know, what the Thunder Legion, and Laxus did not know, was that there was someone watching this entire conversation, hidden and undetected despite the group of powerful mages. No one could see an elated smile forming slowly on this person's face as it ended.}

* * *

"Laxus shouldn't be doing this!" Mirajane cried out as I brought what little things I had out of the room. It was a good thing I was starting to plan to get another apartment like Lucy. I didn't really keep any personal stuff within the guild guest room, but it was still a bit sad to leave against my wishes.

"Mira, I appreciate it. But Laxus is the guild master."

"I don't recognize him as one! He's acting like a tyrant!" Mirajane looked like she was going to start to cry as she clenched her fists.

"I still believe in him." I blurted out to the surprise of her, Momon, and Éclair. All the other mages were scrambling to find jobs of some kind and Team Valiant was currently taking an S-Class quest, so it was just as four.

"Kain, he seems like the bad kind of mage." Éclair warned me. "How could you say something like that?"

"Simple. Makarov still believes in him, and he asked me to do the same, so I will." And even though he's doing al these bad things, I can't help but feel something is off about all of this, but I can't put my finger on it.

Mirajane sighed. "Master was too kind sometimes. It's going to take more than faith to change things as is, maybe even a miracle."

"It won't be all bad." I began speaking. "Even though I'm fired, I still will be in Magnolia. I'll be staying over at the inn for a few days and get to work on another legal job. If anyone needs me, just tell them where I am alright?"

"You shouldn't be leaving in the first place." The beautiful silver haired girl said that with bitterness.

I took that as a cue to give a friendly hug towards the girl. "I'll see you all soon."

...

Even though I did say goodbye, my mind was constantly at Fairy Tail. The more I think about it, I might have gotten out easy. I could only imagine how the others would fair now that even I was gone.

It didn't bode well for me honestly.

"Kain Reynolds."

I stopped walking the path and looked around. Everyone was walking around me and seemingly minding their own business. Who was it that just called out to me?

"Kain!"

I heard another voice as I looked to my right. My brows rose as I noticed Nab with some of the old guildmates hiding behind an alleyway. I did my best to seem not suspicious as possible as I went into the alley way with them inside.

Nab smiled at me and I admit it was a sight for sore eyes for a bad morning. "What are you doing here? And you guys? You're still in Magnolia?"

"I asked them to stay. I asked them all to stay."

That wasn't Nab. I noticed the small group of Fairy Tail mages made way for the one who spoke up. My eyes widened.

"Kain, in order to save Fairy Tail, we need your help."

Mystogan, the usually silent and mysterious S-Class mage of Fairy Tail was collecting all the kicked out members.

* * *

Laxus was looking over some of the paperwork left behind by the lawyer he recently fired. "Damn, mages were one thing, but it's different altogether when I fire a civilian."

At this moment, Freed walked in with a pace that spoke that something as amiss. "Laxus, someone from the Magic Council is here."

That automatically caught the Guildmaster's attention as he stood up and one of those frog messengers had calmly walked into the room. This one seemed older as his eyes were squinted and had grown a beard.

"Ribbit!" The old frog's cheeks expanded for a second before he spoke. "Hello Guildmaster, I do hope I did not catch you at a bad time."

Laxus gave his best charade of being polite. He did not want to mess with the Magic Council like his granfather. He may have disagreed with a lot of his methods, but they could both agree that the Magic Council breathing down your neck was a horrible experience. "We're always welcoming to a Magic Council messenger. what do we owe this visit?"

"Ribbit! I am here because your guild signed up for the survey of total gross income of all legal guilds in Fiore." The old frog explained.

Laxus raised his brow. "We signed up for a survey?"

"Ribbit! Indeed, your name was on the list. Now I'm just here to give the formal rules and all that, there's nothing to really worry. Our statistic experts are just going to watch how much income a large amount of guilds make and compare it all together for future economic studies. You need to do nothing else but follow a few simple rules for a month."

Laxus was confused, but it seemed like there was nothing more than just that.

"For a month, we will be observing your Guild's income. Your measuring period starts today and ends the day before your Fantasia Parade at the end of the Harvest Festival. Is this alright? Ribbit!"

Laxus saw nothing really wrong with this. In fact this was great! Because of how he made a rule that his members would have to make a million jewels in one month, it would prove that his would be high class guild as it should be!

"Sure, though it's not our fault that we're going to be one of the higher percentiles." And with that Laxus sat back down on his desk, feeling good about himself.

"Very well. Ribbit! I will go then," The old frog started to walk out and Freed stepped out of his way. However, the amphibian seemed to recall something and turned around. "Ah wait! Silly me. Ribbit! I forgot to tell you some of the rules. It's all very commonsense really. Just make sure that your mages record how much they earned, including bonuses they may receive, and during this period of study you may not add or fire new guild members, and you can ask for more requests from the council or even third party groups as long as it meets with the parameters of legal code."

At this point, one could hear the sound of a record scratching in Laxus' mind. "I'm sorry, sir, please repeat that?"

"Ribbit! Oh, it's a new rule since a few years back there were some guilds that didn't receive their jobs by a technicality, and we decided..."

"No, No, No," Laxus stood up and gave the old frog a questioning look. "The one rule before that?"

"Oh? Isn't that obvious? Being a part of the Economic Survey freezes the ability of guild masters firing or adding new members temporarily. If the mages themselves quit, they may, but as to not tamper with the numbers too much, guild masters momentarily lose their ability to choose who they want to kick out or add, even if they violate some of the guild's rules."

"WHAT!?" You have no idea how much restraint it took for the powerful S-Class mage to slam/crush his desk with all the power from the surprise of such a rule. But he did stand up as if he had just heard something unbelievably horrifying.

"It's not a very good rule is it? Though no one has ever had a problem with it before now, so we never really needed to change it. Ribbit. Unfortunately, it would take money to remove it as well, so we simply ignored it." The old frog stroke his beard. "I'm sure you can go at least one month without kicking out members, can you? Otherwise, there's this whole nasty business if a guild does firing or add new members during the period that involves freezing the assets of said guild and such."

Laxus didn't know about that rule! If he didn't he wouldn't have signed Fairy Tail for that…

… Wait a damn second.

He didn't sign them up for this.

And the only one in the guild who knows about legal loopholes like this is...

…

The blonde S-Class mage eyes widened to the point where it was trembling uncontrollably and veins were starting to bulge. With even more restrained anger, he gasped out three words.

"That fucking brat!"

Kain had bought Fairy Tail one month. Unfortunately for him, that time proved to also be dangerous for reasons he couldn't even begin to predict.

* * *

{Author Notes}

I don't really have much to say for today other than this Arc might be different from the usual ones and it's going to be a weird experience for me and maybe you, so I do hope you enjoy yourselves and this story finds you well. Have a good day.


	26. Chapter 26

Warriors and paperwork have never and will never mix. Laxus Dreyar was learning this more than other people. As much as he hated the damn brat who slowed down his ability to kick out whoever he wanted, he was starting to see why his grandfather practically begged the kid to work for them. This stuff was a damn nightmare, and it seemed like that kid knew what he was doing to make it stop, or lessen the paper work greatly.

Maybe he could hire a new lawyer. Wait, who the hell actually did take up his grandfather's pile of paper work besides that brat? All the lawyers in the area expressed never wanting to work here and out of town ones were way too expensive.

Damn it, no wonder that brat was the only lawyer for this guild.

"Master Laxus," Freed came in through the door. "We have another complaint."

The blonde S-Class mage couldn't help how his snarl sounded dangerous. "Who is it this time!?"

Even the usually loyal Freed seemed surprised at the tone of Laxus. The blonde noticed how he snapped and put a hand on his head. He had found his temper easily riled up for the past weeks ever since Kain was fired. It must have been all this damn paper work and all those damn formalities.

The strongest of the Thunder Legion cleared his throat before speaking as if that didn't just happen. "This time it was Cana Alberona. Since we limited her binge drinking here, she's been drinking other city bars past their limits and forced a few last calls when the sun was still up."

"I'll deal with her after the festival." There was another frown on Laxus' face as he said this. "Just put it with the rest."

Freed did so and left the room while Laxus scratched his neck. However, the S-Class mage was so focused on the paper he was reading that he didn't notice something strange.

The paper had a few letters stand upright from the very text of the sheet. These few letters, A, N, N, O, Y, E, and D all moved like children, tumbling or hopping along without Laxus noticing and they all jumped together right into the muscular man's arm, forming a specific word of "Annoyed" before vanishing into his skin.

He wouldn't know that these secret events will be going on for the next four weeks.

* * *

"I'm gonna kick Laxus' ass for that!" The raw anger that flowed out of Natsu was both hard to ignore and understandable. Perhaps it was a good thing that most of Team Valiant was currently in the air, ridding on Ignis' back as they were en route to their destination, and thinking more, it was also a blessing that Mirajane's message reached them while still air bound.

All the more reason to suppress it. "Natsu, no." Erza gave one of her famous stares towards the Dragon Slayer. Despite how much he wanted to, the pink haired mage relented though he wasn't going to be happy about it.

"But he kicked out Kain! We can't let him get away with this!"

"I know!" That surprised Natsu that Erza actually agreed with him for once. It was more surprising for everyone else to see her clenching her fist and trembling. "I know… but Laxus is now master of this guild, and we must follow his orders as part of Fairy Tail."

Team Valiant was silent after their leader said that.

Seeing her once lively and powerful friends look so defeated sparked a look of defiance on Lucy's face. "No! Kain bought us all time! A month before the Fantasia Parade! There has to be something we can do!"

"But what can we do? Kain was the one who was an expert at legal stuff and such?" Happy raised his paw out as he asked this.

"Kain was kicked out, maybe he can still help out! We have to do something to stop Laxus from treating our friends like dirt!"

"I'm with Lucy on this one! Anything's better than just standing here and letting Laxus do whatever he wants with our guild!" Natsu was quick to jump to Lucy's side.

Seeing their spirits rise made even Erza feel confident. She owed Fairy Tail her life, but Laxus was turning the guild into something else than the place that practically saved her. "You are right. But we need to be subtle about it. Kain tried a direct confrontation and look how he turned up."

Gray folded his arms. "So what's our next move?"

"For now, we finish this S-Class mission: clearing up strange beasts overrunning the canyon near Clover City."

"Clover City huh? Wasn't that where we fought Lullaby? Man, I can't believe that was like only a few months back." Gray commented as he looked down at the train tracks they were flying over.

"Huh," Lucy brought up a map to where the canyon was said to be. "Looking at this map, it was the direction Happy tried to point us to until Kain vehemently recalled where we came form."

"I would have brought us home! Kain was being a jerk!" Happy huffed and folded his arms.

Lucy then leered towards the cat. "He was right though."

"I was too!"

"He said you pointed in the opposite direction, and he was right! In fact, I also recall after the Everlue mission, Kain actually new more about the landscape back to Fairy Tail than you did! And he said he was form another world!"

"He cheated and used a map!"

"How is using a map cheating!?"

The argument between the blonde, celestial mage and a talking cat was amusing to everyone involved. It was nice to fall back into this type of banter when back at the guild it was severely lacking.

For now, Team Valiant's mission would be easier than one would expect. It seemed like their luck may have finally changed somewhat after all their hard fought battles.

* * *

"Man can our luck get any worse?" Macao spoke out as the first thing he noticed was one side of the guild empty, along with all the quest jobs.

"Some of the local jobs aren't paying as much as they could. And it's getting harder to get jewels." Wakaba added in with a sigh along with his best friend.

"Gah! We need proper quest jobs!"

As soon as Macao said this, to the surprise of the two men, and even some of the other Original Members around them, around a dozen paper airplanes started flying towards them, unfolded mid air, and landed right in front of their table, all revealing that they were job requests that Elpton had stolen.

Everyone was silent and followed the sight of where the paper airplanes came from.

To many's surprise, they wondered how they missed the white clown in an empty part of the guild hall that was just making his way out.

…

The days continued like that. When Elpton's group was long gone with stolen missions, a little later Paper Airplanes would fly and unfold themselves into the desks of the members of the Old Fairy Tail, giving them a proper chance to get good jobs again. And each time, even if they prepared for it, they could only catch the white clown leaving through the open doors of the guild.

It may not be the best, but it was something. Macao Conbolt felt like there should be more. So during that period, one of those times, the older fire mage was paying special attention towards the door.

When he heard the sound of his friends being surprised at the paper air planes, the fire mage stayed true to part of his last name and bolted out of his seat towards the clown walking away.

"Hey!" Macao ran up towards the white clown who only turned at him in silence.

"Thanks for giving us back some of those quests. It really helped us out."

The masked mage only nodded once before trying to walk away again. Macao, wanting more than just that reaction, spoke out again. "You're a lot better than all those jerks."

Not a lot of people can say they made a clown laugh. But the way the clown was laughing at Macao's comment seemed to be more sad than funny. "Trust me when I say that I am far worse than all of them put together."

"What! No way!" The older fire dismissed the comment. "You helped us out when you could have taken those jobs instead. That's a pretty good thing in my book!"

Macao really couldn't get a read on the clown's face with that eerie smiling mask he always kept on. His body language was also very controlled, not even a slight twitch or anything. "Simply because you see someone do good deeds doesn't make them a good person."

"Well, regardless, thanks. We appreciate it a lot." Macao noted that for once there was a pause on the white clown after hearing that. He then decided to ask, "I'm Macao Conbolt, what's your name?"

"… It's Kero Pierre, I mostly go by Pierre." The clown gave out after a pause. "Goodbye then."

With that, the clown started to move. However, Macao did notice that he was walking at a much slower pace than before.

* * *

The next day, no air planes came down. Instead, Pierre walked up to a table and just put the fliers down.

"Hey come on, Pierre, stay with us!" Macao called out before looking towards the others.

"Yeah! You're alright on our book!" Wakaba also exclaimed and was soon followed by a large majority of people in the guild. It was obvious Macao started talking to them about him.

Soon, they were able to get Pierre to stay with them and start talking about certain things. However, Pierre was adamant to keep the mask on no matter what.

For now though, their mysterious friend seemed to be on their side.

No one but Pierre felt a pair of eyes boring into his skull from somewhere in the guild.

…

A little later, when the clown was all alone and walking in the dead of night, he stopped and turned into an alleyway not unlike how Kain did earlier some time ago.

"So?" A voice called out from the darkness.

The clown said nothing before speaking, "The one known as Macao Conbolt is a fire color mage with slightly above mediocre skills and magic. He has boasted on besting a zombified version of the famous cartographer/explorer of Bison Gomez, though it is more than likely that is the only feat he can express."

Pierre went on, listing more and more about the Fairy Tail mages, their names, their magic, and odd quirks they had.

If someone was there, they would have wondered why the white dressed clown was speaking to darkness, what they wouldn't notice were a bunch of mages hidden in the shadows, listening intently to every word the clown spoke behind his mask.

"Is that all?" The first voice asked.

"For now, I don't have any clear weaknesses other than the magic counters I suggested."

Out of the shadows, Elpton stepped out and pushed the smaller clown into the ground. "You idiot! You were supposed to get their weaknesses!"

The clown silently got up and noticed a pair of glowing red eyes. "You get one more try. Get us those proper weaknesses, or else." After saying that threat, the figures in the shadow vanished.

The white clown was simply silent and stood back up to clean himself and walk away. One could start to figure out why he always wore a mask if his 'allies' were like that.

From above the rooftops, someone silently watched that event unfold, still watching even from earlier that day.

* * *

One could suppose that compared to before, things were looking up.

"Here you go, miss, enjoy your meal." And with a smile on his face and positive, almost sing-song voice, Kain Reynolds left the booth and hurried back towards the counter where a man was waiting in front of the cash register. "Are you ready to pay sir?"

The man nodded and brought out some jewels as he did, the young man heard the sound of the bell and noticed a tray of meals being placed on the counter between the dinning area and the kitchen. After seeing that, the boy went back to the cash register. "That will be… 27.45 total."

The man raised his brow as he heard another bell ring and saw another tray put down by the cook. He looked around the restaurant he ate, the food was great, but so far, he had only seen… "Hey, kid, are you the only waiter here?"

"So far? Yes. But not to worry, I can take strenuous tasks," Kain thought back to battling demons and how this by far was easier than all those crazy battles.

"Seems kinda dumb to have a grand opening with only one waiter and a cook."

"The cook is a mage. It helps a lot, and while I don't have magic, there are a few tools of the trade I can use that make this job much easier." Kain briefly glanced at his morpher and for good measure, fidgeted his feet that had his magic enhanced shoes that he still kept around. "Still, the boss sounded pretty determined to open this up as it was his dream job some time ago."

The man nodded before leaving a small tip for the waiter. "Here, I know what it was like working tables when I was your age."

Kain gave a warm smile, "Thank you sir, come again!" And with the transaction finished, the young man quickly got to work on the cued up trays.

There was a bell on the door that made Kain, who was holding two trays on his arms and balancing one on his head, turn around.

"Welcome to 8-Island, home of exotic and home made meal specials! Please give me a minute before I seat your..." The smiled slowly died as Kain realized he was looking at Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Erza, and Gray all walking through the door.

The pink haired dragon slayer seemed to brighten up and lift up a hand. "Yo, Kain!"

A much more genuine smile appeared on Kain's face that replaced his work smile when seeing his friends of this world. "Gimme a sec guys, And I'll be right back."

* * *

It took a while before the lunch rush died down and Kain was free enough to meet with his friends.

"So Hargeon huh?" Erza began as the boy came to sit down on the large booth he gave them.

"It's a nice place, and it's not too far considering the train ride is thirty minutes at best from Magnolia." Kain raised his brow when he notice Natsu lurch at the mention of a train. "I actually found a pretty cheap apartment near the bay, it smells bad, but it's quaint." The lack of magic in this town was also a plus, less chance of something coming up and bothering him.

"Ahh this place brings back memories. It's where I first met Natsu, Kain, and Happy," Lucy sighed before her face seemed to lurch, a sign that a rather unpleasant memory came back up. "It was also where I met that jerk, Bora."

The other three Lucy mentioned thought back to that guy, and all the other events that transpired.

"Natsu and Kain dressed like women!" Happy was quick to point that out, just as quick as Kain's retaliation.

"And you were barfed on by Natsu." The way Kain said that with such monotone, but with the smallest glints of smugness, made Happy be the first to lose his cool.

"That was all your fault! Why did you hand me over to him!?"  
"Don't feel so bad, you were the second person he barfed on that night."  
"He did what?"

"Oi! Don't talk about that!"

As soon as Erza asked about it, Natsu immediately tried to change the subject. It's too bad Gray seemed determined to milk whatever embarrassing story he could out of his magical counterpart.

It was fun really, all of them talking and enjoying themselves, but after a while, Kain felt like he needed to address the elephant in the room.

"So guys, lay it to me straight, how bad is it?"

Lucy was the one to speak up. "Horrible. Laxus group has been vicious. Elpton has some kind of speed magic and he keeps stealing whatever high paying job from the others, and Laxus has turned a blind eye to that harassment."

On one hand, he half expected that, on the other Kain was a little surprised that Laxus was still allowing those other mages to bully the first ones. "I thought I made it so that Laxus couldn't kick you guys out for not meeting the quota he made?"

"As brilliant as your plan was Kain," Erza spoke out. "You only prevented us from getting kicked out by Laxus temporarily. It seems like he's doing his best to make everyone miserable. Some have already quit because of it."

Kain sighed as he placed two fingers on the bridge of his nose. "So basically, he is now practically harassing everyone to the point where they want to quit. I thought I actually got him with the Survey Inclusion."

Gray was quick to speak. "Don't be hard on yourself, you're one of the people left who can still stop the guy. Laxus and his new mages out number us. If we make a complaint of any kind, no one would believe us because the other half of the guild would say against that. The only chance we have of getting the guild back to normal now is a legal battle, and you're the best one we've got."

"I'm afraid it's not a simple as a court case." To Team Vailant's surprise, Yajima, former Magic Council Member, current owner of the restaurant, 8-Island, and Fairy Tail Alumni was the one talking and walking up to them. "Legal wise, Guilds are technically miniature kingdoms or states. The Magic Council supervises guilds around Fiore and less around Ishgar, but the rules are written in a way that as long they uphold the standard codes, such as no accepting of assassination jobs and such, legal guilds are free to operate how they wish. I've talked to Kain about this, he wants to help, but by official standards, Laxus has obviously done his homework enough that it's not possible to get him kicked out of the guild unless he does something public and scandalous."

The ones still in Fairy Tail seemed to feel bad hearing that from another person who obviously knew their way around the political machinations of the Magic Council.

"This sucks!" Natsu gripped his fist so hard it was trembling. "Everyone is so miserable, it's not even home anymore!"

Kain, for the briefest seconds, twitched. There was so much he wanted to say, so much he wanted to tell them. But thankfully, everyone was too distracted to notice that twitch as nothing as more than Kain sitting into his seat.

"Then let me pay for your meals. It's the least I can do for you guys for now."

There was so much the boy wanted to say…

* * *

"Whoa, whoa!" some days ago, Kain shook his head in disbelief at what he was hearing.

Mystogan raised his hand as if to explain his point. "It's true. I may not have solid proof, but there is a strong possibility of criminals and dark mages hiding among the people recruited by Laxus."

"Huh? No, I had a feeling they were," Wait he did? But everyone else was a little confused as to why Kain was now looking flushed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, it's just… I never properly heard your voice before now so I was really caught off guard. It's like as cool as I imagined it."

If one was a very trained person, they would have noticed Mystogan twitch in surprise for the faintest of seconds before freezing in bewilderment in how to answer such a left field comment. ( _That's what surprises him!? My voice!?_ )

"Actually, now that he says it, Mystogan does sound super cool..." The S-Class mage actually glanced around as some of the old Fairy Tail members did look at him with equal amounts of awe and agreement. Some females even commented that behind the mask that he must be some kind of hunk.

Thankfully, the mask hid the fact his cheeks were turning pink from everyone else. "Can we please focus back on topic?"

"Ah, right. Sorry." The Lawyer agreed before inhaling deeply and calming himself down. "But yes, what bothered me was the fact I could barely find any info on the newcomers that Laxus brought in. I know we practically let people in if they asked, but no matter how much I could look up, I couldn't find much on some notable members of Laxus' pick."

"I have a little more luck in my investigations." Mystogan's eyes narrowed. "However, the information speaks for itself when a majority of my leads end up already long dead."

Kain noted how everyone else seemed disturbed. But already relaxed from him implying the obvious. Perhaps he already told them up front?

"So what is your plan? I'm no longer a part of Fairy Tail as long as Laxus is currently in that mind set."

"Of all the dead ends, some literal, some figurative, or even both, there is a common denominator among them all: Jewels. Wether stolen, blackmailed, or swindled, most of my leads lost money of some kind, all of them in large amounts. I'm willing to bet they're planning something during the Fantasia Parade."

The boy from another universe sighed. He had heard nothing but fun and amazing thing about the festival. A shame that his very first one might already be threatened by the scum of humanity.

Mystogan continued. "It's a simple plan, everyone is on standby in case they make their move. But we cannot tell those still inside about this, we don't want to tip their hand and force them to do something drastic if they are found out. Until then, we must remain vigilant." The masked mage turned towards the displaced boy. "Kain, more than likely, Team Valiant will continue visiting you even after they find out about your recent actions. Keep asking about the state of the guild and pay close attention to what the actions of the others are doing."

Kain could keep secrets, it's just he always felt bad about them if they involved friends over strangers.

* * *

After a bit, and with meeting Ignis who brought them to Hargeon, Kain had to say goodbye to Team Valiant as they left. The Harvest Festival was ending, so hopefully they would see him again in the Fantasia Parade—one of the few things the original members can still positively be excited to do.

As they left, there was a glow coming from Kain's side pocket. Instead of acknowledging it, the young man went to a hidden corner in the alleyway of Yajima's restaurant and opened it up when he was sure he was in the clear.

The young man brought out a base-ball sized crystal orb that started to glow faintly. "Kain?"

"Yes, Mystogan?"

* * *

Days passed. Eventually even Macao eased up to Pierre so much that he invited him for a job to take down some bandits. The job was fairly easy in that there was a group of thieves on top of a mountain that was harassing a town some distance away. All it took was the two to handle the crooks and their leader and send them packing and making sure that they would stay unconscious and trapped until the authorities came for them.

While going down the mountain, "Man, kid, you've got some moves!" The older fire mage complimented as the two walked down towards the town they came from. "I don't think I even saw your magic!"

"You did," Pierre returned in a lighter tone than when they had first met. "My magic is more subtle than most."

"Subtle battle magic? I have never heard of that before." Macao rubbed his chin. "What is it specifically anyway?"

"It's the same as McGarden, Script Magic. Although I put my own personal style in it."

Macao thought back to the small blue haired team leader of Shadow Gear. Her magic was summoning words that summoned the same elements as the words to attack. Pierre was using Script Magic that entire fight? But all he did was jump around and punch and kick those lackeys. Wait, their boss seemed a bit weird after Pierre simply touched the guy, he seemed afraid of something to the point of huddling into a dark corner and crying there. It was… unsettling, but it made the quest so much easier.

"I've never seen or heard of Script Magic used like yours."

The clown swung his hand behind his back and tilted his mask up towards the sky. "I simply apply a bit of science in magic and tend to experiment with things beyond that of the text in written books. To me, my magic is different because I realize that certain parts of each build up of a spell can be used interchangeably. If you know your own magic well enough, it's not hard to figure out how to create your own magic."

"Wow that sounds super smart! Creating your own spells from pieces of what you already know? Sounds like those toy building blocks my kid plays with."

Pierre looked back down towards Macao. "That is a rather perfect way of explaining it really. Magic spells are constructs that everyone knows. My magic is simply taking those same 'blocks' and making new spells with them after rearranging them."

"Man that sounds great! Come on though, I'd like to get back to Magnolia before the day ends so tomorrow we can all do the Fantasia Parade."

Despite how he said this, Pierre suddenly stopped. Even though he was wearing a mask, Macao knew something was wrong.

"Pierre?" The clown didn't even respond to his own name, which worried the older fire mage. It was then that he saw the fists of the clown forming and starting to tremble. "Hey what's wrong!?"

Being worried at how he wasn't responding, Macao tried something else. "Come on, you can tell me! We're friends!"

"Friends? Really?" The masked mage asked softly? "You really shouldn't treat me so nicely. I'm not… what you think I am."

Macao laughed. "You've been helping us these past few days haven't you? And we've already welcomed you into our group! You're definitely a great material for Fairy Tail than those others that came in with you!" Macao cried out with a smile, obviously proud to have the guy's presence in the guild with the remainder of his friends in the guild.

The body of Pierre froze abruptly then started trembling horribly. The memories of the weeks passed by, of cruel allies and kind victims. It seemed like, something was going to erupt from the usually secretive man. "You shouldn't be thanking me for that! I was told to help you!" The masked clown cried out. He suddenly gasped, realization that he shouldn't have said that.

Macao blinked., shock written on his face when he heard such a thing. "W-What did you say?"

The clown tilted his head downward, it looked like he just seemed to be giving up. "Elpton and the others… they're planning a coup. On the day of the Fantasia Parade, they're going to attack your friends and the guild master while your on the floats. You'll all be overwhelmed, especially since they now know what all of your magic is like."

"Y-You're joking, right?!" Macao looked at the clown who had his head tilted down.

"He isn't." The older mage turned and to his utter shock, Mystogan was standing there right behind him! How did he—when did he get there?! "I've been watching him these past few weeks. He's been reporting back to Elpton on yours and everyone else's whereabouts and places where they live and what they do. At first he tried telling them the wrong info, but they smartened up and he then had no choice but to give out the real info."

Macao couldn't believe what he was hearing, but with how Mystogan himself was here, and with how Pierre was acting, it was hard for him to deny it. "B-But why are you here?" The man asked the S-Class mage.

"I was originally stalking him." The other masked mage pointed over to the clown. "If anyone knew what Elpton was up to, it would have been him. I had a feeling that he was planning to attack during the Fantasia Parade, but I wasn't sure until now. We'd be hard press to fight off attackers and defend all civilians if they chose to attack then."

"Elpton wants to steal the riches of the town during the confusion. With Fairy Tail at less than half of it's strength in numbers and moral, even the strongest guild would be vulnerable to an attack." Pierre openly admitted before turning towards Macao. "You and Fairy Tail where the only ones ever nice to me. I… I couldn't let Elpton get away with what he was about to do."

"Then we gotta stop him! Let's get back to the guild and warn everyone!"

"Wait," Mystogan held a hand out. "We need to be coordinated. Elpton's group still outnumbers all of you. I've asked a certain group of people to help out and if you give us at sundown later today, we can all stop Elpton's group then and there. Macao, I need you to spread the message as discreetly as possible. They can't know about us learning of their plan."

Macao nodded and gripped his fist. "I never liked those jerks. I knew they were all bad to the bone! Laxus really screwed things over with this!"

"But how can you get there fast enough?" Pierre moved his mask towards Mystogan. "We're a few hours by train ride at least after climbing down this mountain."

"From my battle with Voyu, I've decided to learn portal magic myself. It's complex, and I in no way can match the Lord of the North." He pointed two fingers out and a portal showing the Fairy Tail guild's backyard appeared. "But I find it's easier opening portals to places I've been before."

"That's great!" Macao was pumped enough and looked behind him. "Come on, Pi—huh?" Both Fairy Tail mages noticed Pierre walking away. "Hey! What are you doing?"

The fire mage ran up towards the clown who turned around to him. "I… I can't go back. I was lying to all of you."

"Well yeah… but you tried to make it right!" Macao, now more determined, put both his hands on the shoulders of the clown. "Pierre, the fact you care and feel this guilty means you deserve to be in Fairy Tail, someone that cares for others is a sign of a great Fairy Tail member, not our magical power despite what Laxus thinks. Please, stay and help us. We can truly be friends when this is all over."

"Do you..." The clown asked carefully. "Do you mean that?" His voice sounded almost hopeful but obviously hesitant.

"Yes." Macao said firmly. "You should come with—"

SHING! SPLATTER!

Faster than a blink of an eye, Pierre somehow stole Macao's sword and stabbed him in the chest in one motion.

Mystogan didn't understand what was going on, but he rushed for the two. However, Pierre suddenly twisted Macao's blade, pulled it out, and expertly put the taller man into his knees and into a choke lock with his own sword near his right eye.

"Don't move." Pierre's voice suddenly sounded utterly lifeless and cold, the eerie calmness made even someone as stoic as Mystogan feel on gaurd. "Right now, my magic has paused him from bleeding. Make any move, and I kill him here and now." He tightened his hold on Macao's neck, causing the older man to cough up blood.

To the credit of the S-class mage, he didn't show any signs of reaction. But in his mind he was wondering what the hell was going on.

"I was acting." Pierre spoke as if answering the man's thoughts. "We all knew about how you, Mystogan, were recruiting previous members and were following after our trail. My mission, my real mission was not to befriend the Fairy Tail members, it was to draw you out."

The S-Class mage inwardly swore. All this time, he thought he was being careful, but had Elpton already discovered him and his plans?!

Suddenly, Mystogan turned back, and saw that the portal he made towards Fairy Tail suddenly dispersed without his will. The sound of Macao weakly choking made the S-Class mage turn back.

"W-Wha Pierre!?" Macao gasped some words. However, he noticed his arms and legs weren't responding to his commands anymore. More so, there was some kind of black shadow swallowing his hands and the rest of his body under his clothes.

"Silence, the truly important people are speaking." Pierre didn't even look down on the man who actually did care for him.

"Those meetings..." Mystogan spoke out, his eyes widening as he said this. "I never questioned why it was so easy to track all of you. Those were all false meetings to throw me off, weren't they?"

"Did you believe that we would simply meet in an empty alley way?"

That was one of the most obvious ways of confirming him without saying yes. "But that means…! The way they treated you!"

"It had to be convincing. I was the only one in the group that didn't care what happened to me. But I cannot blame you for letting your guard around me; everyone does adore the underdog, and I rather think that experience is one that I will cherish for time to come." Unlike a while ago, his voice now sounded so cold, uncaring, and calculating, a far cry from a while ago that seemed to care so much… was that really all a lie?

It was indeed a ploy, and he had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

Mystogan's eyes sharpened and the air around him started to shimmer. "I admit I was played, but what makes you think I can't stop you?"

"Because I have a hostage." To emphasize this fact, Pierre cut the skin of Macao's cheek, making him scream before more of the darkness started to cover his neck. "You wouldn't risk your 'friend' will you?"

Mystogan really wanted to. The lives of the many far outweighed the lives of a few. However, if he did that, then he would be no better than a certain someone in his real home...

"I won't." The S-Class mage relaxed against his will and his magical power was greatly lessened.

Pierre stood in silence. Mystogan wondered what the clown was planning with this hostage situation, they played him on the meetings, but besides Macao, this situation couldn't really stop him for long—

His eyes widened. "You're not attacking during the Fantasia Parade."

The masked S-Class mage could only notice the eerie silence coming from the masked clown. "You're attacking today! It's the only reason why you're playing the hostage hand right now, to distract me from helping those in the guild!"

Macao's heart fell after hearing that. Everyone back home, Wakaba, Natsu, and all the others, they were being attacked!?

There was no time, Mystogan had to act fast— sadly, no matter how fast he was, Pierre acted before he could.

Macao cried out in pain as his stab wound suddenly burst and reopened and then Pierre kicked him off the mountain ledge. Mystogan didn't hesitate and dove after Macao, bringing out one of his staves and using it to stretch and grab onto the falling man. The S-Class mage grabbed another staff with his free hand and—wait. His magic wasn't channeling properly!?

The masked S-Class mage turned back, the darkness swallowing Macao had spread on to his staff and was absorbing his arm! It was some kind of curse that prevented either of them from using magic! Did Pierre plan this?! Did he somehow jinx Macao so when Mystogan tried to save him, he would also be jinxed to not use his magic!?

Mystogan could only panic as both he and Macao started falling from the mountain without any of their magic powers….

But he'd be damned if that was the only thing he relied on! Mystogan raced with his free hand and reached for a cube like object. He threw it on the ground beneath them and as it made contact, it turned into a giant cube with giant stubby square legs. When both mages fell on the creature, they both actually fell deeper into the cube, revealing that it was spongey and soft enough to absorb the impact of their fall and keep them safe.

However, during the fall, all the darkness eating Macao had spread to Mystogan, and the S-Class mage found himself unable to use any of his magic, especially the portal back to Fairy Tail.

"I'm sorry!" The mysterious mage looked back to Macao who was crying tears and drooling blood. "I… I fell for it!" He then started coughing violently.

Mystogan quickly ran up to him on the cube golem. He couldn't use natural magic, but this cube golem proved that magical items can still be accessed. "Don't speak, Macao, we need to get you medical attention."

"They're going to kill them!" Macao managed to shout before coughing violently.

"We still have something..." Mystogan brought out a small crystal orb. "All throughout that conversation, I made sure this crystal orb was active the one on the end heard every word and more than likely is almost back at the guild."

All though he was told to be quiet, Mystogan knew Macao was mentally asking, "Who was at the other end of that?"

* * *

I will apologize to Yajima for running out later, Fairy Tail is danger! I've never used the armor for long distances, but that's what I get for leaving Ignis back at Fairy Tail!

I ran up the hill overlooking Magnolia, and despite my best to be courageous, I could only gape in horror.

Even from where I was, I could spot the Fairy Tail Guild was on fire and what remained of the Thunder Palace was now stationed in the sky.

I shook my head, I needed to get to the guild first before the cathedral. The fact the fires were still there must have meant that Natsu and Gray must be incapacitated somehow… I hope it's incapacitated.

As I made one step forward, my senses told me to back off. I jumped back, no sooner than I did, something crashed hard in front of me. I drew a blade and got ready as something came out of the crater: a scary looking demon with wings—wait. Why does it feel like I know this demon? And now that I take a closer look, why is this demon so banged up?

A little later after asking this, there was a light that covered the demon, and to my surprise, it was Freed Justine, leader of the Thunder Legion who looked horribly beaten up. This guy was Laxus' second in command, and he got beat up this badly!?

Freed seemed to look at me in surprise and took a step forward. However, as soon as he did so, he fell forward and I caught him.

"Freed, are you alright?"

"K-Kain?" I was slightly surprised he recalled my name, but I ignored it, especially since he now looked worried. "Y-You need to get out of here! I only had enough power to lead him away from the others!" He then winced, obviously his injuries were worse than it looked.

Him? "Who?"

I got my answer when a horribly familiar crash of thunder struck the side of the hill not to far from me and Freed and made the ground tremble hard.

"Those bastards..." Freed cursed as I tried to help him up and prayed to the gods that it wasn't who I thought it was.

Out of the smoke, my prayers went unanswered again as Laxus Dreyar stepped out of the second crater with even more electricity circulating around him with his eyes trembling uncontrollably and him breathing erratically. However, he was looking at the two of us as if we just killed his parents or something.

Despite what my eyes were seeing, I was futilely still praying that this was an illusion attack, a really good illusion attack.

Freed was very kind to bring me back to reality even though he didn't mean to. "They somehow mind-controlled Laxus."

"Of-freaking-course." I managed to gasp out before the crazed Laxus attacked us both.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **So here's the next chapter. I haven't had time to look it all over, so there may be more mistakes than usual.**

 **There's a lot of jumping around because I couldn't find a way to string events together properly. I hope that it's good enough.**

 **Now excuse the technical talk for some Fairy Tail news: Apparently, Fairy Tail has a new artwork for future characters/children.**

 **I am both Excited and Disappointed for this!**

 **Disappointed since Mishima's story telling isn't known to be very good, there's a chance this story is going to be kinda bad if it does become an anime. Which is a shame because I do love the characters, heck this story was made to give the characters a plot and hopefully a world worthy of an epic guild.**

 **But I am excited since it gives us writers new material. I'm probably the only person waiting for the one dimensional villains so I can put them in this story as younger versions and give them a whole new twist to their existing characters. You know, what I tried to do in this story?**

 **Still, holding out on the chance that maybe someone is actually going to help Mishima on the world-building and storytelling front if this does become an anime. I do hope the anime get enough funding for better writing staff than into the animation. Early Fairy Tail sagas and his work in Rave Master have shown he is a competent story writer, so I guess I'm just hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.**

 **I hope you all enjoy this 'slightly' new take on an existing arc. Like before, expect some really unexpected twists.**


	27. Chapter 27

Laxus Dreyar was currently under mind control.

That simple sentence above couldn't describe how truly bad the situation that Kain Reynolds and a very weaken and beaten Freed Justine were currently in.

"You were betraying me!" The Guildmaster cried out as he started to generate more electricity than a power plant back in Kain's world. "I'll kill you, Kain!"

The red armored boy sighed while carrying Freed over his shoulder. "Of course even under the evil influence, he still hates me!" And with that sarcastic comment out of the way, Kain made his armor's cape turn into wyvern wings and flew away from the attacking S-Class mage at the speed of ' _Aww Hell NAW_ ' with him carrying Freed by his arms.

Freed seemed to realize this and managed to shout out, "Kain, don't go in Magnolia!"

The armored man couldn't even ask why because he was trying to avoid being struck by lightning and thunder. But he did take a hard right to avoid flying back towards the main gates of Magnolia.

However, Laxus was still hot on the young man's trail. No matter how fast the armor was, Laxus seemed to have no trouble catching up to Kain multiple times. It was the reason why Kain had to fly low, he had a bad feeling if he went even above a normal building level, he would have been more susceptible to an electrical attack being out in the open up there. He ssssoooo didn't want to see if electric types were really effective against flying types.

"Have you figured out how to snap him out of it!?" The red plated man could only try and shout over the explosions and the booming thunder chasing after them.

"M-My sword! I tried to put an enchantment that should have snapped him out of it momentarily, but I couldn't hit him with it!" The young man looked towards the blade on Freed's side that had a dim purple glow.

"Do you have to be the one to do it, or can I just use the blade?" Kain started asking.

Freed looked back to Laxus seemingly have no trouble keeping up with them despite the two being a little higher in the air. "It has to be me or it won't work."

The way Freed suddenly winced when Kain made another sharp turn to avoid getting hurt was an obvious clue that the chance of him hitting Laxus with a spell to snap him out was low.

"Freed, get ready for a rough landing!" The armored young man told the green haired mage. Freed looked up in surprise, but considering how desperate their situation was, there was no room to be picky. The weakened mage nodded at the young man, hopeful that whatever what he was about to do would work, not aware that Kain was also hoping what little plan he could perform would work.

Kain slowed down and dropped Freed, causing the man to tumble down a grassy hill before two fast speeds passed over him.

The red armored rider flew faster, but Laxus still was able to catch up with the young man. A little further, the young man landed and slid on the ground, preparing himself in a battle stance with one hand behind his back.

"I really, really wish I would stop fighting people stronger than me. That's Natsu's thing! Not mine!" The boy complained as he nervously got ready.

Laxus was quick to follow and rushed for the armored boy with the intent to turn him into red scrap metal. Yet Kain moved, bringing out his hand behind his back while he moved the rest of his body to protect his face. The reason for this was because in his first hand, there was a Cracker Sphere that was revealed in his open palm and it was already primed to explode.

It let loose a dangerous blast of light while Laxus was close to it, causing the guild master to cry out in pain and cover his eyes with his hands. Kain didn't let up and quickly reached for his other gear. He instantly threw gum that exploded and ensnared Laxus' face with his hands still clamped into his face. Kain slammed his elbow into Laxus, causing the large man to buckle forward, and the armored boy judo threw him into the ground. When that was done, he threw more of the gum on to his feet to pin him down. He just hoped it would hold long enough.

When Laxus started struggling, Kain jumped on him and made sure he was pinned on the ground, but even then Laxus was trashing around with electricity gathering around him.

"Freed!" Kain looked up to Freed, trying his best to make his way towards the two of them.

Yet it was hard to not notice the magic circle that appeared right where Kain and Laxus were. The armored young man acted fast and grabbed Freed out of there before a large blast of thunder struck Laxus.

The result was the area turned into a scorched, smoking crater with Laxus now free of his restraints.

Kain was first to get up and tried to reach for his back. However, his world suddenly blurred and he felt pain around his neck. It took him a second to realize that both he and Freed were being held up in the air by their necks.

"You bastards will pay for betraying me! I am the guild master of Fairy Tail!" The crazed S-Class mage cried out as he started to put pressure into both of the men's necks.

Even though his was armored, Kain felt worse as he felt all of his oxygen suddenly cut off. He tried to reach for his make shift item bag, but Laxus saw this and slammed the boy into the ground while still clamping to his neck.

However, while Laxus did try to stop the boy, the impact of being thrown into the ground caused a pouch to fall out and roll towards Laxus. As it did, it opened up, revealing Kain's Nausea Marbles.

As they got out of their special bag, the marbles activated instantly, causing both Laxus and Freed feel dizzy. Laxus let go of the two, causing them both to start gasping for air. But Kain noticed that Laxus looked especially sick. He even was starting to look green.

He put that aside and quickly scooped up the bag and marbles before he let loose a punch right into the neck of Laxus. This caused Laxus to gasp and buckle forward to fall on his knees. Kain didn't hesitate to back flip over him and put the larger man into a nelson hold in that position. He then cried out to Freed, "Again!"

The green haired mage saw that and how Laxus was slowly regaining strength. He grabbed his blade and lunged forward with it. "Release!" He cried out as the blade made contact with Laxus' skin. A flash of purple light filled the area but died down as fast as it appeared.

When the light show was over, Kain found out that Laxus was no longer struggling in his hold.

"My head…" Laxus gasped before seemingly knocking out cold.

Kain dropped the guy and looked to Freed, who was also barely standing. "Can you move?"

"N-Not well in this state," The right hand man of Laxus gasped as he seemed to be using his sword to prop himself to stand. "We need to find a shelter. Fast! They… they might have seen that light…"

Kain didn't know what he meant, but finding a safe spot would be a good idea. "We are technically near Natsu's house. I'll bring both of you there." The young man activated his wings, and in a flash of red, all three were gone from the area.

No sooner than he did, several others appeared where their battle took place.

* * *

"Sorry about the place, Natsu never keeps it clean ever since both Lucy and I found out about this place." Kain said as he opened the door with the spare key.

Messy was too weak of a word to describe it. Natsu's home was a complete pigsty. But Freed wouldn't complain, or more likely he was too weak to. The armored boy carefully let Laxus into the couch before finding a seat for the leader of the Thunder Legion.

"So," Kain began. "can you tell me what the heck happened to the guild?"

Freed closed his eyes. "It happened so fast. But I'll tell you as much as I can."

* * *

The guild was… as you left it. One side was overly zealous while the other was… let's just say dispirited. However, something was off today. The group that Master Laxus brought in, they were being rowdier than usual.

I and the Thunder Legion decided to keep watch in case things started to digress in to the previous state, but looking back, all we did was watch.

Elpton had ordered a drink… sorry. I must ask you to remain calm considering what happened next both escalated and stopped the situation.

Mirajane went over towards the group, but Elpton, in his obvious drunken state… excuse my expression, but he slapped her in the ass.

…

I knew you would be more restrained, even when hearing about your friend. It's not an insult, but I can respect self restraint.

… Yes… you were right in that statement just now, Kain. "Fairy Tail and self restraint never go together." Now that I think of it, you basically are the guild's entire self restraint.

… I was joking, but as it stands, it may as well be the truth.

I will continue then.

As you can imagine, Elfman was first to act, attacking Elpton for the honor of his sister. Even Evergreen felt disgusted about the sexual harassment, but I held her back, I didn't know why but I did. Elpton didn't even show signs that he knew Elfman was even there, even though he was holding his fist back with ease. Elpton then moved his free hand to flick Elfman in the head and knock him back into the side he came from.

That was enough to get everyone to charge up their magics, we were about to step in and subdue it all before we started, but the guild was then silenced with the entrance of the clown.

He strode in and for some reason, he was off. He walked straight towards Elpton, who seemed to sober up instantly at his presence and then seemed to just stare at him.

They must have communicated in someway because Elpton started laughing loudly. The others asked the clown what he was doing and where Macao was since they traveled together.

Wait, you knew? … How? Very well, I will continue again. To the surprise of everyone in the guild except those under Elpton, Pierre unbelievably expressed attempting to kill Macao and cursing Mystogan! He expressed attempted murder as if he was having a polite conversation!

At first, many had trouble believing, some even telling him to stop joking around. But he kept repeating it and repeating it…

That's when they realized he was telling the truth.

Elpton laughed and laughed, patting the clown's shoulder and telling him that he did good in stopping Mystogan. He said they were ready for the next phase.

We didn't know what they were talking about but then Natsu charged in head first with obvious intent to kill, if not maim the clown where he stood. But he was knocked back the same way Elfman was.

Finally, Laxus came out of the office and demanded to know what was going on. That is when things started to pick up quickly. Laxus jumped off, and everyone on the other side tried to explain what was going on and that Pierre should be arrested for what he did. However, Laxus seemed to be getting angry at your friends rather than the actual criminals.

People in Elpton's group were laughing and sniggering and that finally clued me in that they had some kind of mental influence over Laxus and that he was currently seeing the original group as enemies, claiming that they were trying a coup when it was so clearly looking like Elpton's work.

As soon as he said this, he started to attack your friends. None were able to stand up to Laxus, and in the confusion, some attempted to escape, only to… they were trapped… by… by…

One of those bastards, they stole my magical barriers I put around the guild!

Yes, my Jutsu Shiki, there was a barrier around the guild I made. I will tell you the reason for that another day, but know that somehow, the barrier I created with rules was now completely rewritten and served to trap everyone in the guild to fight against Laxus.

One of your friends, the former criminal and shadow mage was quick to try and de spell it. Seeing Master Laxus go out of control, we entered the fray. I went to help the ex-criminal undo the barrier, but things got hard as Elpton's group started attack both he and I to undo the barrier. Erza bought us time, but she was overwhelmed the second before we could undo the barrier and so little of us not unconscious could escape.

Laxus howled with anger and gathered a dangerous amount of magical power that would even kill those nearby who were unconscious, seeing how desperate the situation was, I used forbidden magic to power myself up and get Master Laxus out of there. Our fight was taken air borne, but no matter what I did, I stood no chance.

Our fight dragged on even though I don't know what happened to the others. Eventually, you came in after he subdued me, and without you we may both not be here.

* * *

"Did they say anything on why they were doing all this?" The brunette asked seriously.

"From what they implied, they wanted Laxus to kill the old guild members so the Magic Council will appoint Elpton to be leader, and they could become the new strongest guild in Fiore. They underestimated us completely and now they've put the town in lockdown with my barriers."

Freed could obviously read how Kain wanted to ask about those barriers that were supposed to be used to help Laxus take over Fairy Tail before his promotion. But unlike most other people he met, Kain was far more respectful and focused because of what he chose to ask next, "I have to admit, they have a good plan. They planned this really well. And if there are more barriers, that means everyone else in Magnolia is trapped without anyway out."

Freed was silent, but that did confirm for the young man that there were more barriers and more than likely meant they were all stolen as well.

"Okay, town is under lockdown, potentially even Erza's down, Mystogan is cursed and unable to get back here in time, Laxus and you are weakened greatly, and the rebels have control of the city and the Thunder Palace." Kain sighed and put a hand on his head. "And there's our crisis of the week everyone!"

"What is our next plan, Kain?" Freed asked before he noticed the look on Kain's face that just looked as lost as him.

"Right, _I_ ' _m_ the plan guy," The boy sighed again. "Well, first let me make a cal—"

"Someone's on their way here." Laxus suddenly said as he leaned up from Natsu's bed and looked towards the direction of the door, or more likely, trying to see beyond the door. "I sense half a dozen making their way here."

Kain got up and powered up in his armor. He drew a blade before he looked back to see both Laxus and Freed getting ready, both were still weakened, but it seemed like they were ready to fight as well.

Kain stalked towards the door, even he could hear the foot steps heading their way, he went close to one of the windows and tried to peek—

"Wait, what?" Freed and Laxus were surprised when Kain turned his blade back into air and opened the door carelessly.

Behind the door were people that no one was expecting to be there at that very moment.

"I knew I smelled your armor nearby," Gajeel of Phantom Lord and Dragon slayer of Steel grunted as he stood in front Monsieur Sol, Totomaru, and Amanda Peaks. The black haired man pointed a thumb back towards the bulk of the town with the Thunder Legion up. "Can you please explain what the hell is going on and why Fairy Tail put the town under Martial Law?"

"Basically, a coup." Leave it to Kain to put their entire situation in two words. "Mind helping us? I can get you to battle with Natsu later." Kain would never call it 'throwing his friend under the bus' if he knew Natsu would actually enjoy it more.

"Ahh why not? If those punks harmed Juvia, I was going to kick their a—" Gajeel stopped cracking his knuckles and looked down towards Amanda hugging her monster bear. "I was going to kick their butts. But this time I get rewarded for beating things up? Is it Christmas already?"

Having Phantom Lord as Allies? Even if Kain already knew by the rules of anime that enemies turned allies suddenly become much weaker than the current big bad, he was still happy to have back up. Yet, he did notice something with this group, "I'm going to guess the rest of the Element Four and the Captains aren't coming yet?"

"They said they would visit Juvia tomorrow at the Fantasia Parade because of a problem in our southern branches. Master Voyu needed the rest while we came here ahead to meet with Juvia." Totomaru answered.

Better some than none, even if all all they had was the worst of the best from Phantom Lord.

"What did you just say!?" Gajeel pointed angrily at Kain.

"Oh, did I say that out loud?" Kain almost made the fastest record of making and losing allies if not for Laxus saying something else at that moment.

"Hey, quit it! Those guys aren't the only magic presence I sense!"

As soon as he said this, Gajeel turned around and there were a dozen or so mages from Elpton's group all walking towards us.

"Just give us the blonde oaf and the guy with girly hair and no one gets hurt." The one in front of them stated plainly.

Gajeel and Kain shared a look before a kind of understanding went between them. "See," Gajeel started as he gave a vicious grin and walked forward with Kain not to far from him. "That's where we differ. When you guys want something, you're willing to let people not involved go away… _I don't_."

Then both Gajeel and Kain both jumped towards their opponents with their fist reclined back.

* * *

"So that's where those bastards are." Elpton looked at the holo map inside the Cathedral. In one of the outer corners of Magnolia, his group was battling with more mages than the weakened guild master and his loyal dog. "It seems like they got help."

"The maggots always swarm together in their filth," The nun with gray colored hair said this while praying in one of the benches. "It is the destiny of the chosen to purge them."

"Venlia, I thought you left." Elpton looked towards the woman.

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers. Three large objects fell from above and crashed nearby her. There were three large crosses that had Laki, Max, and Cana trapped in them with all three looking beat up and barely able to move their bodies. "I came back just as quickly. Who else needs my guidance?"

Elpton looked back at the map and smiled when he saw someone. "Near the Magnolia Toy Store, Mirajane is with her oaf brother and that other serving wench. You can get them."

She stood up and smiled. As the light of the windows from above shown on her, she gave an almost delirious smile. "They shall soon see the beauty of our lord, Ankhseram."

* * *

BAM!

As Kain was thrown through Natsu's house, his mind wondered how the Fire Dragon Slayer would react to having his own house demolished.

Oh and more importantly, he wondered how the hell were the mages Laxus brought in this strong!?

"When I get out of here, I'm gonna crush your skull!" Kain got back up and remembered what had happened. He was trying to free Gajeel from some kind of green goo that he couldn't break out of.

" **IRON DRAGON'S—** " Gajeel was headlined by a lariat by a mage with leopard get up that interrupted his spell.

The description was horribly underplayed. The man was thin, but tall. He wore nothing but shorts and wore the flayed of skin of leopard over his back and face. The man was deceptively strong, even able to go toe to toe with Gajeel before his ally, a mage with wild hair, swirl glasses, and currently cackling like a mad man as he threw what he liked to call 'Superior Alchemy' towards us, came in and trapped the iron dragon slayer with a strange substance that could even suppress the strength of a dragon. It was obvious he had other concoctions in his arsenal as some seemed to be melting through Amanda's doll monsters and they were supposed to tank a lot of magical and physical punishment.

The third one among their ranks was a great sword mage, and Kain says great sword sparingly. The thing was like bigger and wider than the displaced young man, but the red and black spike-armored knight moved it around like a dang butter knife. The obviously magic great sword cleaved through fire like nothing and gave Totomaru problems.

Monsieur Sol was having horrible trouble against a girl wearing thick winter clothes, boots, had her hair tied up in a long braid, and had winged boots. Emphasis on winged. Her boots allowed her to actually run on the air and fire on the Earth mage from any angle she wished.

And then there was the mage that Kain was currently fighting. KLANG! Or rather, who was currently kicking his tin can ass all over Natsu's house. This guy was fully robed in a blue cloak—almost reminded him of a blue version of the black cloaks from Kingdom Hearts but with a cape. This guy was a teleporter with a wind rapier.

These guys were tough and were no push overs.

Kain hurried back up to his feet and noticed his opponent vanish in an instant.

"Teleportation is really different from Portals." Kain suddenly jerked back and threw a punch at super speed behind him. The result was his empowered and fast moving fist landed right into the chin of the teleporter and made the man fly like a shooting star and knock into the mad alchemist in the sky who was using a jet pack.

"Erza was right. Opponents do have patterns; that one just kept attacking above or behind me." Kain drew his blade and fired a quick succession of sword blasts that cut the goo surrounding Gajeel and freed him.

"Now we're talking!" The steel dragon slayer didn't hesitate and screamed as he unleashed an extended fist that slammed right into the jaw of the leopard mage. He closed the gap and returned his favor by turning his arm into steel and performing his own lariat into the neck of the leopard mage and slamming him into the ground with such force dirt exploded upward.

Kain spun his blade and then threw one of them right for the red and black swordsman. The swordsman acted fast and used his great sword to block the thrown blade. This distraction was enough for Totomaru to deck the other knight into the ground where a magic circle lit up before exploding in a rainbow of flames.

The gunner girl saw her her allies were going down and tried to flee, but when she turned, Gajeel was already flying at her with an empowered leg and round house kicked her towards Kain who punched her into the ground.

Everyone looked around. "Okay, these guys were tougher than they looked." Kain mentioned out loud.

"They weren't so tough, I could have taken them all on."

The wyvern rider looked towards the dragon slayer. "Is this a dragon pride thing where you just battle whatever looks stronger than you and lie through the grit of your teeth when you face problems you can't solve by yourself?"

"What was that?! You want a go!?" And from then on, Kain forever thought of Gajeel as Phantom Lord's Natsu. "Just because you've gotten a bit stronger means nothing! I'll still kick your ass!"

"Can we please focus?" The wyvern rider began and pointed towards the city, more specifically the direction of the Thunder Palace. "We need to save the city. I know the controls of the Thunder Palace and I can switch it off. I'm just expecting Elpton and the others to be there and if we had trouble with just these guys, I hate to see how strong Elpton really is."

"However, strong he is," Everyone turned around. "He is no match for _me_." Laxus Dreyar gripped his fist as it cackled with electricity.

"Are you sure about this?"

Laxus looked back to Kain. "I've recovered enough so I can knock some sense into that bastard. You just worry about the Thunder Palace. I just got the damn guild, and I ain't losing it a month in!"

For Kain, that would do for now. He turned his head towards Freed who was still cradling his arm. "You can't fight yet, right?"

The leader of the Thunder Legion shook his head. "No, but I can make sure that these mages we defeated will stay down the rest of this fight."

"Alright, I'll leave it too you." Kain then depowered himself. "Now before I give out my plan, I need to make a phone call."

He learned to make that call faster, especially when he saw a piece of Magnolia blow up even from far where he was.

* * *

The Magnolia Toy store was set into flames. Burnt and crushed toys amongst the debris looked more like demons from hell than the colorful and vibrant items meant to stimulate the imagination and joys of kids.

"You may flee, heathens,"Venlia began as she held a large, golden long sword that seemed styled like a cross with one hand and a circular golden shield in the other hand. "But you cannot escape the light of my lord! Surrender and let the light of my god cleanse your impurity off the face of this world." As she said this, her heels crushed what little remained of the toys that once filled the store.

Some distance away from the zealous nun, Elfman was holding up a metal shelf that looked to be in bad condition over Éclair, Happy, Momon, and Mirajane.

"It's a good thing no one else was in here when it blew up." Momon was then shushed by his friend, signaling that they had to be quiet or else Venlia would hear them.

"You girls get out of here," Elfman whispered to the surprise of Mirajane. "I'll hold her off for as long as I can."

"Elfman, don't! She was the one who subdued Erza!" Mirajane whispered in horror. The image that the strongest woman of Fairy Tail falling to that crazed witch was still fresh in Mirajane's mind… the blinding light that felt like looking at the sun… and the smile that could make even demons unnerved as she overpowered the weakened armor knight.

"I don't care! You guys have to get out of here! Get Kain, he'll know what to do!" Before Mirajane could even argue, Elfman lifted the cover he was holding and hurled it right for Venlia.

The result was that Venlia was pushed out of the store, but caught then cut the shelf in half. A second later, Elfman in a Full Body Take Over form like he did in Phantom Lord and rushed for the deadly sister.

Elfman threw a punch at the nun, only for her to side step and stab her blade right into Elfman's side hip. Elfman's form wailed in pain as he was surprised how easily that blade pierced his hardened skin.

"Sing to our lord, our god, and you shall be liberated!" Venlia removed the blade in one motion, causing blood to rip out from Elfman's body. "Deny him and eternal pain awaits you."

As Elfman tried to slow the bleeding, Venlia slammed her shield into the face of the empowered beast that knocked him into the ground. Elfman looked back up, only to see Venlia holding her blade barely touching his neck and her heels seemingly digging into his chest.

"Repent, and swear to serve, Lord Ankhseram for the rest of your days, sinner."

Elfman was wondering why his body felt like he was burning from the inside. It seemed like that blade of hers had a secondary ability. He looked up to see this look on the mage's face that looked like they were looking through him."I guess I was right. I real man doesn't hit a lady, but there's no way your a real lady! You're a monsterGAAHH?!" Elfman screamed when the blade moved and stabbed stabbed him in the chest.

There was a low tone as Venlia stabbed the blade further, making Elfman scream as he did. "The words of a heretic are to never be listened to. Alas, I was asked to keep you alive by Brother Elpton, but it appears that your sins are too horrible for this world and must be purged this instant."

"Get away from him!" The gray colored mage in a nun costume looked up to see Mirajane standing before them with a look of mixed horror and anger.

"B-Big sis… run!" Elfman knew the state his sister was in. At one point she may have been far stronger than him, but now she wasn't and staying here longer would get her killed!

Venlia removed her blade, causing Elfman to gasp before she stabbed it into his shoulder. Mirajane watched with horror in her eyes after hearing her brother in pain. "I grow weary of this, return from whence you crawled from demon." She pulled out her blade and raised it over towards Elfman's head.

Suddenly, time slowed down greatly for barmaid of Fairy Tail. Mirjane watched the blade— _watched helplessly as an out of control Elfman stalked towards a faithful Lissana—_ closed the distance. Her heart beat faster, faster, putting the speed of seconds to shame— _the repeats of Lissana dying over and over, repeating those words, "I love you" repeated faster than even her heartbeat —_ but then, she finally realized she **could not** _ **lose another**_ _ **sibling**_ _ **.**_

Mirajane's pupils shrank. She let loose a pained scream—

Then the dark magic flowed like water breaking through a dam.

* * *

Elpton looked at the Holo map that was starting to fizz out and blink in and out of static.

"So the rose those have thorns." He smiled in amusement.

* * *

In the Fairy Tail guild, Pierre looked up through one of the main holes in the ceiling and then went back to his work.

* * *

"Is that… Mirajane?" Laxus looked towards the energy gathering in one corner of the city.

Kain looked towards the guild master. "Wait what? That's Mirajane?!"

* * *

Venlia was at one second, trying to kill a demon, then it took her another second to realize she was looking at the sky. It took another second for her body to register pain, but in that same second the memory of another demon returned.

" **Die!** " Mirjane's Satan Soul form cried out as she let loose a punch going in near hypersonic speeds—that was instantly stopped by a golden shield.

Mirajane blinked. Her blow was stopped dead in it's tracks by Venlia's shield. It was then that Mirajane quickly drew her fist back screaming. She looked at her fist in surprise and saw that her fingers… they were being burnt off when she punched the shield?

"Hail Ankhseram, full of splendor," Mirajane's sharpened hearing picked up that whisper and quickly looked back at her opponent.

She soon found this as a mistake as a burst of light filled the sky.

Meanwhile, down below... "Sooo, is that also Mirajane?" Kain looked towards Laxus, but seemed to get his answer when the larger guild master only looked baffled when glancing at the sky.

"Mira uses dark magic. Whoever she's battling… she's a light magic user. It must have been that nun chick, Venlia Koraka. I guess I should have expected that type of magic form her motif." Laxus turned around and started walking. "Let's go, Mira's a lost cause."

Kain was surprised but when after Laxus, "What? I thought that massive power from before was her?"

Back up in the sky, Mirajane watched as white wings sprout out of Venlia's back. Mirajane would not let the battle flow back into her opponent's favor and held out an open palm that opened up a dark magic circle.

"Darkness Strife!" More than a dozen black tendrils moved at the speed of missiles towards the nun, but her glade started to glow.

Back down below, Laxus continued his conversation with Kain. "Dark magic maybe forbidden and powerful, but pure Light Magic is far more rare and especially designed to _counter_ dark magic users."

In one slash, Venlia cut through Mira's entire attack with a golden slash that burned right through Mira's spell as if it was paper to the flames.

"It doesn't matter how powerful your dark magic is, if you fight a skilled pure light mage, your chances of winning drop dramatically," Laxus continued talking while the eldest Strauss sibling did battle. "But light magic comes with a rather specific price, it takes away bits of your sanity the more powerful spells you use. It's why light magic is so rare."

Mira moved fast and avoided the attack, but a small piece of her wing was caught and she could feel the very tip being burned off.

"You are the only lord," Venlia continued to speak, and soon her arms started to change. "Blessed be your blades that decimate your enemies, your followers that kiss the ground you walk on!" Her skin started to fall off, and beneath it was some kind of white, golden skin. Even her face rotted off, revealing some kind of green eyes creature without a mouth, nose, or ears.

Her wings turned gold as well and her heels became part of her new humanoid body.

She looked like an angel.

"Powerful Lord, who gave birth to all, purge all sinners, now and till the end of time." She continued to pray out loud as she then began attacking Mirajane. The Take over mage found something immediately wrong, she felt sluggish, and just looking at her opponent hurt her.

Then Venlia started to repeat those two phrases over and over. Instantly, Mirajane figured out that was a chant and prayer that was sapping her strength and making Venlia stronger.

The S-class take over mage acted fast, unleashing a powerful burst of dark magic and physical feats to fight her opponent. The sky filled with black and white dots that danced around like shooting stars. However, despite her best efforts to end it quickly, Mirajane was losing strength fast.

She tried to punch Venlia, but the metamorph angel tilted her head, quickly grabbed Mirjane's fist and spun her around. She threw the Take Over mage into the ground like a tennis player smashing a slow moving ball.

The former S-class mage started to get worried. Her magic, while amazing, was completely countered by Venlia. The fake angel sapped a lot of her strength, and the wounds inflicted by her light didn't only prevent her from re-healing, but burned the longer she had them.

"Hail Ankhseram, full of splendor!" Venlia cried out as she held her cross blade with two hands.

"SHUT UP!" Mirajane roared as she gathered a large amount of magic energy to blast Venlia, but the angel zealot cut through her blast like nothing.

Things were looking worse every second. Mirajane could feel her returned form slipping, while Venlia didn't even seem to break a sweat. She put a lot in that blast, but her opponent's magic was just obviously designed to destroy dark based magic. Not to mention, she wasted too much time and magic trying to end it quickly that she couldn't access her other forms if she wanted to.

Venlia, still repeating the prayer, stalked towards Mira with her blade up.

"Fine, if darkness magic doesn't work..." Mira pointed a hand near river she landed, a large vortex of water shot up in the air and spiraled all towards Venlia. The enemy angel pointed her shield towards the incoming water and a barrier of light surrounded her and absorbed the impact of the torrent of water thrown at her.

Out of the water, something flew out and stabbed into Mira's shoulder, Venlia's blade. Mira screamed in pain as the blade sapped her strength faster than before and caused her pain unlike before. She didn't know how she kept her demon form, but she did buckle forward and fell to her knees. As she tried to move the blade to get it off, her hands burned from just touching it.

Velia started walking up to her, making the sign of an inverted cross as she did. "Glory to Ankhersam, may all beholden his splendor."

In one instant, Venlia grabbed the blade back, causing Mirajane to scream again. The false angel raised her blade with glowing light above the weakened Take Over mage. Mirajane looked up, but found herself unable to move.

Was… was this it?

"Ögun, mandushu!" " **Èlum barak!** "

Mira didn't know what happened. At one moment, she was staring at the light in front of her, then suddenly, Venlia's shadow jumped out and like a blanket, snared around her face, and didn't let go. The false angel tried to remove the shadow, but her light wasn't burning through it as fast as Mira's darkness.

Suddenly, she felt yanked, and saw her own shadow picking her up and flying away.

Mira noticed where, or who specifically her shadow was bringing her too and her demon eyes widened at who it was that saved her.

"N-NAB!?"

Nab Lasaro, who was kneeling down and holding on to a specific skull glowing black in his skull necklace he was wearing, waved to Mirajane. "Mira, it's good to see you again."

"W-What are you doing here?"

"Kain called us in to help you all out. Laxus may have kicked us out, but Fairy Tail still needed us." The tall man with black hair said as he stood back up.

"Kain?! Wait, We!?" Mira repeated those words but then was distracted by the pain in her shoulder.

The shadow next to Mira started to take form, and it turned into that of a spider.

"Digdao măol, Anasi." " **Digdao măol, Nabi**." The shadowy spider bowed and then turned into a formless shadow that flew back into the skull Nab was holding on to.

There was a scream as the two looked back to Venlia, finally freed form the shadows that suffocated her.

"You!" Venlia pointed her blade at Nab. "What dark magic did you cast that my light couldn't pierce!?"

"Spirit Magic is far different from human magic." Nab began as he took something out of a small sack. A long, thick, totem pole staff with animals on top of it was taken out and slammed onto the ground. "In the rules of spirits, light casts shadows, never purifies them."

"Spirits?" Venlia then started to tremble and her magic flared as she pointed towards Nab. "HERETIC! YOU ARE A SHAMAN!"

For one second, Nab frowned. "I'm **not** a shaman." He said rather bitterly then slammed his totem staff into the ground again. "Ïlianom! Barszoum, Nyame!"

A dove totem among the staff had it's runes and eyes glowing white. And out of a different skull in Nab's necklace, a white light shone out and a small dove came out and landed on Nab's shoulder.

" **Ïlianom! Barszoum, Nabi**." The dove seemed to speak.

"FALSE IDOLS! YOU DARE PRESENCE YOURSELF BEFORE ME!?" Venlia cried out and was ready to attack both Nab and Mirajane right where they both stood.

"Selndukú biar." " **Vonx darim!** " The dove suddenly flew ahead and then shined in a powerful light in front of Venlia.

To the surprise of Mira, she was amazed to see the small dove was now draining the light off Venlia as she had originally sapped strength from her.

"Nyame is a light spirit." Nab explained as Mirajane looked towards him. "She can steal light from other people or things and add it to her own. In this case, she can steal light magic form light mages."

"Nab… I never knew you made pacts with spirits." Mirajane spoke out. "I mean… you use magic." From all knowledge she knew about shamans, they greatly looked down on the concept of magic from one's self rather than the powers they gain from the earth around them.

But Nab was a mage. She had heard that spirits do not bond with mages, only shaman. So how could Nab have shaman spirits and use magic?

"I'm not a shaman." Nab sharply said. "I… I'm not a shaman. Just a mage who can use spirits in his spells."

Mira wanted to ask so much more about the side of Nab she had never even considered before, but the light dove stopped stealing Venlia's magic and flew back to Nab.

" **Blazi, darum, Nabi.** " "Blazi, darum, Nyame." And the dove vanished into the same skull it came out off while the totem of the dove stopped glowing.

"H-Heathens..." This time, Venlia fell to her knees, almost in a state even weaker than Mirajane as she even dropped her blade and shield, unable to pick them up. "What have you done to me?"

"I asked Nyame to sap your strength, but it seems she went a bit overboard. That's the problem with spirits, they do their own thing sometimes." Nab then looked to Mirajane. "Would you like to do the honors?"

Mirajane looked to Venlia who was turning back human. At first, she kind of felt sorry for how weak the fake nun looked right now.

Then she recalled that witch almost killed Elfman.

SLAM!

Mira, even in her weakened state, punched Venlia down into the ground with enough strength to break her jaw and put her unconscious.

Seing her enemy down, Mira powered down and looked to Nab. "Nab, thank you for helping me, but really, how are you here? And what did you mean by Kain and others?"

Nab put his totem staff back into the small sack, and then took out a small crystal orb. "I think it's best if Kain explains himself."

* * *

All throughout Magnolia, Elpton's men that were searching for straggling Fairy Tail members were surprised and ambushed by none other than returning Fairy Tail members.

A wyvern that looked a lot like Ignis roared and then dispersed into a puff of smoke. Reedus Jonah looked back at his painting and sighed. "I haven't seen Ignis in a while, but his near copy worked well." Reedus nodded. "I gotta find the others." As he left, the groans of Elptons men could be heard after the being trampled by the pict-magic Wyvern.

On another side of town…

"GAH!" Another one of Elpton's man with alligator themed motif fell to the ground.

Vijeeter Ecor turned towards an injured Warren Rocko. "You alright?"

"Vijeeter! Boy am I glad to see you!"

"Good to see you to. Kain said finding you was top priority." The jumpsuit wearing man began.

"Wait, Kain!? He's here?!" That was both a huge surprise and also a huge relief to hear Fairy Tail's lawyer already working to save their butts. It took him a moment to realize something else. "Wait, I was top priority?"

"Link us all up, Warren."

* * *

" _Alright everyone, listen up! We're taking back Magnolia and our guild!_ " Kain noticed how so many voices were so relieved and surprised to hear him. " _I'm glad to hear you guys, too but let's save our reunion after we kick out these bastards! Warren, you and Vijeeter meet with Gajeel Redfox and try to take out more of Elpton's men. And yes, we are partnering up with some Phantom Lord members. Do not attack them! Even with our older members returning, they still outnumber us and are spread out throughout the city with Freed's trapped turned against us. We need all the help we can get!_ "

Laxus looked at the boy as the two of them were heading towards the cathedral. He was aware of the link, and by the sound of everyone, they almost sounded like they looked up to Kain. It was baffling, that someone without magic, even with a powerful magic armor, had gained adoration and loyalty from so many people who were easily stronger than him. How? It made no sense! He wasn't strong!

Wait the kid was never once afraid of him. Time and time he stood up to him, and even was able to get under his skin without power. And even now, while he was supposed to stay away, he came back for all of the instant he heard they were all in trouble.

He couldn't help but think back to his grandfather. The kid basically represented what he loathed and what his grandfather stood for: unity for all to be strong together. It shouldn't have been like that, yet here he was, organizing weaker, outnumbered, and disadvantaged group of mages against a superior force and winning—or at least putting up a damn better fight than he could imagine.

"Tch!" Laxus let a sound escape his lips as a piece of his mind might have realized his grandfather was right after all.

" _As soon as your done, Nab, meet up with Elfman and Éclair._ "

" _It's really good to hear you again, Kain._ "

" _It's good to be back, Mira. But I'll repeat, save for after we kick these punks out of town._ "

" _Kain! Natsu and the others!_ " Happy's voice seemed to be breaking up, as if he was crying in both sadness and joy at the same time. " _They're all captured in the guild!_ "

" _We'll save them, without a doubt! But deactivating the Thunder Palace is a priority. Help Elfman and the others to safety, can you do that for me, Happy?"_

" _AYE!_ "

Kain dropped the link and looked up. "We're here."

Laxus followed the boy's sight and indeed, they were in front of the cathedral, and at least thirty other mages all starting to activate their magic against the two.

For the first time, the guild master stepped forward and smiled. "Leave this to me, I need something to hit hard."

Kain sighed. "At least try to avoid hitting the Cathedral, we are still paying for it's repairs from the Phantom Lord War."

Laxus frowned. He did recall that they did use some of their winnings to restore the damages to the old building. "Fine, I can do that."

* * *

Elpton turned when he heard the doors of the Cathedral opening slowly.

He was greeted with the sight of around thirty of his man piled on top of each other unconscious with Laxus standing on top of all of them. "Kohl Elpton!"

The other muscular man smiled. "Ah, guild master Laxus. I hope you enjoyed my welcoming committee." It was obvious by his language he knew they were there from the start and didn't bother to try and help his underlings.

Laxus leered and looked down. "Brat, go and do what you have to do."

Kain, in his armor started walking through the door. Then he sped up towards Laki, Cana, and Max. His helm looked towards Elpton who only scoffed and sighed. Kain was silent and picked them up and headed past the man towards the control of the Thunder Palace.

"Giving up?" Laxus jumped down and walked towards Elpton.

"There's no point in keeping up with your merry little band now." Elpton picked up his helmet on a nearby benched and put it on his head. "I'm just going to cut my losses and find some other place where I can build up from the ground up."

Laxus snarled and electricity started to dance around him. "And what makes you think I'm just going to let you go after pulling a stunt like that?"

Elpton's helmet tilted, "Someone is powerful enough to stop me? Who?"

And that was cue for Kain to hurry it up with the disabling controls while keeping an eye on the three he found here.

Laxus had his eyes widened and gripped his fist that danced with electricity. "Fine, your 'committee' wasn't even a proper warm up! I'm going to enjoy denting your armor in!"

Elpton laughed before his eye beneath his helm started to glow red. "Consider my interest piqued. I have yet to meet anyone even scratching me."

And then the two clashed.

* * *

"Uuuhhh..." Natsu slowly blinked his eyes, trying to refocus his sight only to see the guild… it was broken, roughed up, but… why was he looking at it from above?

It took him a moment to realize he was trapped. Parts of the guild had sprouted on the second floor and served as some kind of trap that prevented him from escaping, powering through, or accessing his magic.

Natsu then looked around and saw the rest of Team Valiant and some of the others trapped in similar block restraints all looking down towards the first floor.

The Dragon Slayer looked down and then his memories, and anger returned as he shouted. "Get up here so I can deck you, asshole! You'll pay for hurting Macao!"

Down on the first floor, Pierre seemed to either ignore or didn't hear Natsu, since the latter was impossible, the former was more likely.

However, all Pierre seemed to keep doing was writing down something on the floor. Just writing, and humming…

It was strange, but Natsu wondered what the hell was the clown doing?

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Okay yeah, now we have Elpton Versus Laxus! I'm a little excited about the next chapter, but Imma save it for later.**

 **For now, I introduce a new retcon: Nab Larso! I can't even begin to explain what I changed with this character. When Team Valiant was in Sun Village, I opened up the world of this story by introducing Shaman as the true mystics compared to that of the mages we're all familiar with. Adding on to that, I've completely re-wrote (Or arguably created) a new back story for Nab of all people. I am so proud of it that in the later future, you guys have no idea what I just put to motion.**

 **Yeah, I went where no Fairy Tail writer went ever before: I made Nab have a back story that might actually be fun to read!**

 **It's not just him. I've been also working on a different back story to Bisca, but that's also down the lane.**

 **I think it's worth repeating since I once said this: I usually have no need for New Ocs in this story besides Kain, Ignis, and Villains that give proper challenges. The side characters that Fairy Tail already have already are good enough to be explored and experimented on, and I am fully prepared to do so with a majority of them.**

 **I'm actually super excited to show you guys the new backstories of some of the side characters, but the sad thing is that they'll be happening in quite a while. When they come close, I'll be sure to tell you guys. Trust me, I'm super excited for them, and I hope you guys will be too when they come.**

 **Thanks for reading, see ya all soon.**


	28. Chapter 28

Does anyone remember how in media, there are these things that have timers and if you don't deactivate them in time, they explode? Well in Kain Obadiah Reynold's case, things are exploding already and he was not even done with deactivating the Thunder Palace.

"Laxus, I said to get out of the cathedral! We are going to be paying for these damages!" The young man managed to shout while still working on the controls of the Thunder Palace. Did those bastards change the code and settings?

Laxus, hearing this, was able to tackle Elpton out of the doors and punch him hard enough to launch him out of the city. While that in itself, is an impressive feat of power, the fact that Elpton simply stood up and shook off dirt form his armor showed that he too was capable of feats even beyond super human.

"You know, I have to admit, I do like you, Laxus." Elpton began as Laxus landed in after him.

"What the hell did you mean by that?"

"It was one of the reasons why I said yes to your guild in the first place. The strong make all the rules, and the weak either obey or get destroyed." He made a motion with his hands thrown out before sighing. "Unfortunately, I had weaker underlings. But what can you do?"

Now that was debatable, all of the mages he recruited with Elpton were all powerful mages in their own right. Laxus even saw some of them overpower mages from Phantom Lord's top ten, but then…

Then Kain started to fight to help the others. He started working together with his allies.

It didn't just happen there.

When Fairy Tail was united back with it's original members, they suddenly fought so much harder than they would alone. It was enough that Elpton's group filled with powerful mages actually failed to stop them.

BAM!

Laxus flinched before back flipping mid air and skidding on the ground. He got back up and snarled at his opponent.

"I don't know why you were distracted right there, but hey, never underestimate a good o'l cheap shot."

The blonde guild master spit out some blood and wiped his chin. "Do you ever shut up?"

"And who's going to make me?" One would have to be beyond stupid to not notice the mocking tone in that taunt just now. Elpton raised his hand and motioned Laxus to come closer.

And Laxus did. He moved like lightning and struck like thunder. The explosion that came from the impact of the punch copied the sound and power of a natural storm as Elpton was seen flying through a good amount of trees and shrubs.

However, as fast he crashed, something shot out of the explosion and decked Laxus with equal amounts of speed and force.

"Whoo! I actually felt that sting!" Elpton moved his hand to where his jaw was behind his helmet. "That was pretty impressive. I might actually have fun with this!"

On the other side, Laxus actually took some noticeable damage form the blow, not only that, Elpton was obviously holding back still! To be honest, Elpton didn't give off a lot of magical energy, but then what was his magic that could allow him such amazing physical feats?

 _*Sigh* Laxus, your magic is strong, but don't get cocky. Each magic has it's own sets of advantages and disadvantages. There will come a time where you face an opponent with magic you have no experience dealing with, what is your first course of action?_ "

Test the waters. Laxus threw his hand out as a bolt of thunder rushed right for Elpton head on. The man wearing the armor stood still and raised his hand out. The thunderbolt hit Elpton dead on, even traced around his armor, but the opponent of the guild master showed no signs of even being tickled by the powerful spell.

(The only thing that fits is some kind of invulnerability spell, but this one doesn't have the usual draws backs of having no offensive capabilities. It seems to active passively, even when he's striking.) Laxus then frowned.

It was one thing that he did find a truly powerful mage to represent the guild, it was a completely different thing when that same mage ended up trying to do a coup around the time he was originally planning a coup on his grandfather, and it was another damn thing the bastard was strong enough that Laxus actually had to recall his grandfather's lessons to stand an actual chance.

Perhaps if Kain was here, he would say something along the lines, "If Gajeel was here, he could literally eat the irony of this situation because it's just that thick."

"Dragon slayer magic doesn't work like that!" Imaginary Natsu exclaimed.

"I'm trying to prove a point, Imaginary Natsu!" Imaginary Kain then turned back to Laxus, "You're also zoning out again."

Laxus blinked and barley avoided a large boulder that was attempting to crush him. It didn't stop Laxus from utterly loathing himself for being so off his game.

"It's obvious your mind is elsewhere." Even Elpton could see that Laxus had a lot on his plate. "It's a shame. I was actually having some fun."

(God damn it, look at what that brat and those weaklings are making me do! It pisses me so off that I wish I could be taking it out on this asshole. Tch! Thing is though, he's got a pretty powerful magic if it lets him have great offensive and defensive capabilities at the same time, maybe even passively. Still if I can just find some weak spot in it…) Laxus then started speeding around the area, circling fast around Elpton and unleashing powerful bolts of thunder at the armored man.

"Ahahha! Stop! That tickles—" Elpton then heard the sound of humming beneath him and looked down to see a dozen electrical orbs, floating right beneath his eyes sight.

"What the—" The orbs exploded in a bright flash-bang, and made Elpton screamed as he moved his hands to his eyes.

Laxus was right in front of Elpton not even an instant later with a magic circle primed in front of his fist.

He launched a hard punch into Elpton's stomach that dented his armor inward, and as soon as it made contact, a large blast of thunder that could be seen on the opposite side of Magnolia was unleashed.

(Well what do ya know? Guess the brat and Elpton were right, cheap shots are pretty damn effective.)

It was then that Laxus' instincts screamed at him as he got out of the vicinity he was in as fast as he could. This was good because a fair amount of the area Laxus was just standing in was suddenly hit by red light and scorched the place into nothing but a burnt stain in the forest area.

"What the hell?" Laxus then felt something coming at him, but then was decked in the face so hard that for a second he though his grandfather returned.

After an explosive landing, Laxus felt a shadow cast over him and looked up. Elpton was now floating in the air with his eyes glowing red and a ruined cape fluttering in the wind.

"That… now that made me mad." It seemed like Elpton was no longer playing around.

(On second thought, the brat is going to pay for influencing me to do that move a while ago.)

* * *

"Why the heck does it feel like someone is belittling me?" Kain wondered out loud as he tried to re program the Thunder Palace. "And why do I feel as if that was unfair?"

"K-Kain?" The armored rider didn't look, but he was starting to hear Cana slowly regain consciousness. "Is that you?"

"Yep, I'm totally not some weird hangover dream you have." Kain then was distracted by something. "What the heck did these guys do?! The controls are all over the place, I don't recognize any of the old settings Master Makarov showed me! Don't tell me I've got to reboot the entire thing!" Although he sounded reluctant, he started to do so.

"Kain, watch out!" Cana's voice snapped the young man out of his stupor as he suddenly turned with a blade and shot a slash wave right behind him. The result was Kain's attack clashing with a spell that would have hit him.

The armored wyvern rider looked through the vanishing smoke to see that the men that Laxus had knocked out… were all getting back up!

Kain took a step forward—

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

But then he instantly turned around and looked back at the controls of the Thunder Palace. "Oh you've got to be kidding me! The reboot has to be manually inputted or else the Thunder Palace will randomly attack!?"

Kain quickly went back to the floating controls, but then he looked back to see Elpton's remaining mages slowly walking towards him.

" _Warren, I need back up in the cathedral now! Can you spare anyone!?_ "

" _Sorry, Kain, we're all busy! These traps Freed put are wearing us fast! I doubt even if we could, they wouldn't get to you in time!_ "

" _But I can't stop rebooting the Thunder Palace or else it will attack Magnolia!_ "

"Then don't stop." Kain turned around to see Cana, Max, and Laki slowly getting back up.

"You man those controls. We'll take on these guys." Max Alors gasped as he tried to summon sand around him.

"But all three of you are hurt!" The wyvern rider tried to argue, but still was inputting commands.

"So are they, but unlike them, we can take it!" Laki exhaled and ended up forcing herself to stand upright properly.

Cana gasped as well but slammed her fists together and smiled. "You're one of the smartest people in the guild, so we'll leave the brainy stuff to you. Leave the punching and violence to us."

Kain wanted to argue, but the reboot demanded his attention. "Just… just try to drag the fight out of the cathedral! Any more damage is coming out of your reward money!" He warned them before working on the Thunder Palace.

"Well damn, those are the best motivational pre-fighting words I've ever heard! Come on guys! There's no way these bastards are taking our hard earned jewels!" Cana screamed out as she, Max, and Laki rushed for Elpton's mages.

Kain trusted them. However, suddenly a version of the holo map popped up near him and he saw something located out side the city. The map was reacting to two massive power spikes and the only other time he saw something like that was when Makarov and Jose were fight—oh no.

* * *

Reality checks are without a doubt some of the hardest slap on the face ever. Laxus Dreyar's were also coming in the form of punches that he was pretty sure cracked his jaw several times over with one blow.

Elpton had unleashed a flurry of fists, kicks, and eye laser blasts with likeness of the sun up close all on the thunder mage that he was forced to use some of his Dragon Slaying arts. But even an edge in tapping into raw dragon magic still barely seemed to dent the guy with his passive invulnerability.

Laxus was damn sick and tired of this asshole kicking his butt. "What kind of magic do you damn have?!" He shouted after seeing even a dragon's roar did little to phase is opponent.

"It's impressive isn't it? I found it by complete accident: Krypton Magic. It basically turns me into a super… guy of sorts. But there was no way I was sharing this magic with anyone else, so I burned the book that taught me this amazing magic." Elpton flourished his hands out in a grandiose manner. Unfortunately for Laxus, he really had little way of hurting the man, and considering his arsenal that _could_ potentially hurt him… that would leave him up open for a few seconds, and he could barely avoid Elpton's attacks at his best.

" _Laxus!_ " What the hell? The lightning dragon slayer thought he was done imagining his underlings. " _Can you hear me? I asked Warren to set me_ _up_ _a solo link with you!_ "

Oh, so that was real. " _What is it brat, I'm in the middle of something?_ "

" _So the holo map here in the cathedral can zoom, and did you just use a lightning version of a Dragon Slayer roar?_ "

" _You called me up fo_ _r_ _questions?!_ " Laxus blasted Elpton with another thunderbolt who only inhaled and actually froze the bolt with his breath. That shocked Laxus long enough for Elpton to punch back the frozen thunder bolt that nailed the Guild Master through boulders this time. " _I have no time for that!_ "

" _No, I needed to confirm that! Look, I can tell by the map that Elpton is overpowering you—_ "

" _The hell he is!_ " Laxus mentally shouted back while pushing rubble off him and glaring back at Elpton.

At that moment, Laxus swore he could feel the boy roll his eyes at the other end of the link. " _Ignoring that; I have a plan to get you more powerful in an instant, seeing your magic._ "

" _No._ "

" _This is no time for your stupid pride, Laxus!_ "

" _I'm not getting help from a weak, no magic fool like you!_ "

Laxus was expecting Kain to argue more. He was not expecting the link to suddenly grow silent.

Even though it was a few seconds, the lightning dragon slayer could have sworn it felt like hours instead.

" _Why?_ "

That was just one word. It wasn't condescending, or sarcastic. It wasn't questioning, or said in anger. It sounded honest.

" _WHY!?_ " Laxus linked back as he went in with full power on a slug fight with Elpton. " _You weaklings in Fairy Tail, in Magnolia have stained the name of the guild! The old geezer made the guild a shadow of what it once was! We were the best of the best, and it changed! I won't accept help from a weakling! I won't accept help from you or anyone else!_ "

" _What did we ever do to make you hate us so much?_ " Again, Kain's simple questions snuffed out Laxus' anger faster than water poured on fire.

" _You..._ " Laxus was punched in the cheek, kicked in the stomach, and forced into an unfavorable headbutt with Elpton. " _You…!_ "

However, it seemed like Laxus was feeling more pain from the mental battle he was having with Kain.

" _Damn it! Get out of my head!_ " Laxus shouted a war cry as he went back to fight against Elpton.

For a moment there was silence, but with the same honesty as before, Kain said, " _Laxus_ … _I asked Yajima about your father._ "

If he was angry before, the mention of that topic was like ripping Pandora's Box in half with explosives. " _Brat, keep talking, and as soon as I'm done with this asshole, I'm coming after you!_ "

It seemed like the brat believed Laxus could in no way pull of his threat right now and kept talking. " _I'm sorry about him. About how he treated you, but out of everyone in your life, he shouldn't have been the one you should_ _have looked up to._ "

" _How dare you! It's thanks to him that I'm this strong! Stronger than all of you put together!_ "

" _OPEN YOUR EYES, LAXUS!_ _LOOK AROUND YOU_ _! THIS IS WHAT YOUR FATHER'S IDEALS HAVE DONE TO YOU—TO ALL OF US! WE'RE FIGHTING TO THE DEATH HERE WITH HUNDREDS OF INNOCENTS AT STAKE! IS_ _ **THIS**_ _YOUR IDEA OF BEING STRONG!?_ "

Kain was no longer being calm about this. His anger came out in such a way that it caught Laxus off guard and maybe even—and he would later hate this to his very core—scare him. It also came as a heavy blow that put even Elpton's strength to shame.

Laxus briefly looked around, the explosions in Magnolia, the scared earth, and in some places, people running away scared and frightened.

There was this amazing hate that came out of Laxus. No matter how much he tried to deny it, the facts were staring him at the face. All of this destruction, this pain, this fear… it was all because of him.

" _You wanted to show up Master Makarov, your grandfather, and make a better guild? Then do it Laxus, be better, but also make him proud of you turning the guild better, not worse._ "

Laxus was hit back into the ground by Elpton. Instead of feeling the pain, there was stinging sensation in his eyes that made the Guild Master put his hand over his face and snarl angrily. "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

"Well you lasted pretty long, but too bad for you..." Elpton raised his brow when he looked over at the guild master.

Laxus stood up, beaten up, injured, bloody, and gasping fro breath. But his eyes looked like they were looking right through Elpton.

" _Brat… what is your plan?_ "

Kain smiled as he continued to work on the Thunder Palace controls. " _Remember how Natsu gets a power boost depending on how much flames he eats?_ "

Laxus looked back at Magnolia with obvious stunned silence and surprise. It looked like he already knew what the crazed kid was planning. " _You're kidding, right?_ "

" _Look, I'm the only guy in the guild that makes plans—that doesn't automatically mean all of them are going to be good. It's the only thing that can give you a proper power boost._ "

" _God damn it. Fine, let's try it. I need something to beat into a bloody pulp right now._ " Laxus at that moment was glaring a lot at Elpton.

" _In that case, Master Laxus,_ _as a legendary band in my world once said,_ _ **You've been Thunderstruck!**_ " All the way in the Cathedral, Kain activated the Thunder Palace, and everyone in Magnolia was surprised to see the robs activating and blasting a huge amount of concentrated electricity out of town.

Elpton saw this but then saw Laxus inhale deeply, and absorb _all of the power_ of the Thunder Palace in one breath.

After inhaling it all, a massive spike in power exploded form Laxus that even caused Elpton to shield himself.

The skies around Magnolia suddenly turned dark, with black clouds with rumbling thunder inside them that chocked out all the sunlight in the city. Elpton was startled. One of the few downsides to this magic was that it needed sunlight to remain strong and powerful with little effort. Now that the sun's light was cut off from him, he now had to keep up his powers with his own magic, but this now meant the longer he fought, the higher chance of him losing his magic. Elpton would have to—

That thought would have to finish after he landed from being punched with enough force to make him bleed and create a large crater from where they were fighting.

Laxus, with golden aura around him and thunder from the skies blasting nearby him, stepped forward with a look on his eyes that actually seemed impressed with the feat he had just done himself.

"That was without a doubt the most satisfying feeling I've felt in years!" The Guild master of Fairy Tail laughed before rushing for his opponent with far more sucess than before.

For the first time, in how long, Elpton was actually taking damage. The power boost and the cut off from sunlight allowed Laxus to actually put heavy blows onto the large man.

"Damn you!" Elpton cried out, no longer calm that he was in control of the situation.

"What's the matter? Where's all that talk from a while ago?" Well this was a high that just kept rising. It was cathartic to really beat up someone taunting you from awhile ago.

However, Laxus looked in confusion when Elpton's eyes started glowing a brighter red than before.

Laxus prepared for everything—okay he wasn't expecting Elpton to actually explode with an aura that looked as bright as the sun and his eyes glowing to the point that they both looked like miniature suns.

By the way that even Laxus in his powered up state suddenly felt like a ping pong ball, being smashed back and forth at fast speed by heavy blows, it was safe to say that Elpton had a last resort spell that ended up giving him a power boost to his already stupid levels of physicality.

(God damn it! I really can't overpower this guy! Fine, we'll go with plan B after all.)

As he regained himself mid air, Laxus suddenly planted a magic circle on the ground, then avoided being hit with a force that was enough to break the very area he was standing as if a miniature earthquake went through there.

He did this several more times before stopping and facing the power increased Elpton.

There was one advantage in this madness that Elpton seemed to be more into a berserk state by now. Overpowering him might be null and void, but…

"AAAHHHHHH!" Elpton roared as he charged for the guild master of Fairy Tail.

Laxus sighed and snapped his fingers. In less than a millisecond after, all dozen magic circles around the area lit up and all shot magical, golden chains that ensnared the raging Elpton. Amazingly, the chains held, but the more Elpton started to struggle, he seemed to be breaking through them although much slowly than all the other things he has destroyed so far.

"I really hated my old geezer," Laxus began as he looked at a struggling Elpton. "I hated what he stood for, what he was doing to the guild, and a whole bunch of other stuff."

He sighed deeply. "But damn it, he was a good teacher. I actually had to remember his lessons in order to beat you."

Elpton screamed as he pulled even harder on the magical chains binding him.

"Huh. That's impressive, you can break those bonds. But I know you can't break it fast enough to stop me from doing _this_."

Laxus started concentrating a lot of his magical power and took a stance that Makarov once took not too long ago.

Seeing the massive spike of magic, Elpton struggled harder, cracking and pulling through one of the chains, then another, then another.

(I once thought about using this spell to getting rid off everyone in Magnolia.) Laxus mentally reflected as he continued the motions. (Who the hell would have expected me using this spell to save it?)

(Bah. I can comment on fate's sense of humor later.)

"FAIRY LAW!" Laxus screamed out the Guild's strongest spell and a bright light covered all of Magnolia.

* * *

Pierre saw the light coming his way and tilted his head. "Hmm..."

* * *

After the light died down, Kain looked behind him to see all of Elpton's mages out cold and looked as if they were burned by the sun. Wait… that was a bit much, they all were charred, but not burned, yet they were all drained and out cold.

"What kind of spell was that?" The boy from a displaced dimension asked as he looked towards the others.

"I… I think that was Master Makarov's Fairy Law." Cana gasped. "I didn't know Laxus knew that spell."

Kain looked down and lightly kicked one of Elpton's mages. "Okay, why didn't he use this spell earlier then?" He paused and then used his link. " _Warren, did all our enemies suddenly drop… unconscious?_ "

" _Y-Yeah! After that light, they all dropped like flies!_ "

That was Kain's cue to switch to Laxus' link. " _Great job, Master Laxus, but why didn't you use that spell earlier?_ "

" _Shut up brat._ " Even through the link, it sounded like Laxus was beyond exhausted. " _I meant what I said, you're next when I get my hands on you._ "

" _I'll be long out of town before you regain your strength._ " Kain half joked.

" _Really? And to think I was going to offer you your job back._ "

That made the boy blink in surprise inside his armor. " _Wait what? Really? You're giving me my job back?_ "

" _Brat, I'm not going to lie to you, there ain't no way I can handle the upcoming paper work after all this bullshit. Just take your damn job back._ "

Kain smiled. On the surface, it sounded like Laxus was still being stubborn and egotistic, which he was. But Kain was more observant to notice how tired the big lug sounded, and how this was the very closest to him begging Kain to come back to the guild.

" _I want a thirty percent raise._ "

" _What!? Hell no! … Five percent._ "

" _Alright, ten percent, but I want more vacation days._ "

" _Damn it… fine._ "

And that was Kain's cue to message everyone. " _Hey guys, great news! I'm back as your lawyer!_ " He was met with mixes of shock, relief, and joy. However, time soon passed after and it was time to get to business. " _Alright, alright. Let's get these guys cleaned up, and get the town out of martial law, shall we?_ "

" _Kain?_ "

Everyone was silent at that voice in the main link.

" _Natsu!_ " Happy and others screamed out the name in joy.

" _AAAAHHHH!?_ " Their shouts of joy were killed faster than a criminal in an execution block when Natsu mentally screamed in pain in the link.

"What the hell?" Max heard max say before Natsu screamed again.

" _S-Screw you!_ " Natsu's mental voice shouted after the pained screams and pant for air. " _Guys! D-Damn it, there's still someone up!_ "

" _That's impossible!_ " Laxus' voice shouted in Kain's link. " _I casted Fairy Law over the damn city! There's no way someone should have been able to protect themselves from that spell!"_

" _Kain… it's Pierre. I don't know what that bastard did, but he somehow avoided that light attack just now… he's… damn it I won't! … No! NO! You get away from Lucy, bastard! … BASTARD! I'll KILL YOU!_ "

Kain's mind moved a mile per minute, with how Natsu was getting louder over the link, and with that conversation, the young man speculated that Pierre must have figured out about Warren's link and that the telepath would connect to everyone who was an ally. Pierre must be using Natsu to talk to all of us, and with that last burst, he was threatening Lucy to have Natsu deliver the message. " _Natsu! Natsu! I'm right here! Breathe! Tell me what's going on!_ "

" _He stabbed Lucy! She's bleeding to death!_ " That was far worse than he imagined, he didn't threaten Lucy, he was down right torturing her in front of him.

" _That monster won't get away with that!_ " Elfman shouted in the link. " _Let's all go and kick his ass!_ "

" _Damn it no!_ " Everyone was shocked to hear Natsu say that in the link. They became increasingly worried when Natsu's defiant words become softer and sounded more like he was giving up. " _No_ … _no… Kain..._ "

Kain inhaled, a thought in his mind forming in a way he didn't like at all. " _Natsu, what is?_ "

" _He_ … _the bastard wants you and only you to reenter into the guild. If anyone else comes, he'll slit Lucy's throat then and there._ "

Everyone was silent, the wyvern rider could feel everyone around looking in his direction even though all weren't currently in sight.

"Kain, you can't go!" Max looked worried and told the armored man.

"Max," Kain turned around to the sand mage. "You're going to need to elaborate that since I know you care about Lucy's well being too."

"It's obviously a trap! I saw that guy fight: it was uncanny and made no sense! Wakaba tried rushing the guy, but then he suddenly dropped and looked like he was having a nightmare all of a sudden! That guy is scarier than Elpton even!"

"All the more reason to save the others still trapped in the guild." Kain firmly said before activating the link. " _Natsu, tell him not to harm Lucy and that I'm on my way._ "

Many tried to tell Kain that what he was doing was a bad idea, " _Everyone, listen to me closely. I don't like this as much as the next guy, but I will go into the guild alone. I want all of you to surround it a safe distance away. We are not letting this last bastard get away with hurting Macao and Lucy._ "

That calmed down everyone as they all mostly agreed to be at least a half mile around the guild. Kain sped through the city and eventually arrived near the guild.

To the surprise of the young man, Gajeel was already some distance away from the entrance with his arms folded.

"What the hell does this guy want with you?" It was a question that cut straight to the point, it was a question that, of course, Gajeel would ask.

And to be honest? Kain was asking himself as well. "I don't know. But it looks like I'm going to find out." The displaced young man looked down to see runes a few feet in front of the Fairy Tail guild that weren't there before he left. "There's a magical barrier around the guild that's preventing you from going in, isn't there?" That last sentence was more of an observation than a question.

The Phantom Lord mage scoffed before unfolding his arms, revealing his left fist: it was slightly burned, and the glove was completely ruined.

That spoke volumes. Gajeel obviously tried breaking it down, but the barrier had nasty defenses.

"I should be able to get in with my armor. Though I have no idea what to expect in there."

Gajeel growled at the sentence and pointed towards Kain. "Don't you dare lose, brat! It's bad enough I got beaten by a no magic loser like you! I'll kick your ass if you end up losing to this guy!"

Kain could only let out a laugh at the pseudo threat. "What the heck is with everyone going through roundabout ways to say things like, "I'm sorry" or "Be safe."? No one's going to die for being honest."

Gajeel looked away with a scoff. "I ain't saying that." Unlike before, he didn't deny it as vehemently as he claimed it.

"… Well allow me to misinterpret what you said and say thanks." Kain returned before walking through the barrier and entering back into the guild.

The young man had only stepped forward a few steps until he felt one of his pockets vibrate. He looked towards the crystal orb and answered, "Mystogan, are you there?"

"Macao is under the care of the town doctors and healers. He's hurt but he should be fine," That was one less thing to worry about. "But both of us still have our magic suppressed and I can't be in Magnolia. How are things in your end?"

"It's a work in progress and too long to explain. I'm keeping you on though." Kain then put the orb away and walked through the doors of the guild.

It was surreal to come back to the place he was welcomed and now was on his guard.

The place was destroyed pretty bad, not as bad as the Phantom Lord War where Gajeel and he broke it in the first place, but it was worse than the usual damages the guild faced when fighting each other.

"Kain!" The wyvern rider looked up to the second floor where there was this giant wall of all the remaining and capture Fairy Tail members. The boy's eyes widened when he saw right next to Natsu was Lucy, gasping in pain as a knife was left into her abdomen.

"You are here." Kain turned as he saw Pierre waiting on an untouched bench, just sitting there waiting for a child to come home far past curfew. "I have been waiting a very long time for this."

Kain gripped his fists. That last sentence made no sense to him. He never even interacted with Pierre at all, so why did it seem like Pierre was waiting for him?

"Surrender, Pierre! Elpton and the others are down, and you have no chance of escaping!"

"Of course you won against Elpton. I was against him in the first place." He suddenly snapped his fingers. Kain looked around him, but to his surprise, nothing happened.

Nothing around him, anyway.

" _What the hell!?_ " Kain heard Laxus' link talking to him. " _Brat, I just saw runes fly out of Elpton's body! They looked like the ones that was on me not to long ago!_ "

Soon, more cries from the others saying that other bodies in Elpton's group had runes on them vanishing from their bodies.

"Haven't you wondered why they haven't killed everyone out right?" Pierre began as he stood up form the bench and walked between Kain and his captured friends. "Elpton and the others aren't slouches. And they would have killed all of your friends without a shred of mercy if not for me."

Thoughts went back to the people of Elpton's group. They were indeed powerful, but something came up that now didn't make sense: why were they keeping everyone of their enemies alive? They let Cana, Max, and Laki alive even though they could have been killed off with ease, the same with everyone else here. Did Pierre curse his own allies to save Fairy Tail?!

If that was remotely true, then that only brought up more questions than answers. "Why did you do that?"

No one liked the way Pierre lifted both his hands in an outward way towards Kain. "I did it for _you_!"

Kain tried his absolute best to ignore the dark chill down his spine and how he could feel his goosebumps rising after hearing the reason. "I hesitate to say this greatly, but can you elaborate?"

"I wanted you to be happy!" He made a flourish with his hands.

"What the hell makes you think torturing my friends would make me happy!?" Kain instantly returned, but saw that Pierre didn't even seem remotely thrown off.

Pierre then started saying something very eerie. "Aren't you though? Isn't it great to be needed again? Especially by people who threw you out in the first place? Wasn't it oh-so satisfying, returning and making everything better when no one else could? What about being a hero to the people you associate yourselves with?"

Kain did mentally admit that it was good to be back, it was good to be needed, especially after being kicked out. He also liked how everyone practically turned to him and their time of need. It really did make him feel like a hero.

"That… that is true," Kain admitted before shaking his head. "But there's no way I can be really happy with everyone in danger like this! I want them to like me for who I am, not because of my actions! Now release everyone, and surrender quietly."

Pierre dropped his hands. "What? You actually care about them? That can't be right, you don't care about them."

Kain raised his hand out and shook his head. "Look, if you're trying to psycho analyze me: that's fine. I don't really know what I'm doing a good majority of the time, and I always question if I didn't go madly insane or die and am currently in a weird limbo/hell thing," His voice got softer as he looked up to Team Valiant. "But I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I do like my friends for being them. I wish Gray and Natsu wouldn't fight so much and break stuff that I have to file to replace and pay for, but they're both fun to be around. I like talking with Lucy on things like money management and how much our teammates can be too much. Erza is always trying to act aloof and responsible, but I find it hilarious how sometimes she can be more immature and petty than both Natsu and Gray. And I can be a hardass when I threaten some of my friends over their paychecks, but they tolerate me too." The brunette sighed. "Basically, I like spending time with them, and that's pretty good enough for me magic or no."

The words coming from the displaced boy were kind and caring, for everyone else still listening through the link, they felt their heart soften at him saying nice things about their friends. However, they were all brought back to reality when Pierre's voice was heard through Kain's link.

"Oh my," Pierre tilted his head. While the act was cute, it was done in a twisted way that didn't look like a good sign at all. "It appears I miscalculated. I might need to kill everyone after all to save you from their influence."

The displaced boy was having this distinct feeling that Pierre thought Kain was the one brainwashed and crazy right now. "Kill everyone?" Kain repeated out loud. Even though the guy was creepy, he doubted he could face everyone outside this guild hall and remain unscratched. No, massive amounts of power was obviously never Pierre's thing, it was something else. Plotting, patience, cunning, Pierre was someone who used his brains along with his magic. That immediately made him one of the most dangerous opponents Kain had ever face because chances are he would be able to out smart all of them.

"Let's play a game, Kain," The sing song tune of the clown made Kain feel tense and stressed. "Let's play pretend. Now, if we were in reverse situations, what would you abuse to make sure everyone dies horribly despite being outnumbered and surrounded?"

" _The hell is this guy saying?_ " " _That clown is insane!_ " " _Keep your guard up, Kain, he's up to something!_ " " _He's bluffing, brat, just beat him up and get this over with already!_ "

Kain half wished the link wasn't up. He also half wished Warren wasn't able to make the link stronger so everyone could hear what Pierre was saying, and he wouldn't need to threaten Lucy again to get his message across. But he then again, he's been in worse situations.

Pierre was obviously insane, but there was obviously enough lucidity in him to pull off cursing everyone around him with almost no one noticing him. Kain would have to play the game. He pretended that the situations were reversed.

Kain held members of Fairy Tail hostage while the rest surrounded the guild. The Thunder Palace would have been a great use in this situation, he would have hidden it better and reveal it right now so he could make his escape…

But Pierre did make no signs of wanting to escape. And it's obvious that he also wasn't interested in the Thunder Palace.

But what else was there? Kain doubted Pierre could, or even wanted to play the hostage card. If Kain was the villain, the most he could do was just take Lucy or someone else hostage and try to escape.

"I'll give you two minutes.~" Pierre sang and started to hum a merry tune. "You don't want to see what happens to one of your blondies if those two minutes pass.~"

"Don't you dare!" Natsu tried to break his bonds, but the magic runes on his clamps glowed and instantly weakened the fire dragon slayer.

No, no. This wasn't right and he was getting nowhere. Pierre didn't care about the hostages at all, he cared about Kain in a creepy Joker-to-Batman way.

(Wait a sec.) The wyvern rider looked between him and Pierre. It… it almost did look like a Joker-loving-Batman relationship. As creepy as it was, the Joker always seemed to push Batman to the very brink, pushing his mental facilities to the very limit. If Pierre was anything like the Joker, and he hopped to god that he wasn't dealing with an insane, mass murdering psychopath, then he wanted to do things in a grand and showy scale.

What else in Magnolia could pull that off? The Thunder Palace was rebooted and the Barriers were easy enough to get around. What else could Pierre take advantage off? Did the town have a second defense system he didn't…

Town… system...

… No… No… it couldn't be…

Kain's helmet looked up. Natsu noticed that Kain seemed horrified by his body language as he looked towards Pierre.

"You didn't."

Pierre started clapping. "You really did figure it out! I'm so proud of you! I'm so impressed that I won't kill the blonde!"

He abruptly stopped clapping and said this next sentence in a deep tone. "I guess I'll just kill everyone else."

" _Brat, what the hell did you just figure ou—?!_ "  
" _Laxus, order a mass evacuation, now!_ " Kain's mental scream was like that of a banshee as everyone else in it were surprised by the amount of desperation in his voice. " _Pierre tampered with the Gildarts Shift System!_ "

Those last words made everyone pale in horror. The Gildarts Shift system was specifically designed for Fairy Tail's true strongest guild member, Gildarts Clive. The man, despite being powerful, was so clumsy that he destroyed many houses and buildings every time he returned to the guild. As such, Magnolia had a system in which they would shift the entire city down in two so that Gildarts could reach the guild safely.

And right now? A mad man has just tampered with a system that can literally shift the ground beneath the entire city.

SNAP!

Pierre had brought up his hands and snapped his fingers. No sooner than it did, the ground started to shake worse than an earthquake.

All around Magnolia, houses and buildings shot up to the sky, while some platforms and neighborhood moved at the speed of a race car, shifting through other rising or lower cities… or worse, some fast moving areas crashed into others.

The devastation, destruction, and chaos was almost instantaneous.

" _EVERYONE, MOVE AND SAVE AS MANY LIVES AS YOU CAN!_ " Kain's voice reached everyone like the voice of god and snapped them all out of their stupor. " _Monsieur Sol of Phantom Lord, this message is specifically for you and any remaining earth mages! The Shift System is managed by a series of Lacrima posts in Magnolia's underground pathway, you should all see them in the gaps now created! Use Earth magic to slow down the moving buildings, and everyone else should save the civilians, and help break or deactivate those Lacrima! Go!_ "

Suddenly, the ground beneath Fairy Tail started to shake worse and then Kain fell down as he felt himself being pushed down by a G-force. The Guild was raising to the sky because of Pierre's tampering.

"Do you not hear the screams from up here?" Pierre spoke as the guild came to a stop high above the madness down below. "Do they not sound like music to one's ears—"

The clown didn't get to say any more as Kain punched him hard in the face with enough force to knock his mask off and send him crashing into the stage.

"Undo everything, now! I am not playing anymore games!" Kain roared as he stepped forward and crushed the mask of Pierre.

"Now why would I do that?" Pierre's voice came out of the smoke, no longer filtered by the mask.

Natsu's ears twitched. "Hold on? That can't be right!" The dragon slayer couldn't believe it. He knew that voice!

Kain heard that and briefly looked up before noticing a figure rising from the smoke. "When this is the most fun, I've ever had!"

That time, Kain heard it too. It was hard not to hear it. "What?"

Pierre stepped out of the shadows and Kain and Natsu could only look with astonishment beyond anything they had witnessed yet even in this magical world.

Pierre laughed a horribly familiar laugh. "I also bet..."

The smoke finally died down… revealing Pierre's face at last. Only, it wasn't a face of a stranger. It was that of someone everyone in the guild knew.

Kain could only look in disbelief as he was… staring down his _own face_!

Kero Pierre looked exactly like Kain Reynolds in face, hair, and voice. "...That you're enjoying this as much as I am, _**dear soul mate**!_"

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **First of all: NO SPOILERS IN REVIEWS! I wasn't expecting you guys to actually expose the plot twist back when I made Laxus the guild master, and many of you actually did. The hell guys? Don't ruin it for new readers; that's just plain rude.**

 **Secondly: Boom! There we go! I wonder if anyone guessed that Pierre had the same exact face as Kain? Well no one in the Reviews even mentioned who he could be, so bam! A Surprise twist!**

 **How can Pierre have the same face as Kain? Well if you all are Fairy Tail savvy, you know what Pierre is, or rather, what KAIN is. For everyone else, I'll just give a one word hint: Mystogan.**

 **It's going to be explained further in the next chapter if you still don't get it. But here we go! Watch as we get into the next chapter, and we see the fate of Fairy Tail after this 'civil war' of sorts!**

 **Also, I saw the first two chapters of Eden Zero by the time I posted this. I really thought it was a direct sequel, but in actuality it really is a spin off. But isn't it funny? Mishima made an AU with his own characters. Which means congratulations everyone! Everyone's AU is technically cannon as well! WHOO-wait. OH GOD WHY!?**

 **Well I guess that's that then. I'll see you guys next time.**


	29. Chapter 29

**{Author Notes}**

 **Okay, really quick. I want to say, go read** State of Independence **by** Crimson Starbird. **And when that's done, once more, read** His Backstory **by** Miralake. **These two stories are really good and they have so little views. I don't care if you drop this chapter to go read them, because they do deserve more exposure.**

 **That's it for now.**

* * *

There was a rumor that meeting your doppelganger would lead to one's death. However, if that was the case, who would be the doppelganger? Are you really meeting your doppelganger, or are you that familiar stranger's doppelganger? The rumor suggests the original may die, so what if you don't die but your doppelganger dies? Does that mean you're the doppelganger then? Or would it mean that you would now be the original, being the only survivor?

All in all, the rumor can simply boil down to this: if two people with the same face meet, one of them is going to die.

"Y-You have my..." Kain Reynolds was even having trouble forming proper words in his own mind as he stared down the stranger with the same face as his.

Pierre laughed, a chilling laugh. It was insane, it was mad—it was also done by a voice who many in Fairy Tail always heard as calm and honest. So not only were their minds confused, but their emotions on the familiar but horribly different voice were all over the place.

"Yes! We share the same face!"

At that very moment, Mystogan, who was on the other line, had his eyes widened. Pierre and Kain shared the same—his thoughts went blank when he noticed his reflection on a nearby window in the alleyway he was hiding in. Looking at his reflection made him realize: Kain was the same as him! Kain is from another world, and much like a certain masked individual, he shared the same face with someone who was born naturally in this world! Kain is the outsider who shares the same face as the original of this world! Which meant that Pierre is the **Earthland** version of Kain!

(Damn! I never even thought about Kain meeting his doppelganger of this world!)

Back at the guild, Pierre raised an open palm out towards the young man in red armor. "Ever since I first saw you on the papers after the Phantom Lord War, I **knew** I had to meet you! I counted every single gaps between the seconds just so that I could meet you! But I wanted it to be **perfect!** I wanted the two of us to meet in a way that would shake the very foundations of this world!" Pierre screamed like a passionate actor fully immersing himself into his role. However, as soon as he said al this, his crazed smile stopped and he turned slowly towards the captured Fairy Tail members with a look so empty and cold, even Natsu could feel a chill down his spine. "But every single time I wanted us to meet, **they** got in the way. And a great fool even made sure I couldn't meet you."

Because of the link, even Laxus could hear this familiar voice. Even though he had just fought someone more powerful, the guild master couldn't help but feel the wrongness of that voice, the cold—lifeless but baleful voice expressing it's hate towards him.

Physically, Pierre turned back and Kain swore he could see the man's pupils trembling greatly despite the muted actions of his body. "But I was patient. I knew you would come back for them if they were in trouble, you **liked** them. So I thought, if they were in trouble, they would want you back." Pierre's twisted smile seemed to grow larger than a face should have allowed. "So I devised all of this to bring you here so our first real meeting would be so beautiful!"

As he threw his hands, the sounds of distant crashes, and pained screams of agony and chaos filled the air outside along with the ground shaking where they stood. The sky was still dark and cloudy, and soon smoke was starting to rise.

"What do you think?! Isn't it **beautiful?!** " Kain could only stare in horror as Pierre's—his own face looked it he was flushed with embarrassment and pride—almost like a bride meeting the man of her dreams.

The young man's mind could only act in one way.

BAM!

In a flash of red, Kain closed the distance and punched the doppelganger in the face, and caused him to fly through left over debris. "I AM SO GOING TO NEED THERAPY AFTER THIS!" The boy could only scream at the top of his lungs to get his mind off the fact he had a psychopathic doppelganger lusting after him like the Joker would to Batman. He was a normal person dammit! Did he really need a Joker Complex Villain!?

The boy shook his head and tried to bring things back to perspective. "Whatever you did to the Gildarts Shift System, undo it right now!" The boy called out.

Pierre got back up, but instead of answering, all he did was start to laugh and laugh.

The longer this went, the more Kain saw the madness of the Joker in Pierre. As cool as he always saw Batman, Kain in no way wanted to deal whatever complex comic book plot problem that was coming his way while in a world of anime. He decided to attack once more—

"Kain, look out!" The warning from Natsu came out too late as a piece of wood curled up from the floor and ensnared around Kain's waist before throwing him into the floor where the ground beneath him suddenly turned into many sharp, wooden spikes. Kain held his hand out and a blade appeared and he used it to cut both the bind around his waist and the spikes in one massive arc. He back flipped somewhat before he noticed a plank of wood throw pieces of Pierre's mask right back at the doppelganger. In the air the mask started to reform but Pierre was running up, caught the mask with one hand, twirled mid run to put it on and grabbed a blue, runic dagger with his other hand, and as he finished his circle, he had already closed the distance between Kain and him and tried to stab downward.

Kain caught the hand coming down with his right hand and threw his left hand back to deck his opponent hard. However, something quickly pulled and ensnared the very left hand when it was recoiling back. Kain looked towards his back to see the guild's plank floors had all whipped towards him and trapped his arm from following through. Kero instantly tossed his dagger while Kain was looking back and with one sweeping motion, used his free hand to grab the tossed dagger and bring it right down on a distracted Kain.

The armored rider saw this from the corner of his eye. He let go of Pierre's hand and punched the other one with the dagger to make him miss, then followed up with a back hand right into the face of Pierre, who started to fly somewhat from the increased strength. Kain's free right hand started to glow as he brought it back down to cut the wood ensnaring his left.

"Behind you, Kain!"

Kain turned around before he noticed something beneath him. It was runes of this world all written as, "Rise".

Suddenly, the ground beneath him launched up and slammed Kain into the roof, pining him there.

Kero Pierre stabbed into the ground, and his runic dagger started to carve more of these glowing symbols into the floor. The word, "Spike" was written and multiplied before scattered all across the floor. Then the wood and steel from below shot out with intent to impale where Kain was pinned down.

The red rider saw this and unleashed his wings to push himself out and fly near the roof of the Fairy Tail guild, avoiding the many spikes trying to turn him into a kabob. He barely dodged some, punched through others, but when one cut him off, he front flipped into it so that his feet would land on it and he jumped off faster then punched the ground that Pierre jumped away from and landed nearby debris of some of the tables.

Pierre touched the table, and soon it started to glow with more runes written on them, all of them having the rune, "Guardian."

All the broken wood started flying towards Pierre and then started to form a twenty foot tall golem made of chairs, Cana's barrels, and other miscellaneous items.

"Of course when the thrown objects finally fight back it's against the one person that destroyed them the least." Kain muttered under his breath before summoning another blade and running forward, he avoided a powerful blow from the makeshift titan that was strong enough to make the guild shake, and slowly wake up the rest of the guild members.

Kain tried to close the distance, but the giant golem was gaining more arms from the debris it kept absorbing and using them to attack Kain and ward him further away, not only that, the holes on the floor were getting larger, and the space around the red rider was slowly being limited.

The displaced boy did look up to see that more and more people were waking up, but it was only for less than a second or else he might be knocked down who knows how far down. However, this gave him an idea.

Kain stood his ground as another barrage of punches came his way. He then threw one blade right for the first arm coming his way that stabbed right into the fist—then Kain sped right for it and punched the handle, causing that hand to forcibly split open and caused the two split parts to get hit and cluttered with all the other arms. During the moment of discord, Kain used the arms as platforms to get closer to the head of the golem and cut his head off in one swoop. Or at least that's what should have happened.

The head split open before Kain could make the move and ensnared the young man all together. At that very moment, the symbol of 'Guardian' turned into 'Cage'. The form of the guardian instantly broke and all raced to trap the displaced user and as it did, Pierre was kneeling on one of the wood planks rising above the trap.

Pierre jumped back as some of the floor started filling back, but a second later he side stepped to avoid a chunk of wood stabbing into him like it did into a pillar previously behind him. The cage of Kain started to crack all over before it exploded, launching fast moving debris everywhere.

The masked clown could only laugh and laugh before calming down, as if the fight from a while ago didn't phase the insane man at all. "That is quite a funny toy you have there. I hear it is nearly immune to certain magics and greatly resists others." The clown started to encircle Kain as he said this, with Kain moving along to keep the distance between them manageable.

Kain was silent. Pierre did know his abilities if he was talking with the others the time before this uprising. Considering how the maniac orchestrated all this, did that mean he had a way to get around the armor as well?

"Kain, above you!"

The boy from another world heard his friends cry out that something was attacking him from above. For an instant, Kain looked up and saw a smaller humanoid, wood golem with a rune he didn't recognize on his fist. The red rider slashed the golem, but the hand had fallen on his head. When this action happened the rune attached itself to Kain's forehead lit up with the word, 'Pain'.

In one instant, Kain was seen screaming like a banshee and dropping to the floor. He writhed in pain as his body spasmed about like a headless chicken.

However, Pierre noticed that the runes themselves were actually burning off Kain's armor and some seconds later, they were burned off completely. As soon as they were, Kain stopped trashing around and panted for air on the floor.

"I see, the armor does negate the runes I put on you. But I calculated at least ten seconds before it wore off. I have a feeling it'll burn those runes faster now, but until then..." Pierre stabbed his dagger into the floor.

This action made more spikes launch themselves at the weakened Kain, but all of them had varying levels of words written on them such as 'Anger', 'Malevolence', 'Despair', 'Hatred', 'Blindness', 'Madness', and other words describing pain, aliments, and emotional states.

Kain's screams filled the guild and soon, it filled the link all of Fairy Tail was connected to.

All the while, Pierre, in control of the physical guild, making the very foundations and items used in everyday attack the weakened warrior and tossing him around the guild like a game of pin ball.

"I always tire in a battle, it's so droll, inelegant, and it makes people truly boring." Pierre, while sitting on an unused bench, complained before Kain's body fell a few feet in front of him. "At least your armor has been adapting to my magic, now I'd say I have even less time for my runes to affect you, but the fact that you are still makes this a done deal."

As Kain tried to get up, Pierre shot another rune word that landed on Kain's stomach: 'De-power'.

Everyone, including Kain, instantly knew that without his armor, the boy from another dimension was utterly defenseless. Before he could even try and make a move to power back up, the rune word of 'Freeze' was shot and attached to his arm.

"There, now you have no resistance to all of my spells," Pierre sat on the chair with his hand supporting his mask as if it was a part of his face. "Now, I am still rather curious, do you have anything to counter this?"

Pierre threw his other hand that launched one last word that slapped itself into Kain's forehead…

'Suicide'.

Everyone trapped who was now awake saw the rune and could only gape in horror.

The 'freeze' lock was gone and soon Kain, with a dazed and lifeless look in his eyes, picked up one of his dropped blades and pointed it towards his own neck.

"Kain!" "Don't you dare!" "Stop it!" "Fight it, Kain!" "Don't give in!" "Let go of him, you bastard!"

Those captured could only shout out their emotions as they watched the blade tremble in the displaced young man's hands before it started to push into his own neck where blood was starting to drip.

As the pleas and desperate cries got louder, the ones trying to save Magnolia also felt the emotions and fear of everyone through the link.

" _Warren! You're linked to him, damn it! Stop him from doing that!_ "

" _I-I can't do anything like that with my magic!_ "

Even far away from Magnolia, Mystogan desperately tried to break his curse faster, but no matter how hard he was trying, his magic wasn't coming back to him. (Hurry! I need to make it!)

Pierre could only laugh. "I admit, I too wonder if this will kill you, but then again if you fell for something as simple as this, you wouldn't be as fun." And then he snapped his fingers.

In one instant, Kain's arms pushed outward then quickly launched themselves right back for his nec—

And light filled the guild.

CLANG!

Everyone watched as the blade Kain was previously holding was now flying in the iar and landing far away from the young man that would have almost killed him.

It took Kain a second to gasp for breath as he dropped to the floor. He felt a shadow over him and looked back up to someone now standing right in front of him.

"Sorry it took so long, everyone. This bastard had a complex barrier that even the old man had trouble breaking through from where he was."

Pierre sighed. "Well, I guess that is something. I may have gone too far."

The displaced young man could only stare in disbelief before getting back up. "L-Loke?"

The Celestial Spirt Leo, or Loke of Fairy Tail was now standing in front of Kain with his fists glowing brightly while sporting a new sharp tuxedo.

"I was sort of hoping to be coming here to save Lucy like a proper knight in shinning armor, not saving a night in shinning armor. It's funny when one thinks about it." The returning celestial spirit began before looking back at Pierre with a glare. "It's even weirder to think I'm saving a 'knight in shinning armor' from an evil version of himself—so all in all, it's good to be back in Fairy Tail again."

Loke's smile shifted into a tense battle look as he turned with his palm open to blast a measly metal dagger.

SLINK!

The Celestial Spirit's pupils expanded then shrunk before his body reacted violently and coughed over, while reaching for the second knife lodged into his abdomen that was somehow hidden by the first one

"Loke!" Kain activated his armor and was about to pull the blade out, but he was knocked back by the ground coming up and smacking him away into the stage.

Loke felt extreme pain and a disconnection from his magic. A second later a hand picked his chin and forced him to look up to the shadow covered mask with an eerie smile.

"Welcome back." Pierre spoke simply before the hand around his chin then wrung the neck of the handsome spirit. "And **goodbye**."

With more strength than he showed, Pierre threw Loke over head, and as he did, all around the guild, runes appeared with the word, 'Spike' and instantly, pieces of the guild shot out like bullets all with the intent to turn Loke into swiss cheese.

However, a blur of red crushed and slashed all spikes from hitting the air borne spirit. Kain had powered up once more and got Loke in a stead position. "Should we remove that?" The red rider asked as he looked at the dagger, unsure if pulling it out would casue more bleeding or not.

Loke, using both his hands, pulled out the blade with a pained scream but no blood came out. "Man, I gotta say it's great being a spirit again, otherwise..."

The two looked up to Pierre who was just… standing there. The mask he was wearing could hide any emotion from being read on his face.

The air around the clown was unreadable, but there was something off in the air than compared to the insanity from awhile ago.

"By the gods, your cockroaches follow you everywhere. You know what? I'm getting a little tired of keeping them around."

No sooner than he said this, a scream filled the air. Everyone followed it to Lucy who was now screaming as blood started to appear on the side of her hip.

"Lucy!" Loke and everyone else cried out. The spirit looked over to Kain, who shared a silent nod before they both raced for their intended targets.

Loke reached for those imprisoned while Kain tackled Pierre out of the guild building to prevent more of his forced home field advantage.

What Loke didn't know was that the restraints of the Fairy Tail members were all booby trapped. As soon as he broke Lucy free to save her, her restraints all turned red…

Meanwhile, Kain was trying to push Pierre away from doing anything more harmful towards Lucy, but while pushing him, Kain felt his hand grabbed and he was judo thrown off the Fairy Tail platform and into the sky above Magnolia. His cape expanded into wings and as he stabilized before he felt a presence above him and looked up towards the clouded sky.

Pierre had created two giant runes, "Wing' on both sides that formed into large, pseudo wings.

"Why are you fighting so hard for them? You are better than all of them combined." Pierre began as Kain did his best to focus on his enemy despite the cries off everyone below. However, one great thing about with his heightened senses, it sounded like Fairy Tail and some of Phantom Lord were able to finally minimize the chaos from the shift system.

"Uh excuse me? That is the very first time since I've heard that I am better than other people, especially people who could do super human feats as naturally as breathing air." Kain was a person who didn't have a lot of self confidence. He had enough, but it was more or less on the lower side, to hear about how he was better than certain amazing people baffled him to no end.

"Oh my, you're really too far gone," Pierre put a hand on his face that almost looked like a mother worried for their child. "For your sake, I must get rid of all of them."

In front of such a dark implication as mass murder and with obvious realization that Pierre could do such a thing, Kain valiantly tried to stop him.

"Can you not!? That in no way will make me happy, you obsessive lunatic!" Alright, he screamed out in annoyance and small parts sarcasm, but we could pretend he was more heroic than that.

"Why do you defend them so much? They are all holding you back." The voice of Pierre actually sounded genuinely curious, and obviously made no attempt to correct Kain's insults.

"How the hell are they holding me back!?" Kain cried out as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The red armored young man was about to say more, but to his surprise Pierre had an answer to that question that was supposed to be rhetorical.

"Because they **aren't** helping you get home."

Kain froze for a second, even his anger and his sarcasm gone in that instant when he heard about the word home.

Pierre lifted his arms. "Fairy Tail is far too open with it's information if one simply asks. I learned about you from what everyone said, and they all told me how you came from a different place from here and have been trying to find your way home, but that is besides the point. Haven't you noticed yet? Not once has anyone in the guild actively tried to help you find a way home."

"That's a lie!" Kain thought back to a period before their battle with Phantom Lord began. "We tried searching though a large amount of books containing lost spells and we found nothing on them!"

"And how did you find them?" Pierre asked before answering for him. "By pure coincidence. In fact, you were originally helping someone else in a simple task before it escalated into something worse, didn't it? And it wasn't just that, from all of your so called friends, they mention that whenever you are around, things radically escalate from simple adventures. The only reason why you found those books was because you had the luck of a demon, **not** because Fairy Tail was helping you. Answer me this: have you found any leads or has anyone from the so called greatest guild ever helped you with finding information on your goal?"

Kain knew Pierre was telling the truth about the lost spells they had found. What irked him was how that he thought back, no one but him was actively searching for a way back. "T-They're helping in their own way!"

Pierre shook his head in disappointment. "My point, Kain, is that Fairy Tail isn't as great as you think it is. They're only glad you're there to help them out of their messes, but when it comes to you they so conveniently forget it in response to their adventures."

"T-That's not..." Despite how much he wanted to deny that, Kain couldn't really find himself completely against Pierre, and that horrified him.

Then Pierre put both hands on his chest with an eerie tenderness to them. "But I can do so much more! **I know a way back for you!** "

Kain's eyes widened as he looked up to Pierre in utter shock. This madman knew a way back home?! That was a lie! It had to be a lie… Kain, you need to shout out loud and call him a liar!

"You… You do?" The boy from another world asked softly in disbelief.

"I admit, it's mostly a rumor, but in my travels, I've heard of a story of the ability to travel to 'far away lands that distance cannot measure'." He then tilted his mask towards Kain's direction. "But when I met you, I realized that it was true! This must have been the clue you need to get back home, Kain, and I know where it is."

He raised a palm out to the boy in red armor. "And I can bring you there, all you have to do… is abandon everyone here and never look back."

Only when Kain gasped for air, did he realize that he wasn't breathing. Was that it? A clue on how to get home from this world has finally revealed itself?!

But… abandon his friends? C-Could he do that?

Wait a second. "W-Why can't I hear the link?"

"Oh, right. That." Pierre gave off a scoff. "Let's just say I dislike it when the audience believes itself part of the play and tries to intervene. I couldn't disconnect it, but I have faced and seen telepathic magic before and I do know how to disrupt certain aspects of it."

There was a sound back in the guild that made Kain look back and see blasts of magic start to go out of the broken guild that was pushed up into the sky. He swore he could see shadows of something inhuman among the holes and soon realized the restraints had traps in them.

"What are you doing to them!?" Kain demanded before Pierre simply sighed.

And then the guild started glowing red.

Back inside, as Loke freed everyone else and helped those previously capture with Lucy's well being, but they all armed themselves with their magic as they noticed runes all over the guild that were different than the ones he was using to fight Kain with... these... these were written in blood.

However, suddenly more runes written all over the guild started to appear and glow red. The runes had different words in them this time such as 'Doom' 'Greed', 'Hate', 'Fear', and 'Chaos'. The words written in blood started to grown and form together to make amalgamations of monsters of words.

For example, 'Doom' turned into a bipedal beast with the 'D' as a maw the 'OO' as the torso and the M as three spinal legs. This one thing took half the size of the guild and roared in such a way that could give Ignis a run for his money.

'Greed' was much smaller, becoming more snake-like and elongated, but there were many of them. They were much like 'Hate' in that regard, many but small. Hate was designed in such a way where the H was a jagged, angry looking head to a creature with T for arms, a crude A for hips, and a strange E for legs.

'Fear' was true to it's word, unlike the two ground bound ones, this one sprouted ink like tendrils that kept it airborne and gasped and hissed like a creature of nightmares.

And lastly, 'Chaos' was a massive beast, no longer looking like a word, but an actual monster made from blood.

"What the heck!? He had that much time to make all of this?!" Gray cried out before the bloody words attacked Fairy Tail.

"They're fighting with words, and I do mean that in the most literal of sense." Pierre offhandedly mentioned. "It was so I could have this conversation with you. Now please answer. If you come with me and leave this place, we can truly begin your journey home." And then the clown offered an open palm towards Kain, waiting for his answer.

Kain thought about it. This was his chance to finally go home! To be honest, this adventuring had gotten more and more dangerous, even with a supposed super weapon in his possession, Kain did worry that with the rising stakes, he might end up dying before he could find his way home. This could be it, this could finally get him out of this place for good!

… But… could he leave his friends, especially at this state they were in?

"N-No! I can't leave them like this! It wouldn't feel right!" Memories of when Kain had first met with Natsu, about him saying how he couldn't meet his father so recklessly, returned. Kain had told Natsu to be careful in taking risks, and now? He was also taking that advice—no matter how much he wanted to go against it.

Kain instantly paused when he saw Pierre's open palm now curl into a trembling fist. "They have brainwashed you, turned you into one of those boring people! I now know I must save you, from them!"

Pierre slammed his hands together, and soon the barriers all around the city that were made by Freed started to activate again and shine red, even the guild was shinning brighter than before.

They all had a rune that Kain could read as, 'Explosion'. All through out every corner of the city, the rune explosion appeared, even the underground where the space was empty and some of the disabled or destroyed movement runes were now shinning red.

Pierre was going to nuke Magnolia off the face of the map even though he didn't know what a nuke was!

"Do not fear, Kain!" Pierre shouted over the maddening humming sound echoing as one all throughout Magnolia, "With us this high up, we can fly further away so that we will be unharmed and you shall be free of your shackles forever!"

"Undo this! Undo this now!" Kain yelled as he looked back down. He saw people, injured and scared, looking more horrified as a red light shone around them, he watched as fellow Fairy Tail members desperately tried to break those barriers or disable the runes to no avail, he even saw the ones in Fairy Tail, the blasts coming out of the guild stopped dramatically and a few lights were being snuffed out inside the red light. The light was growing brighter, and with each second, hundred, maybe even tens of thousands were going to die.

And Pierre could only laugh, and laugh all throughout it.

Kain cried out, he practically begged Pierre to stop, but by then Pierre was in his own world, laughing and laughing as the humming sound reached the sky.

The young man was desperate—please! Anyone! Help!

But help wasn't coming this time. This time, his brain pulled out a plan… a plan… that wasn't really a plan at all.

Pierre… finally stopped laughing.

SPLATTER!

Even he couldn't laugh with a red blade stabbed right through his heart.

Pierre looked down, and his mask fell into the earth below, showing a face of disbelief to see a red blade pushed into his own heart… with Kain holding it with trembling hands.

The sword glowed, and instantly, Pierre's runes shattered like glass, there were even runes he wrote on his own body that vanished as the magic disruption blade pierced into his body.

The magic all around Magnolia had slowly faded, as did the light in Pierre's eyes. Kain could only watch as the light slowly left his eyes—Kain's eyes. It was like he killed himself.

And the moment before Pierre lost himself, he looked towards Kain… with tears and a look of hurt betrayal in his eyes. "I… I thought we would be friends..." Even though he was a madman, why did he so perfectly capture the look of someone so broken hearted and betrayed?

And then, Pierre was lost, his body slipped down from Kain's blade as he fell into the ground. The boy could only look away. Unfortunately for him, his enhanced hearing made him hear the splat.

Silence was now all around Magnolia, except in the skies where a boy could only quietly sob… after his very first kill.

* * *

Everything after Pierre's defeat was both slow and fast while a lot but nothing at all. Time passed quickly, but it felt so slow. Or rather, everyone was already quick to try and rebuild while Kain seemed… distant. Everyone in Fairy Tail could tell what had happened in order for Kain to stop everyone from dying, but the young man was a silent as an empty room. His eyes seemed to look right through you and he kept looking at his hands which just still trembled.

While Kain himself seemed distant, everyone rounded up all of Elpton's men and the ones to pick them up were not the Rune Knights, but the Fiore Royal Army, who was currently helping the Magic Council while they were still in repairs with their main branch being temporarily destroyed. To the surprise of many, Mystogan reappeared and gave good news that Macao would be fine, he would just need some rest before he would return. The masked mage seemed to also have a private word with Laxus before leaving to wherever he was, but not before expressing his thanks to Kain.

As night fell, there was one last thing Fairy Tail had to talk about. Laxus.

Understandably, many people were pissed off at Laxus for not only kick the ex-members out, but harassing those that remained.

Laxus himself seemed unusually silent, taking their complaints with an unreadable face. However, there was even talk by more passionate members to kick Laxus out for such a cruel treatment of his guild members, while the Thunder Legion was against that, they were starting to get out voiced by a majority of people.

To the surprise of many, Kain broke his silence and actually defended Laxus. He argued what Laxus did was wrong, horribly wrong. But they couldn't kick him out, not when the Magic Council was still under repairs. They were the ones that choose Laxus, and as much as they all wanted Laxus out, if he was impeached, that would put Fairy Tail in a worse relationship with the Magic Council for kicking out the leader they choose while they were in disarray.

In other words, due to political machinations, Laxus was still the best guild master for Fairy Tail to avoid scrutiny and wrath of the Magic Council. Even though he deserved to be kicked out, they couldn't not with Fairy Tail threading so thinly on ice with the past battles and political standing.

However, while Kain's explanation killed any ideas to kick out the fourth guild master, the young man did look back towards Laxus.

The young man gave a small smile. He then said something weird that almost no one understood but the two of them. "Can you really call us weak now, master?"

Laxus could only scoff. Kain then took his scoff to properly announce that if people wanted to, they could return and join Fairy Tail properly. If they did, they would receive bonuses from Laxus' paycheck.

The blonde dragon slayer stood up, but before he even utter a syllable, Kain spoke out again. He spoke out that what Laxus did was wrong, and while he's keeping the control over the guild, his punishment for causing all of this in the first place was that some of that power was going to be limited. Kain then threatened that he would go back to Hargeon and leave Laxus with all the paperwork that was going towards them if he didn't agree with those terms.

Laxus could only grunt, seeing as how the paperwork would only increase tenfold due to all the problems that Pierre caused. He relented and agreed to Kain's decisions. While they weren't perfect, they were something at least to ease tensions between him and the guild.

However, Kain left quickly after it was made. He expressed… being exhausted beyond belief and would not say anything more. He was able to get Ignis and fly back to Hargeon Town, but everyone could tell something was bothering the young man.

The morning after Pierre's attack, Kain returned to the guild and seemed returned to normal, but his closer friends couldn't help but feel something off with him. Natsu, being someone without an ounce of tact, asked him what was wrong. And Kain, being in a complex and confusing state actually answered him.

"I killed Pierre after he told me he knew a clue to get me home." It was like the silence after and before an execution after Kain had so simply stated something amazing—or rather, it started to seem like Kain could only explain it in simple terms.

However, before anyone could properly react to such a sudden input of knowledge, Laxus called up Kain for something early that next morning and the two went off to meet the mayor of the city.

His name was Hollo Biune, an old man who was around Makarov's time, but looked like a normal old man as opposed to the midget the third guild master was. Kain briefly noted in his head that unlike in his world, Mayors could hold office for a much longer time than the ones in his world. The young man also wondered if he was going to complain about the fiasco yesterday.

Image the two, who were preparing for the worst tongue lashing they probably deserved, instead were asked a favor by the mayor to continue the Fantasia Parade later that night.

The two were understandably surprised at the request, even when Hollo explained that he would much like it to continue on _because_ of what happened previously.

"Bad and horrible things do happen, I've seen it before, and it'll keep continuing. But I want the festival to continue as it should have because I want people to know that good times are just as sure as the bad ones. And I would like to remind them that the bad does go away."

Hollo's kind and hopeful words were hard to argue against. Laxus and Kain agreed to the man's favor, half because it was a good idea, and half because they were thankful for not being yelled at. Still, that meant the entire guild had to help with the remain of the floats. With everyone still injured, it was a mad race for everyone involved to create the floats and still make them as beautiful as possible, along with adding some new ideas.

However, with everyone working together, the floats were ready, and even Natsu seemed excited, saying that this might be the best Fantasia Parade yet with what they did.

* * *

It was really cold up the roof of the Magnolia Cathedral. It was a rather dark night even though certain streets of Magnolia were lit up like a holiday event. I was stationed, or rather I volunteered to stay in the Cathedral to over look the incoming floats, and to get ready for the special show the Thunder Palace was about to make. (I just needed to be alone for a little more) I was able to reactivate the Thunder Palace to shoot out Fairy Tail symbols and light shows along with the upcoming fireworks. So instead of a weapon, it can be used to entertain people as well.

The communication lacrima on my lap started to glow. "Kain, we're ready to turn down Fogo Street."

I picked it up and answered back. "Alright, floats A-K, slow down your speed, Fogo Street is a curved path. All other floats maintain your speed for several seconds longer before slowing down."

And with that, the drivers of the floats said roger and the parade went as normal. With how everyone was cheering in the distance it seemed to be working better than I expected it to.

There was the sound of feet stepping on the roof that made me snap my head back. "Huh? Master Laxus? What are you doing here?"

The giant of a man started walking before sitting down right next to me. "I doubt people will want to see my face down there."

I shrugged my shoulders, he was right even if he didn't mean for all of that to happen. But I didn't really have any right to refute him, since I wanted to be alone for…

…

I just needed to be alone.

"The bigger question," Laxus continued. "Is why you're not down there?"

I…

{ _"I… I thought we would be friends..."_ }

I still kept thinking about _that_. "I guess I just don't want to be seen right about now." I said as I brought up my binoculars to watch the float where Lucy was. She seemed much better after being stabbed in the hip, and it was good to see her back to her usual self.

"I overheard what you said about Pierre." Laxus blurted out. It seemed like all dragon slayers were blunt as they were prideful. It may have been a stereotype, but I have yet to see it disproved so far.

"Oh." I didn't know what he was trying to say with that opening sentence, so 'Oh' was really the best I could do.

"I… I also heard everything he said to you. When he said he disabled everyone's link, I think he didn't know about link between only you and I that Warren set up." That was interesting, but...

Not only was this a touchy subject, it was kind of awkward that Laxus of all people knew about this more than the others. "So… what do you think?"

"What I think? Brat, what the hell about you? He got under your skin a lot and even when you kill—" I flinched when he said that word. Laxus noticed this and stopped for a second. "When you stopped him," He corrected. "He still said some disturbing things."

"It is pretty disturbing that I killed a man, especially someone with my same face." I gave a weak chuckle after saying that.. Dang, I was already in sarcastic mode. "But I… I didn't really have a choice, did I? It was either him or all of you." Although I said this, I looked back towards my hands, they were trembling again. They became sore again, even though I did my best to wash my hands for almost all of last night, it still felt sore and I could still feel the blood in them.

I could feel Laxus looking at my hands despite me trying my best to not make them tremble.

"When I was fifteen, I was in an A-Class mission that went to shit fast." Laxus suddenly said. "Some asshole was coming at me, trying to catch me by surprise, and I didn't have enough time to control my magic. I ended up shooting a hole through the guy's lungs. He died instantly."

I raised my brow as to why Laxus was explaining this, but soon he elaborated. "It was my first kill in self defense, but I can still remember the look on his eyes just before my thunder blasted a hole in him—or more like I can't forget it. Believe me when I say the days do get easier and the trembling does stop."

I blinked before staring hard at him. Laxus turned his head elsewhere, towards nothing in particular, as if trying to look away from my gaze. It took me a second later to realize this was his way of consoling me. Who knew he could care for others?'

"Thank you Master Laxus," I found myself calling him a master genuinely now. "If I may say, I think you're grandfather would be proud of you right now."

"Psh! The old geezer couldn't care less, and neither could I." Laxus scoffed.

I disagreed with him, but then there was another glow coming from the com links. "Kain, the music shows are ending, we can start the light show now!"

"Roger that." I stood back up and the screen for the controls of the Thunder Palace appeared in front of me.

"I had to leave early because of some issues in the southern part of town," Laxus began before he stood up as well. "What the heck did you guys put for the light show?"

"Oh right. Well, everyone told me about this hand sign that they wanted to be inputted in the light show."

"Hand sign?" Laxus sounded genuinely confused at it.

"You haven't heard of it? Even Lucy said she knew it and we entered the guild at the same time. The others said that master Makarov learned this sign from..." I trailed off, my mind putting two and two together as I looked to Laxus. I could feel a smile forming on my face as the pieces fit together. I handed Master Laxus the binoculars. "Here. You're going to need this more than me."

Laxus was confused as I handed it to him but then I activated the Thunder Palace, the orbs all around started to glow and then they shot to the sky a large Fairy Tail Symbol all above Magnolia.

As soon as it was up, I raised my hand and performed the symbol that the other told me about. My suspicion was right as Laxus looked as if he had seen a ghost when I performed the hand sign. He then found the reason why I gave him the binoculars and used them to look back at the Parade. I knew by then, he was looking at every single member of Fairy Tail raising their hands high up for the same hand sign that Laxus himself had created so long ago.

"And that's the proof, Master Laxus, Makarov never gave up on you." I said before I was surprised by a sight I wasn't expecting: Laxus, the prideful, stubborn, strong mage of Fairy Tail… was crying his eyes out.

He looked at me, and glared at me, but no matter how much he tried, his tears made it hard for me to take him seriously no matter how dangerous he sounded. "Tell anyone this, and I'm killing you, brat!"

I smiled and looked back towards the parade in the distance where the fire works were now let loose and brightened the dark skies around their area. "Don't worry, Master Laxus, I'm taking your secret to the grave with me."

It was a very beautiful parade, even from far away.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **And that ends this take on the Civil War for Fairy Tail! (imagines Fairy Tail in marvel manner) Ugh, I don't know why but this was much harder to write than the other arcs. What the heck, are the arcs getting harder to write as time progresses?**

 **Also, what the hell guys? You all just did the spoilers anyway. Really? Second, why on earth did you all think Pierre was from Edolas? I put the Mystogan hint there to point you all to the fact he's Jellal's counterpart, which in turn means that Kain is like Mystogan in that he's from another world and has the same face as someone who is in the world he's currently in…**

 **Okay, maybe I was jumping ahead to fast and the hint was more obscure than I thought. But I will state this again, Pierre is the original of Earthland. Kain is from Earth, and if—I will stress this IF very much—there is a third Kain, he would be the Edolas Kain. Pierre is in no way Edolas Kain because he was born in Earthland, there is no alternate timeline where a different Kain fell into Edolas and then somehow fell into Earthland like Mystogan.**

 **But with that all out of the way, I can finally start on a new original arc! I haven't had one since the Isle of the Dead, and this one is going to be different than even the ones I've had so far.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading guys.**

* * *

Extra: Wait a second that can't be right.

Freed opened the door. "Yes, all the paper work for the damages and etcetera have arrived."

Kain sighed as he followed the green haired man. "Yeah, I figured let's just get this over..." Kain paused as he witnessed what was right in front of him.

There was a desk with papers all around the table and the floor around the desk. Around half the room was filled with stacks of paper.

"It does seem a like a lot, doesn't it?" Freed began as he saw the brunette pause.

However, just as quickly as he said this, Freed raised his brow when the lawyer returned a look with equal amounts of surprise. "What no! This can't be right, where's the rest off them?"

"The rest of them? This is all of them."

Kain shook his head. "No, the entire City is damaged about the fight, so I expected a room filled with paperwork, not around half."

Freed was rather confused at what Kain was saying. "Are you saying you wanted more paper work?"

"Well, not really, but I know how the rules work here, and the paper work should be more. This isn't enough to cover the damages and repairs of Magnolia and our guild." Kain began explaining to which Freed was starting to get.

"But these are all the papers we've been sent."

Kain put a hand on his chin. "Well if that is the case, where's the rest of the papers? Or more specifically, who could they have been sent to?"

Meanwhile, in Phantom Lord.

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Voyu's voice made an exploding volcano look as pleasant as a sun flower. "YOU DESTROYED THE INTRICATE SHIFT SYSTEM OF MAGNOLIA!?"

"B-But the kid told us to do it!" Gajeel panicked as he stood in front of a very angry soon-to-be new master of Phantom Lord. "We saved lives because of it!"

"Yes, but YOU were the ones who broke it! The Magnolia consensus is blaming mostly you, Gajeel, for breaking the expensive system that's been a part of the city for more than three decades!" The lime haired colored man pointed to Redfox.

"Me!? Sol was the one down there most of the damn time!" As Gajeel tried to find the earth mage, he noticed that there was no sign of the Element Four anywhere near this storm.

"Gajeel," Voyu's voice brought the Steel Dragonslayer back to him. "You do realize that were only a few weeks before we are officially reestablished, yes?!"

Now Gajeel would admit in any day of the week he never knew much about the whole technical stuff, but with how the older man brought that fact up specifically gave the Steel Dragon Slayer a feeling similar to a stomach ache. "W-What does that mean?"

Voyu put a hand on his head, obvious disdain on his face. "Someone get me a call to guild master of Fairy Tail!"

...

"Sooooo because Gajeel Redfox is technically a solo mage, he has to pay for all the damages to the system?" I repeated as I, the Thunder Legion, and Laxus were talking with a larger communication orb with Voyu Carliso on the other end.

"Yes that is basically it. Our assets are still frozen as of right now, and Fairy Tail is already insured on the system." Voyu continued with a sigh and momentarily removed his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.

"Which means if Gajeel joins Fairy Tail, he can pay off the debt he owes over time instead of all in one go, and the money will go to us." Laxus finished.

"Yes. Considering Juvia is already there, I'm sure you can take another one of ours in at least temporarily."

I saw Laxus' face turning into a frown and then I looked over to him and gave him a look. The blonde Guild master groaned before relaxing into his seat. "Fine. We'll take him in until we can work out more of the politics in this."

"Why thank you, that's very civil of you despite us being mortal enemies/rivals." Voyu smiled before terminating the call.

"Tell me again why we're letting that bastard into the guild after he wrecked it in the first place!?" Laxus looked to me with obvious disdain in his voice.

"Because I told him to destroy those Lacrima in the first place. If anything, we should be apologizing to Phantom Lord for giving them that problem which should have been ours." I returned easily. In all logic and honesty, we should be at each other's throats like we were in the war, but we are weirdly enough on good terms I would very much like to keep. "Come on, Master Laxus. You don't want the guild to be known as shrewd or slimy for pulling off something like that even if it was a mistake."

Laxus groaned again, obviously he didn't like it. But he obviously disliked the idea of people dissing Fairy Tail more. "Damn it. Fine. But you're going to be the one to meet him!"

"Yes sir." Goddamnit. I can tell that this is going to be a long day.

"Master Laxus," Freed began. "What are we also doing about the reporter from Sorcerer Weekly?"

Well double shit. I forgot about that too.

"Just do what we always do." And with that, I took my leave outside the Guild Master's office.

Well, Gajeel is coming and so is the interviewer for Sorcerer Weekly. I can obviously tell this is going to be a long day.

Little did I know how right I was. But that's a story for another day.

* * *

Extra # 2: Might as well go all the way.

Mira looked around the near empty guild before looking towards Éclair and Momon. "Have you seen Kain?"

Thunder boomed from the outside before the two shrugged their shoulders. "He said something about fulfilling a… what was it, Momon?" The brunette looked over towards the animated bird.

"I think he said it was something like, "A Childhood fantasy"?" The bird spoke up.

Mira tilted her head in confusion. "What does kind of childhood fantasy does Kain have in a thunder storm as bad as tonight?"

Meanwhile, on the very top of Magnolia Cathedral, a figure stood tall, shrouded in darkness with only the strike of lightning able to show brief flashes of the figure.

" **I am vengeance!** "

A booming voice began as his cape blew in the wind.

" **I am the night!** "

Now thunder and lightning escalated in the skies above.

" **I AM BAT—!** "

And then actual thunder struck Kain Reynolds from completing that last word. The blow of the strike made the young man in red armor drop down and hit almost every part of the cathedral on his way down much like a toy doll falling down some stairs.

However, it landed with a huge thud and groan when Kain fell back into the concrete. Yet even with a nasty fall, Kain was able to point up to the sky.

"You… are not stopping me from doing that, universe! Y-You hear me?! You may throw me at these stupid, life or death adventures, and emotional trauma that will haunt me for the rest of my days, but you will never stop me in living my childhood dreams!" The boy weakly shook his fist at the heavens before collapsing like the idiot he was.


	30. Chapter 30

{"Why do you defend them so much? They are all holding you back."}

Kain Reynolds could only put a hand on his head while yawning as he trekked down Magnolia streets nearly at the crack of dawn.

{"Because they **aren't** helping you get home."}

He gritted his teeth as he shook his head. Despite his best to think of something else, his mind started to think back to everything he's been doing so far in Earthland, practically bugger all except find a way back home. A darker side of him argued Fairy Tail wasn't doing anything to help him at all. They were just messing around doing whatever they wanted.

Did they really even care about him?

Kain's walk ended as he reached the guild. He sighed before he swore he heard sounds coming from the door.

"No matter how early I come here, it's amazing how many people like Master Laxus and Mira make it look like I'm late, even when I slept in the guest room." The brunette sighed again before opening the door—

…

…

Kain blinked.

One would think that Fairy Tail, being the lively place that it was, would be currently starting a fight so early in the morning.

But no.

As if hell froze over, as if pigs started flying, as if the sun stopped shinning and the world was seeing a sun through delusion, all of Fairy Tail….

Was doing… research?

It was the only thing Kain could see as boards were set up with pieces of torn newspapers with a series of pins holding down different colored strings along with paper clips while everyone looking through and reading books. There were even papers flying in the air through some magic then had others catching them. Lucy, who was usually a deep sleeper, was drinking coffee and seemingly calling someone about books from her mansion. Cana, also had a drink in her hand **that wasn't beer—** lord, Kain must have stopped his mind several times to look over and scan the mug with steam coming out of it. He must have thought that it was some kind of new magical beer or something, but with how even Cana was drinking it and _not_ smiling, it indeed looked like regular coffee as well. Even Natsu and Gray were looking through book with… laser focus? The hell!? Gajeel was reading through some encyclopedia-sized books too!?

Kain, seeing this alien sight before him turned around and put his hand on his head again. "Shit! Did I enter into a twilight zone of a different world that I'm not even from? How the hell does that even work?" It was the only way his brain could process this impossible scenario that no amount of magic could perform.

When the boy turned around, he didn't notice Mira carrying some pieces of paper and books, look at the open door and say, "Ah! Kain's here!"

Those three words were all it took to make the busy Fairy Tail members look back towards the entrance, with Kain looking back at the sound of the voice.

"Uhhh, hello?" The brunette with dark brown eyes gave a small wave at the group.

"KAIN!" They all shouted before Jet sped up and pushed him into the guild.

"W-Whoa?! What's going on?!" The brunette cried out before he found himself near a white board with many articles, newspapers, and pieces of string pinned and tied together.

Jet circled and gave the young man a book. "Here! This place looks interesting! The continent of Argus is a land filled with history that even their ancestors don't know everything about that place! In one area, named Vorenium Forrest, they say you can see fragments of other worlds!"

"What?" The brunette was confused, but right then, Max came in with a picture of a valley in his hand.

"Jet! We agreed that place was haunted! Now this spot looks promising! In the Country of Yonshi, in the Xiamen Continent, there is this valley that is said to come from 'unknown outsiders'! No one knows where they came form or how they got there, but people seem to agree this lost civilization may have come from a different plane of reality!"

Levy walked up, holding a book and. "Max, you're the one pushing wrong things! Most of those are theories and some historians argue they may have just come from another continent. If there is a lead to another world, it's through the future, not the past! Some Gorandor scientist, you remember Gorandor, right? The same country that was the one that made the 100 year quest for your armlet? Well anyway, the magiscientists there are amazing! They have worked out a theory that could potentially allow us to look beyond time and—"

And Kain could no longer listen to another word at his state. "Okay! Okay! Can we all PLEASE calm down for a second?!"

His shout silenced the guild, and as soon as it did, the young man felt more embarrassed than satisfied. He sighed in resignation. "What are you all doing?"

The young man expected anyone to answer, he wasn't expecting everyone to suddenly do a 1-80 from the vigorous energy they were displaying to suddenly looking meek and embarrassed as well. Some even looked away form him which only made the boy more confused.

Thankfully, Natsu Dragneel held no such thing called embarrassment—or tact, or subtlety, or grace, or—and spoke out for him. "We're helping you find your way back home."

"You are?" Kain replayed the memories from a few seconds ago. His eyes widened as he realized what those ramblings were in context and looked around the entire guild.

"All of you were researching how I would get back home?" That question was not just for them, but for him as well since he couldn't understand what brought about this sudden change.

Instead of Natsu answering again, another voice answered, "Of course we are, I ordered it." Kain snapped his head up towards Laxus with a neutral face. "Though it looked like they were all going to do it anyway."

What should have sated his curiosity and satisfied his confusion only brought more of both to Kain Reynold's mind.

"Why?" The word escaped his lips while his mind kept jumping on information.

"Because we all heard what you said about Pierre." The young man turned over to the red haired S-Class mage walking towards them. "And Laxus revealed that Pierre had said some rather… cruel... things."

At the mention of that Fairy Tail looked ashamed. Even Natsu was uncharacteristically looking away.

"The worst part of it all," Erza continued. "Was that he was right. We really haven't done anything to help you find your way home while you have given up nearly everything for us. So, we have all our sources and manpower to figuring out how to get you home. Pierre acknowledged it existed, so we did did all we could to find anything about traveling to other worlds. We should have done more to help you find your way home, we're sorry."

There were no words coming from the young man… only a sudden burst of laughter. The young man's laughter came out so suddenly that even Kain wasn't completely sure why he was doing it, just that it relieved a great burden on his shoulders. The laguther did eventually died down and the boy could only smile. "Thank you guys, I mean it. Now then, what have you guys really have?"

* * *

It felt weird to see that the library beneath the guild was actually emptied out in some shelves.

Still, it was kind of annoying that it feels like I made a breakthrough with all of these potential clues, but with everyone putting in their own opinions, it feels like they cancelled all each other out and I'm back at square one.

Yet, I do admit this feels like I'm actually making progress. However...

{ _I admit, it's mostly a rumor, but in my travels, I've heard of a story of the ability to travel to 'far away lands that distance cannot measure'._ }

Pierre was directly quoting something. It wasn't like the others where they were looking for rumors and the words of others, he either read it off or heard those exact words spoken. He seemed sure that quote did have something to do to bring me here.

{ _Do not go home._ }

Wait though. The Shaman I met in Sun City… that guy warned me about not going home. Are those two talking about the same thing? If they are, does that mean that the way back home has something to do with spirits? Dammit! I still know nothing about Earthen Spirits!

Oh well, it should be easy to look them up since they're mostly uncommon—

KRACK!

"AAH!?"

THUD!

"OW! What the hell!?" I screamed before looking down. It seems like on my way to pick up a book about shamans, the floor beneath me gave way and now I found myself waist deep into the floor.

As I tried to move my legs, I realized something: the floor inside was strangely hollow, and secondly my feet felt like they were hitting something that wasn't wood or concrete.

After using the armor to get back up, I found out that I fell through a trap door rather than solid wood. I wondered why that out of all the people down here, it would break under my weight so easily? Do I need to like go on a diet or something? Erza already trains me like a drill sergeant… even more so since… bah I'm getting distracted.

I had found out that there was some kind of secret place with a box of dusty orb Lacrima. But something was weird about these that I couldn't really tell what they were. I picked up a book about Shamans before heading back up with the box of Lacrima orbs.

"Hey, guys!?" I yelled out as I took out the box. "Are you aware you've got a secret stash of Lacrima Orbs at the basement?!"

Everyone looked towards me as I put the dusty and old looking box on a nearby desk.

"A secret stash of Lacrima?" Even saying it in her own words sounded weird to Mirajane.

The sound of someone stomping on a table caught my attention, followed by an accusation. "Wait a sec! Is that it!?" Natsu was one of the last people I expected to understand what I had. "I thought the rumors said Master Makarov buried that under a tree! That jerk! Was it in Fairy Tail the entire time!?"

"Natsu, what is it?" Or a proper question was what he thought it was, but hey, Natsu did have these smart moments sometimes out of his… exuberant ones.

My friend had this devilish smile on his face as he came closer to the crystal orbs. "Oh yeah! These are definitely the ones! These look like old Memory Lacrimas!"

I blinked as I heard the name. My mind immediately understood the basics of that name. "Wait, they're some kind of recording magic?"

"Yeah! See, I heard a rumor a while back after I beat Gajeel—"

"LIKE HELL YOU DID, SALAMANDER! I WON OUR FIGHT!" The Steel Dragon Slayer cried out.

"Hell no! I did!" Natsu yelled back and with how Gajeel stood up, the two were about to settle their feud the only **damn** way they **ever** settled things despite being together fore like a few days.

The two closed in before I stood between them and performed the darkest glares I could muster. "If you two start a fight right this instant, both of you are going to find your debts quadrupled in one minute."

Ahh money. The root of all evil and a damn good tool for keeping these two idiotic dragons in check. "Good," I relaxed as the two of them suddenly lost their will to fight. "Natsu, continue what you were saying about a rumor and Master Makarov?"

"Oh!" Natsu's smile went back as he pointed to this thing. "See, I heard that there was this collection of embarrassing photos of Fairy Tail and I couldn't even find it no thanks to Lucy!"

"Don't drag me into that!" Lucy's comment came in from the side.

Even with that, Natsu continued. "But I thought it was beneath the tree in the park, not in here the whole time! And now it's mine!"

I doubted that these were the embarrassing photos that he heard about. But Natsu already seemed to activate one of them—

The Memory Lacrima suddenly shined bright and lifted into the air.

While the face of everyone was that of shock, I futile asked, "Memory Lacrima are supposed to do that, right?"

"They don't do that!" Laxus screamed out before the light blinded everyone inside the guild.

"Damn it, Natsu!" Huh, I heard several other voices besides my own shout that out before the light swallowed us all.

* * *

…

…

"… Oh thank god, I'm not in another jungle/volcano isle." I swear to all that is evil and good, if I was warped to another volcano isle, I was going to throw Natsu into it… and maybe Gajeel. They might kick my ass before I could, but i'd be so pissed of I don't think I'll be thinking at all by then.

Speaking of Natsu and Gajeel, they were both right next to me when Natsu activated the Memory Lacrima. "And you two seem fine."

Gajeel looked around. "Where the hell are we?"

It looked like someone's house, or studio because it was very spacious. Further scans showed littered metal objects and odd devices—were we in a lab?

"Really, burned brain!?" Ah, there's Gray and the others. They all seem to be in the same place as I last spotted them, or at least the same direction. "You just activated something and you didn't know what it was?!"

"Hey, it was a Memory Lacrima! I've seen them before!" Aaannndd now those two are butting heads again.

"Enough, both of you!" Erza pushed them both away with great ease before looking around. It seemed like everyone in the guild was warped into this strange studio.

"Ah!" That sound made everyone look over to Warren who was at one edge of the room, in front of a large, metallic device that I had no idea what it could do. "Guys! Check this out!" He stretched out his hand towards the device, and despite some people warning him not to touch it, Warren ignored them and pushed on through, everyone then saw his hand phase through the metallic object as if his body was made of light.

"Whoa, how'd you—OWW!" Max began asking while walking towards Warren. However, it suddenly looked like something was in his path that we couldn't see. "What the heck!?"

As we all looked in front of him, a table from the guild popped up directly in front of Max Alors' path.

"Hey that was the table we were using just a minute ago!" Laki pointed over to the desk.

Soon, everyone started to move. Some were like Max, and hit invisible tables from the guild that soon reappeared, while some others who wanted to touch the strange metallic devices, could only have their hands and bodies phase through as if they weren't there.

I turned to the two dragon slayers near me. "Where are we?"

Natsu sniffed the air. However, the look on his face was that of confusion. "That can't be right. I still smell the guild hall!"

"What? We're still in the guild?! That can't be right!" Lucy screamed out.

"Everyone," Laxus began before we all looked towards him. He had his hands folded and he was looking up. We all followed his sight to see that the Memory Lacrima was still there, now with a rainbow hue around it. "Natsu was right. We still are in the guild. The memory Lacrima is showing us an image of when it was recording and it's overlapping the entire guild."

"Oh… well thank god it's nothing dangerous." The last thing I needed was another adventure.

It was then that Erza started talking that made me feel like I might have jinxed us. "But Memory Lacrima are only meant to show pictures inside them, not project overlapping 3D memory like this." Despite the fact that I was surprised 3D was an actual world here, and to hear this was a special case did not sit well at all.

"Finally!" An echo-like voice shouted out from the second floor of the garage we were on. There was a woman wearing a jump suit with dirt, dust, grime all over clothes and pieces of her face. She was wearing some kind of special goggles while her hair was black and tied up in a bun. "I got it to work! Yes! I will call it: the Hypercam Lacrima—Okay, I need something catchier than that, maybe just Hypercam… anyway! This will surpass all Lacrima by not just recording things in one area, but in a 360 radius—even more than a normal's person view! AHAHAHAH!" The girl laughed maniacally before slipping and falling from the second floor.

Erza seemed to act fast and try to catch her. However, her body fell through Erza's arms and she ended up crashing through a dust cloud.

"I-I tried to..."

"Erza, I know you meant well, but I think I'm starting to get it. This is a recording of the inventor of this specific Lacrima. These are all past events we're just watching." My mind thought back to how everyone in the Isle of the dead spoke about seeing my memories. This was like that, only less dangerous. "We can't really interact with a memory but just watch what happened"

"Right, I see." Erza calmed down and stood up.

"Oww..." the girl soon got back up before the Lacrima floated down towards her. "Right! I gotta get to Fairy Tail and show this to Precht!"

Those words made everyone look to her as she ran to one corner of the room with the orb following her.

"Did she just say Fairy Tail?" Cana's voice spoke what we were all thinking, but I was focused on the other thing said by the creator.

"Precht? Wait a second that's the second master's name!" I cried out before the creator finished packing and the Hypercam started to float and follow the creator as if it was repeating a path it once took.

Instead of everyone moving, the scene beneath us was moving for us. Everyone, including myself were flabbergasted as the creator and the Lacrima went out of the studio, and revealed to be on top of a hill looking down a rather humble looking town.

Everyone in Fairy Tail watched as the creator and the orb ran down, and the scenery moved as well, even though all of us were stationary. We watched the sky move, we watched memory of trees pass by and through some people to stunned to get out of the way.

It was like we were in a hologram that kept moving even with us in it.

As we entered into the humble town, people were waving hello to the creator.

"Hey it's Lara!"

"Sup Lara!"

"Lara! Can you go three more days without causing an explosion!? I'm in the middle of a bet with Seemon!"

It wasn't hard to figure out the creator of the orb was named Lara, or went by that name. However, it wasn't long before we all noticed where Lara was heading for.

"Is that!?" Elfman gapped as he pointed to what we were all looking it.

"It's the guild! I recognize that symbol anywhere!" In the distance was indeed a humble building with the words, 'Fairy Tail'. With words like Percht and Second Master, that could only mean…

"This is Mangolia in the past!" I blurted out as we looked back at the humble town that would soon become the large city that it was.

Soon, Lara closed in to the doors of the old Fairy Tail. Everyone, including myself was filled with anticipation. After all, how could we not? This was about to show us a Fairy Tail in it's early days before it's many renovations over the years!

Though… even though I hyped it up, I found myself a little disappointed. Just like when I first saw the guild, I had too many high hopes about what the guild was like in it's beginnings. It was just a plain old building, just like when I originally expected something like Hogwarts when entering into this world.

The Fairy Tail in memory was so much smaller than the guild before the Phantom Lord attack, and it seemed to have less people than before, maybe it was still in it's early stages since it felt like the highest numbers reached thirty.

Lara looked around in the old guild and then ran up to a dark cloaked man with pale blonde hair and an eyepatch.

Just before she did, she inhaled deeply before trying to shout out, "Y-Yo! Precht!" No sooner than the greeting came out, her face momentarily twisted in agony from her own words betraying her mouth.

The man sighed and turned around in the recording memory. "What is it, Korho?"

"Why do you keep calling me by my last name?! Anyway, check this out!" As Lara started talking about the flying orb, I managed to walk closer to the man who Maakrov claimed was his master.

He was so young! And considering how I heard stories about he was also one of the founders of the guild.

"Hey guys, I think this is a memory of the very first members of Fairy Tail! One of the founders and second master of the guild is as young as Laxus!"

"So this is the very first Fairy Tail? Man, it looks crummy." Lucy then elbowed Natsu in the ribs for saying that. "What? It is!"

"As fun as this is, is there a way out of here?" Cana asked as she looked around. "I can't find the bar."

Since I was close to the Lacrima. I went and reached for the thing. As soon as I grabbed it, the orb's glow shined less and all the people of the past. I then did the reverse of what Natsu did to put I on, I twisted a part of the Larcrima in the opposite direction.

As soon I did this, the memory around us was sicked into the orb and it was powered down. The Guild returned to normal—well as normal as it was a while ago.

I ended up walking back towards the box I had found. "There are more of these. They all have recordings too, I bet."

"Man, I guess they aren't the embarrassing photos." I turned and gave Natsu a flat look after saying that.

"I'm not even sure Makarov knew about these." When I looked down into the reflective surface of the Lacrima, I was treated with the sight of what exactly people see when my brain is forming an idea by how my eyes seemed to widen and the smallest of smiles appeared. "Hey guys? How about we take a break?"

They all looked towards me as I raised up the orb. "We've all had a hectic month that just ended, and while I am amazingly thankfully you all want to help, I think this is the best way for us to sit back, relax, and watch what adventures and recordings these Lacrima have."

"What makes you think they have any adventures in them? They could be just about some boring stuff?" I spotted Evergreen comment from the side, already sitting back down in one of the seats.

"Well, for one, it's our predecessors, do you really think that's boring? Secondly, even if they are, do you really want to miss out about a device that can make someone as close to the past as possible?" Evergreen thought about it before shrugging her shoulders, figuring there really was nothing better to do. As I glanced around, I could see the same going on through other people's minds.

There were several sighs of relief while some I could hear about wanting to see what was in the recording.

I looked over to Laxus who just shrugged his shoulders, obviously not caring either way.

That was pretty much the 'all green' signal to me.

I could feel the smile stretching my mouth that moment and I thought to only validate these rising feeling with a showy speech. "Okay guys! Grab your favorite snacks, grab your favorite drinks, put aside all research and woes at the door because to day is when Fairy Tail does something unthinkable: relax and watch someone else's adventure!"

I grabbed the Lacrima and reactivated it with a twist.

And the light enveloped Fairy Tail once more.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Gotta get back! Back to the Past! WATCHA!**

 **And here we go! An Original Arc I've been planning for a while. It's no grand adventure, in fact, it's just a pretty chill one. Present Fairy Tail gets to watch a very specific adventure in the past, involving the founder, Percht.**

 **And if I'm including young Percht, you all know who else is going to be in the recording. This is basically a story set up for me to write a story about 'you know who' and the others and some of their adventures! This one I hope you all enjoy and are as excited about it as I am.**

 **Also, I'm looking to do some rewriting in the future, mostly around the Tower of Hell arc. So some time in the future it will change, because of how many negative reviews and how I myself dislike how it is. But that's going to take a bit, but it shouldn't be slowing this down by much...**

 **See ya guys soon!**


	31. Chapter 31

"Sometimes, all one has to connect themselves to the past are their memories. But today, that all changes with the invention of the Hypercam Lacrima—name still pending—trademark!" The black haired, jump suit wearing woman with googles over her eyes made a showy motion to the levitating orb.

After a beat of silence from the man she was showing the invention off to, Lara Korho coughed and asked. "So what do you think? P-Pretty cool huh?!"

The not-yet-second-master of Fairy Tail relaxed his stance and said, "… Well, it's not exploding in my face this time, so that's something—"

And then the memory abruptly ended after a strange flash of light came from the orb in the memory.

All of present Fairy Tail was silent as Kain caught the orb before it could fall down. The brunette lawyer of Fairy Tail eyed the orb he was holding suspiciously before placing it down gently in a remote corner of the guild.

He then clapped his hands. "Okay, while risking these thing potentially exploding, I kinda wanna see what happens next. Anyone?"

On one hand, a device exploding would be cause for panic, but since everyone knew that Precht lived a full life, maybe was even still alive at that moment, it meant the explosion wasn't lethal. And secondly, Kain wanted to see more of the apparently just as quirky people that the guild just attracts since it's birth. And with how everyone was also curious to see more, Kain picked up the second orb and activated it, bringing the recording back to nearly the same place the last memory was.

"… Oh thank god it's not exploding this time!" Lara gasped in relief within the memory hologram. This time, everyone noticed that the other guild members of the guild had made makeshift barricades around Lara and Precht.

"Are you telling me you just tested it now?" Precht asked with a brow raised over his good eye.

"N-Noooo…?" Anyone could tell by now that a lifeless chair could tell more convincing lies than Lara.

Precht sighed before looking to the orb in question. "Just… be extra careful when making your stuff, Korho." He said before standing up from his seat and calmly walking away. When it looked like that Lara's orb wasn't going to explode this time, the images of older guild members started returning to normal.

Lara in the other hand had a face that was similar to a kicked puppy when she saw Precht walking away.

"Oh Lara," Everyone noticed a beautiful blonde woman walk up to the dirty inventor. "I'm sure Precht appreciates your inventions."

The black haired girl removed her googles, revealing yellow colored iris that were somewhat obscured by tears. "He hates me, Rita."

"Rita?" Laxus repeated before we all looked towards him. "She's my great grandmother."

That made everyone look in surprise. That sweet, beautiful woman was Laxus' great grandmother?!

The memory continued as Lara put a hand on Lara's shoulder as she wiped her eyes. "Precht is just stoic. I'm sure he wouldn't hate anyone."

"Hey, Rita!"

Rita's smile turned into a sour frown. "On second thought, there is someone he might and I would understand why."

Everyone looked towards the right where someone who like similar to Laxus along with a man with hair like a bush, and without a neck connected to his face with barely a jaw or chin.

"Yuri." Rita folded her arms while speaking in a manner that was a far cry than the caring tone she had for Lara.

"Rita, looking as beautiful as ever babe!" Oh, so someone does still do the finger guns in a different world… Kain was starting to see why no one was doing that anymore in both worlds when Yuri did it.

The young man from another world looked towards the guild master. "Let me guess: is that your great grandpappy?"

Laxus could only sigh in response, but that was practically the same as confirming it.

Rita ignored the blonde man's attempts and turned away from him, making Yuri flinch at the cold reaction. The man beside him gave a hearty laugh and put a hand on his shoulder. "Really, Yuri? Where you trying to say hello or shoot her?"

"Shut it!" It was then that Yuri shoved away the hand, but that did little to stop the laughter from the other man.

Lara sighed seeing the two men and walked up to them. "Hey, Warrod, Yuri. I'm surprised I don't see Master Mavis with you."

It was then that everyone in Fairy Tail started to murmur. They had heard only about the name Mavis Vermilion, never knowing anything about the legendary figure of Fairy Tail's founder and first master. They could only imagine what kind of amazing person could be behind the birth of something so great as Fairy Tail.

"We haven't seen Mavis this morning. Who knows where she could be?" After Yuri shrugged his shoulders, more watchers from present Fairy Tail were hooked in even more. The first master was a woman?! She really must have been someone everyone looked up to!

The sound of the entrance doors slamming wide open caught everyone in both the memory and the present as they whipped their heads to see…

"YYYYUUUUURRRRRIIII!"

A small girl wearing no shoes but having gorgeous blonde hair running towards Laxus' great grandfather.

"It's never anything normal with her." Warrod folded his arms but kept his relaxed smile as he said this.

As the young girl came closer to the three, Yuri had a much more easy going smile on his face. "Hey Mavis."

"SHE'S MAVIS!?" A large amount of people in Present Fairy Tail screamed in shock at the fact that the founder of their guild was in actuality a little girl.

The girl, who happened to be Fairy Tail's creator had stars in her eyes as she held up a piece of paper. "Look at this quest that was just posted!"

Warrod and Lara closed in towards Yuri when he was handed the quest flier. Even though the two were on each of his sides, he read out the flier. "Capture the Wandering Myth...?"

"We should take this quest right away! Where's Precht?!" The blonde and excitable girl woman looked around her own guild excitedly.

Yuri actually was able to get the flier and raised his brow almost immediately a few seconds in reading the description.

"Sightings of the legendary Wandering Myth has been spotted, for any real proof or capture the actual faire, the people of Gogre Valley will reward you handsomely." After reading it, Yuri gave a look that was similar to disappointment. "Mavis, don't believe this one. This one is a scam. I've heard of people in that town being nothing but a bunch of swindlers."

"That's right, Mavis, Gogre Valley is infamous for being a tourist trap that tries to get unsuspecting people to lose their money." Warrod added in.

"What?!" Mavis shouted out like a child being told no on getting their favorite toy.

However, during this little back and forth, Lara had raised her a finger up. "Um excuse me, I come from Alakitasia, so what's the wandering myth?"

"Oh right!" Mavis quickly stopped pouting as her smile came back up. "It's one of my favorite bed time stories that I'd read!"

She cleared her throat and started to put her hands together. In a flash of light, she started to show a picture book summoned by her magic in her hands.

* * *

In a time when the sky was young and magic was raw, unrefined, and mystical, there was a small, nameless town. And in that town lived a puppet master by the name of Gep.

He was very beloved in his town because he was a toy maker, his toys were beloved by children and sometimes, even their parents. He was a happy man, fell in love with his best friend who was pregnant with their child.

…

However, tragedy came. His wife suddenly grew ill and even died along with their unborn child. Gep was overcome with grief and sorrow. He closed down his toy store, and refused to speak to anyone.

Yet one night, by liquor, or by actual magic, he received a vision, a Faire appeared before him and gave him a message to create a special puppet from the oldest tree in the land. With nothing to lose, Gep followed his vision and soon came across a tree older than their humble town. He noticed a fallen bark of the tree laid before him, as if it was waiting for him. It was a rather large bark, but Gep then had this idea of creating… a larger puppet.

The toy master went to work, creating his new toy with the bark of the tree he had found. The puppet itself was made humanoid like, but towered eight feet tall. His torso was made hollow to place toys and other items inside, but held a large door in the shape of a heart. His face was designed with a crooked but silly line shaped to a smile, googly eyes that for some reason looked full of life; he had long, many jointed limbs so both hands and feet could move in ways to make even the grumpiest of people laugh, and finally… the giant puppet was given Gep's favorite top hat.

The puppet was then laced with some of Gep's magic to help move better. However, it seemed as if the puppet itself had a magic of his own as when he was animated as when he started moving, he almost acted alive.

Gep's puppet soon became popular in the town, giving children the ability to climb and sit on his long, surprisingly sturdy arms to tower and jump into new heights, he would sometimes play pranks on adults, but they were never ill intention. He was dearly loved by all, even Gep felt the void left by his wife and child was slowly being filled by the puppet who just seemed as real as a person despite never uttering a word.

Yet… there was something that no one expected. Gep's puppet never really aged. He was still kind, lived with his creator who taught him many things, but the children were growing up and Gep himself was getting older.

His time was running short, so Gep did one last thing: he carved a name of his would be child into the back of the puppet's door and then told him to go out and see the world for what it was.

The puppet didn't quite understand… only until one day… Gep didn't wake up from his bed no matter how much the puppet prodded.

Even though he was a puppet, even though he was not made of flesh and blood, the Puppet cried for his father...

But he did remember his words: "to travel the world and to be kind to kids who needed it".

And so, the puppet did so. With nothing but the top hat of his father, and strings, the Puppet left the small town, traveling the lands for hundreds of years.

Sometimes, you can hear stories of children claiming that they had been spirited away by this magical, giant puppet, how he could make them touch the sky, swim with the fishes, and make the trees and wind sing.

And who knows, little one? One day, the wandering myth may cross your path and give you a smile that will never fade.

* * *

Mavis was practically glowing after finishing that story as she made the illusion of the book go away. "It was one of my favorite stories."

"That is a lovely story—wait." Lara stopped her self as her mind put two and two together. "The job says he's real?"

"No it's not." Yuri stated before pointing at the flier in his hand. "Mavis, this job is a scam. The people of this crazy city are just a bunch of conmen abusing the job request forms as a form of free advertisement for their town where mages and people come in and leave with nearly all of their jewels swindled out of."

Warrod nodded. "He's right, Mavis. Even back in our treasure hunting guild, we were warned about that job and town."

"What!? No way! He's gotta be real!" Mavis stomped her foot on the wooden floor.

Yuri took another look at the flier and looked between it and his master of the guild. "Wait a second, does this have anything to do with the fact that if this is real, you might actually get to see a Fairy?"

Mavis' sudden freeze spoke to Yuri and Warrod more than he next lines, "W-What? D-Don't be silly! I-I wanted us to capture this Wandering Myth to promote Fairy Tail's greatness! Yes! That is exactly what I had in mind from the start!" Yuri was more than likely to believe that Precht was actually a woman all the time he knew him than what Mavis just thought up.

"I say we go."

Everyone turned to the voice to see Precht walking up to them.

"There's no way your serious." Warrod began in aghast.

"Gogre Valley, while a town full off conmen, also ironically contains a legal Bazaar that contains items you would have travel to the opposite ends of Ishgar and Alakitasia to find. I admit, some of their goods there has caught my interest for some time." The blond ancestor of Laxus made a tongue clicking noise when he heard how sensible Precht's request was.

Mavis practically had stars in her eyes. "See! I can always count on Precht! And that's why he's the best member of this guild, just below me!"

Yuri groaned at the thought before pointing to Mavis. "If we are going there, we're going there for the bazaar, not because we're taking the quest."

"Phooey! I'm guild master and I say we can do both!" Mavis exclaimed while flailing her arms wildly in a miniature tantrum.

"Oooh can I come!? I wanna see what they have there!" Lara placed a hand up only to bring it back down when Yuri looked accusingly at her.

"Sure thing, Lara!" Mavis raised a thumb up, eager to gain more points to her agenda. "I guess it's decided, all five of us are going to Gogre!" She threw her fist up in the air, while Yuri could only sigh in defeat.

The sight of his friend made Warrod give out an honest chuckle and Lara looked over towards the floating Lacrima and made a motion to close it.

As that memory came to an end, everyone seemed excited and quickly asked Kain for the next orb.

The next orb lifted up, but unlike before, this time, it only showed a smaller area than when it used to overlap nearly most of the guild. This time, everyone could see the inside of a train along with the founders and Lara sitting in a train booth on their way to their next destination.

"Ah! Yes! The gravity acclimation is working this time!" Lara spoke as the new orb started to fly around the booth. "It's keeping speed with the train in movement!"

"Wow! Lara this is amazing! What more things do you have planned?" It wasn't hard to see Mavis was obviously impressed with the inventions of the female member.

Speaking off, Lara was no longer wearing her dirty jumpsuit. Instead, she was wearing brown trousers with suspenders over a white, frilly blouse with a round, fluffy cap, long black stockings and brown rubber shoes. Her googles were worn over the hat and revealed she had dark green colored eyes. Her hair was now tied up in a pony tail that reached the back of her neck. Overall, Kain noticed that she had a distinct, practically steampunk look to her when compared to her friends. Though, it was kinda funny that an inventor of Fairy Tail had a steam punk theme.

"Oh! I just came up with this one after watching some birds fly over us!" The steam punk themed girl smiled in response to Mavis as she quickly took something out of her satchel—not a purse, a real satchel—and revealed it to be blue prints that she quickly unrolled and showed it to the other four.

"Tadaa! I have these plans to create a massive flying fortress! I don't really know what to name it yet, I'm torn between something with the word 'Heart' in it, or maybe something way cooler and more intimidating like "Grimoire" but check this bad boy out! It can probably fly for days and can potentially manage a special Lacrima that is designed to give an inexhaustible source of magic!"

Mavis practically had stars in her eyes after hearing such a thing. "Wow! That sounds so—"

"Expensive and unrealistic." Precht's voice cut down like an executioner's blade. "Korho, to get even one portion of that idea running would require the most state of the art equipment, which I know you can't afford by rummaging through junkyards. And there's no way you're touching the guild funds."

Everyone both in past and present watched as Lara's enthusiasm died faster than anything that people had seen before and she rolled up the paper in shame after just showing it.

"What! No! Lara, that was awesome!" Mavis tried to say.

Yuri elbowed his good friend before also trying to do damage control. "Oh don't fret, Lara, Precht here is always a spoil sport. If anything, it's pretty cool how you can make a flying machine at all with what you can get your hands on."

Before anything else could be said, the train started to slow down and everyone else looked over to see that they were all arriving in Gogre Valley.

The place was bustling to say the least, even off the train station there were already make shift stands and people calling out to anyone leaving. As such, a man carrying a box of toys stepped up towards the Fairy Tail group.

"Hello, weary travelers! I am Likola and I welcome you to Gorge Valley! Home of the legendary Puppet Giant!"

"Home?" Warrod repeated. "The stories say he travels the world. What makes you think this is the place where the puppet came from?"

"That is a good question!" The man exclaimed before suddenly fishing for an item in side his pocket. "As is this: would you like to behold this fabulous bobble head of what the Wandering Myth looks like?!" He brought out a rather cute figure of a googly eyed wooden puppet with a run down toy hat.

"Aww it's adorable!" Despite obviously being the guildmaster, Mavis was still the youngest member of the group as she clasped her hands together and cooed at the object in the man's hands.

Likola pointed at the girl. "And it's all yours for a measly ten Jewels!"

"Ten Jewels!? I want one!"

The three older men of the group and Lara were quick to crowd their master. "Mavis, no! We don't need it!" Precht and Yuri both spoke out.

"Tell you all what? I'll give you all five of these things for the price of three!" In a motion that was far too expertly done, the man folded out his arms and four more bobble heads of the Wandering Myth were seen shaking their heads while standing on Likola's arms.

"Sold!" Mavis said as she swiped them all while holding out a few Jewel bills and handing them to Likola. The other founders were flabbergasted at Mavis' quick movements but even more so when Likola bolted out of there like a marathon runner as soon as he got the money.

"Huh? Why is he running?" Mavis held the five bobble head figures closer, only for three of them to suddenly snap and break into pieces under the slight pressure.

"Mavis, we warned you that the people here were all conmen. You just spent a meal's worth of money on trash!" Yuri spoke up.

"Th-that's not true! I still have these two!" As Mavis raised the last two, the one in her right hand broke into pieces. She started to sniff as she looked at the last one that actually seemed to be working fine.

Precht sighed. "Let that be a lesson, Mavis. Don't trust everyone you meet. Not everyone is as nice as the guild and Magnolia. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be heading towards the bazaar."

"Wait, Precht!" Yuri cried out to his one-eyed friend, only for the man to make his leave quickly. "Yeesh, hey, Warrod, could you manage things here, I'm gonna get our friend." The blonde man spoke out as he followed after Precht.

Warrod looked to a sad Mavis before looking to Lara. "Hey, watch over her, I'm gonna get that bastard back." The usually laid back Warren said with a serious face before rushing after the thief.

Lara was left alone with a teary eyed Mavis. Seeing her friend, Lara sighed and fished for something in her bag. Mavis turned and watched her bring out a metal gear that was twice as big as her palm. Lara waved her hand over the metal gear and soon the metal object started to shake—then shatter into pieces. The pieces themselves started to move towards the plastic and wooden pieces scattered on the floor and merged with them. Then, they started to re form back into the toys that Mavis first saw them as.

However this time, Lara snapped her fingers and all four bobble head puppets saluted and jumped up to Mavis' shoulders to do their best to hug something much larger than them.

Mavis was caught off guard before she started to laugh. She got the four—now five since the last pieces went into the one that was fixed—and laughed at how animated they were all moving now.

"Thank you, Lara." The first master spoke out.

"It's nothing, really. My magic is just basic telekinesis anyway. What's so special about moving things with one's mind?"

Mavis' smile faded a bit after hearing that. "Lara, you really shouldn't let what Precht said get to you. He means well, but he's just a guy who sees things half empty."

The raven haired girl sighed before the two of them started walking into the valley. "I know that. It's just… he's right. I'm aiming to big—I mean, I wanted to make a flipping flying fortress? Ha! Next thing you're going tell me is that there's an invention that could easily store a hundred years worth of thunderstorms and still work as well as the day it was made!"

No one from the present dared say anything about the Thunder Palace, but that didn't stop them from thinking about it.

"That… actually sounds really specific."

Lara flushed at the point brought up. "Okay, I _might_ have been in the beta stages of designing something like that too..."

"She was one of the designers of the Thunder Palace?" As soon as Lucy spoke it out, everyone started to realize that something like the Thunder Palace would require a large amount of people to work on, even with the combined efforts of the outstanding people of the founding members.

"See! That's amazing Lara! I wouldn't have even thought of that!" Mavis reached out for her taller friend to show that she really meant what she said.

"Yeah, but that's just an idea! No one cares for ideas unless they're brought to life and well… I don't really have the power or more importantly the money to bring it out. So they're all just… scribbles of paper."

Mavis was silent for a moment. "Why us?"

"Huh?"

"Lara, despite what anyone says, you're one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. The things you make, I've never even seen anything like them from the countless books I've read. So it makes sense for someone like you, an inventor, to go and join in maybe an inventor's guild, or even join the research development branch of the Magic Council, anywhere I just mentioned would value and support you better than us… so why are you with us?"

The black haired girl looked at Mavis for a second, thoughts grinding in her head. "Didn't you offer me to join when I was first passing by Magnolia?"

"Yes, but why did you accept?"

"Weeeellll," The two walked down a busy street filled with people and vendors. "Remember that Metal Golem I was trying to make when I first came to Magnolia and exploded and covered three blocks of the city? You guys didn't shout… you laughed… you had fun and you guys were the first to actually _like_ my stuff. The stuff I made before… and now just break a lot. Like a lot a lot. Like a lot a lot a lot a lot And for those types of people, they just saw my failures more than anything else." She then started to laugh. "Oh gods, I remember how black everything was."

Mavis laughed at the memory as well. "Oh right! I was washing off the soothe for months!"

The two girls laughed honestly at the memory. Lara gave a more earnest smile at the thought. "I stay in Fairy Tail, because I can be me there… does that make sense?"

"Completely. That was what Fairy Tail was for." Mavis stated proudly. And it wasn't hard to feel that even now. Fairy Tail still stood by the fact that one could proudly be themselves, flaws and all. She huffed and noticed the five bobble heads hanging around her shoulders. "Now then! With our spirits re-ignited, let's find the Wandering Myth!"

"Exxxccuuuusssseee mmmeee?" A taller man wearing a turban came in front of the two holding an old piece of paper. "I couldn't help but overhear about the Wandering Myth. You see, I have proof of it being real and where he rests every time of the full moon!"

Lara scoffed. "Yeah right. We're not interested in your fake stuff."

Mavis smiled proudly and even crossed her arms with a puffed up chest. "There's no way you're tricking us!"

The man's eyes widened with realization—then he suddenly dropped to his knees and started crying and sobbing like a child. Both Lara and Mavis were understandably upset, more so when people around them started to stare.

"Y-You both are right! I am a fake!" The man sobbed and cried out. "My wife left with my beloved son and daughter because I was fired from my job and couldn't afford to feed them anymore! What's worse is that my mother, who gave up everything to raise me just died recently, and I don't even have enough money for a proper funeral! Every night, her corpse sits in my rat-filled apartment, and all I can do is cry and pray to the gods for forgiveness for my utter incompetence at gaining money! WAAAHHHHAAAA!" The man somehow belched out his entire back story in the middle of his emotional break down.

"W-We're sorry we called you fake!" Mavis quickly blurt out, stressed at how distressed the man was.

"W-We'll buy something from you!" Lara also added along with Mavis.

As soon as he heard that, the cries of the man slowed down considerable. "Really? You'll buy something from me?" He spoke with watery eyes and a hopeful voice.

"…." Lara sighed while trying to bring out some bills. "Yeah, how much?"

"How much do you have?"

Lara picked up a hundred Jewels bill, "How much is your—" She didn't get to finish that sentence when the man snagged the bill out of her hands and ran like an olympic gold medalist.

…

…

"THAT SON OF A BI—" Lara's suddenly fury was just as speedily cut when she looked at Mavis, who was still not of legal drinking age.

"That vile scum!" Yeah see? Curses were practically not allowed in front of Mavis. "Okay that's it! You hear me, Gogre Valley?! That is the last time you swindle us out of our money! I have read over countless battle strategies, hundreds of psychology excerpts, and over a million facts that can put most libraries to shame! You have unleashed a beast that cannot be stopped, and you will regret ever crossing members of Fairy Tail! From this point on, we will no longer fall for your tricks!"

"Wow, I can't believe they fell for every swindle scam after that." Kain spoke out plainly after watching practically an hour or two of rather elaborate swindles that even made the people watching and a genius like Mavis look like utter idiots.

The two were almost like slugs, slogging through the roads as the sun was setting in Gogre Valley.

Mavis was practically crying, while carrying an assort of goods she really didn't need along with wearing a cap that had the caption of: Make Fiore Great Again. Lara on the other hand looked worse. She had make up that made her face feel itchy and her shoes were now gone and replaced with the most impractical of high heels anyone had ever seen.

"I swear," Lara panted of anger and exhaustion of both physical, mental, and also some emotional level. "If there is one more asshole trying to scam us, they won't live, even if it's another old lady or a real orphan child."

Mavis could only nod while some of the bobble-head toys were carrying miscellaneous stuff after her.

"Hello!"

Lara quickly pulled out a gun from her satchel and pointed it to the new person. "I am broke, tired, pissed off, hungry, and all other bad emotions right now, but I swear to the gods, if you even think about trying to sell me something, I will use this fake gun to shoot you—then remember I was forcefully sold this faulty thing and realize it can't shoot at all _and_ _then_ just use it to bludgeon you to death with!"

The man looked panicked. "Wait no, please! I have a wife and kids!"

"I'm not fu—bloody falling for that a seventh time!" By this point, everyone would have been rather surprised to see this type of personality coming form the usually demure girl who was now having her eyelids twitch violently. Mavis as well showed an eerie, almost demonic smile on her face at the suffering of the new man.

"Wow, Gogre Valley changes people." And everyone in the present silently agreed with Droy's true words.

"Gaaaaaah!" The man clutched an area of his chest as a red liquid started to spurt.

However, everyone, even the two girls remembered that Lara's gun had no bullets and was incapable of firing in the first place. Not only that, but she never even pulled the trigger, so how was the man bleeding?

"AAAHHH!" The man threw his hand upward before falling down in agony.

"What's going on here!?" Everyone looked towards the new voice to see a man in police uniform stare at the scene before them: two suspicious girls with a gun pointed to where a fallen man was previously standing.

"W-What!? N-No! No! This isn't what it looks like!?" Both Mavis and Lara tried to explain themselves to the officer.

"How could you!? I should arrest ya both for attempted manslaughter!" The two girls panicked as the police officer said this.

"However… considering where we are… I might be able to turn a blind eye if you… sweeten the deal..." The officer then brought up two fingers and brushed them together. Everyone instantly realize that he was probably another con man.

"Oh also make them give me some too for compensation." The man on the floor calmly added, not even trying to hide the fact that he was just acting being shot from a while ago.

At that point, everyone noticed and heard a nonexistent sound of something snapping coming from the two girls as they stared at the officer like psychopathic murderers.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" Both Mavis and Lara tackled down the Officer and started beating him up. Unfortunately for them, the cop wasn't a con artist. They all figured this out when he called out for back up and a large amount of people tackled the two girls down and was able to put magic restraining cuffs on them.

"Oooh poor girls." Mirajane commented the rather… underwhelming understatement.

As they were being led into a cell, Mavis groaned. "I am so not going to hear the end of this from Yuri and Precht."

Lara sighed. "Yeah, I'm not looking forward to it either. Those guys are pretty level headed and are probably more used to this dirty, gritty business than we are."

It was then that the officers led them towards one of the holding cells. "Here's your cell, ladies, you'll have to share with other criminals that threaten the peace of this fine city!"

As Lara and Mavis walked in… they spotted Yuri and Percht, both sulking in the corner of the cell, wearing clothes that the two girls knew the two men weren't wearing originally when they came into the valley, and both having magic cuffs around their wrists like them.

"Well crap, they got you girls too huh?" Under closer inspection, Yuri was wearing a chocker with a Pink T-shirt that read, "Ask me if I'm gay." along with an obvious black eye on his left eye.

"So much for placing our hopes, but then again, those salesmen were far more cunning than I prepared for." Percht on the other hand, had his eye patch replaced with a pink, heart shaped eye patch and had a baby holder on. Inside the baby holder, was an adorable baby malamute with a horn sticking out of his head and looking happy to be there.

"Aww!~" Mavis cooed at the adorable dog being carried by the stoic man who was giving no fucks anymore. "Is that a baby Uni-malmutt? I heard these things were only found around the north!" She laughed as she got closer to the little puppy and touched his fluffy, smiling face.

"Mavis, trust me when I say this: don't get to close to him." Yuri strictly said.

"But why not—" Before Mavis could finish, the horned, floofy malamute then barfed in Mavis' face.

"… That's why." Yuri futilely finished. "Due to… certain circumstances..." Precht and Yuri shared a look before the continued speaking. "We got that little devil that just barfs on people if they get to close to him."

Lara tried to help clean the little girl, and got them both to sit on the opposite side. "So… why haven't you gotten rid of that?"

Then the horned malamute gave the most adorable whines and his eyes grew three sizes that moment, it sounded like the dog didn't want to leave them all.

Even though they saw the thing's _unique_ trait, even some of the colder and tougher men from the present felt their hearts melt at that face.

"That is why we can't get rid of him. The damn mutt is magic!" Yuri cried out and fell into his corner. "I only hope Warrod is doing better than all of us."

"In here, criminal scum!" A Police Officer's voice came up before he opened the gate and…

In the case for everyone in the cell so far, they gained many things from the city that they in no way needed, or wanted.

In Warrod Sequen's case, he lost things… specifically, all his clothes.

As he walked into the cell with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, he looked at all his friends and they to him. Warrod then sat down in his corner off the cell with barely a sound.

Yuri opened his mouth, everyone looked at him, but then he closed it and remained silent. Warrod looked to him and nodded once in thanks before saying nothing else anymore.

"You're kidding me, that's one of the current gods of Ishgar?" Bickslow asked in surprise.

"What kind of madhouse is Gogre Valley?" Evergreen cried out in disbelief.

…

…

"I wanna go home." Mavis finally said after a few more seconds of awkward silence.

Precht, while petting the head of the puppy in the abby holder he was wearing, asked, "There's a problem then: does anyone have money for train tickets?"

The silence that returned into the cell was more telling than any word spoken before.

"W-Well look on the bright side!" Lara tried to cheer everyone up. "A-At least we have a free place to spend the night? … No? … I'll shut up again."

Yuri sighed and put his hands on his face before looking up to the crummy ceiling. "Alright, let's just all agree, when we get out of this hellhole, we will never speak of this again—..." The ancestor of Laxus abruptly paused as he looked towards Lara's direction. "Lara… how long does your Memory Lacrima record?"

Everyone, including the dogs and the toy puppets, looked towards the inventor who suddenly remembered that there was indeed a flying Lacrima Orb nearby her this entire time. "Uhhhhh… I wanted it to record a long time?"

"...So… it basically has recorded us in this state?" Yuri's voice lowered as his stance shifted into one that could almost be called a battle stance. Precht and Warrod were also slowly turning a dangerous glare towards the inventor.

Lara started to sweat in response to the question. She also found her hands and the floor very important to look at that very moment.

"I'm breaking that thing as soon as the cuffs are off." The words that came out of Precht didn't come out as a statement, it came out as if it was going to be a fact of reality that could not be broken.

"Ummm yeah… about that?" Lara meekly spoke up. "Remember how many—and I mean many—of my inventions keep breaking before they actually work? I recently found this cool magnetism spell that—well—umm...fixes… small objects after they break? And I umm may err have… castitonthisthing?"

"What?" Yuri looked at the stammering girl.

"I mean… you can break it… but… it won't _stay_ broken?" The steampunk-themed girl offered unsurely. But for those in the present it did explain why a hundred years from now, these lacrima were still in good condition.

"Can you delete it then?" Yuri asked as fast. However, his eyes slowly were narrowing dangerously.

Lara just continued to squirm under the gazes of everyone in the room. "Delete? Y-Yeah s-sure, as soon as I-I figure out how to apply it on these things? Ahahahahaha…."

Her laughter was as fake as the hope of her getting out of this unscathed.

"Wow… just… wow. Natsu, I think you misheard when it came to the rumor: it seems like this holds the _founding members_ ' most embarrassing memories." Kain spoke out while watching the very people who created such a prominent guild… reduced to _that_.

"Yeah, I thought it would be fun, and it was, but this is just kinda sad." Even Natsu couldn't find himself laughing at this.

"I hate Gogre Valley." Warrod finally said.

"Amen." And this was the moment that the bond between the members had become truly and utterly unbreakable.

"This place is stupid! Why on earth would the Wandering Myth even be here!" Mavis cried out in frustration. "You know what!? No! I can't believe it, I fell for it again! There is absolutely no way that the Wandering Myth is here, or even real!"

The founding members, and even the present members of Fairy Tail should have been paying attention.

So far, whenever something is being claimed aloud, reality finds some way to disprove those claims with impunity. This phenomenon is sometimes referenced as Murphy's Law.

With this in mind, something had abruptly burst through the walls, knocking down officers and even knocked down the bars of the cell the founders were in, but stopping just before touching any of them.

As the dust settled, a large, figure was seen standing up from the dust, an eight foot figure with almost log-looking torso with hands and legs long and thin with noticeable circles at joint areas, and most unbelievable of all, a rather dusty and patched up old top hat that was picked up from the ground and placed on the actual wooden head of the figure.

The figure turned around, and all of Fairy Tail saw… googly eyes and a crooked and humble smile.

"Holy shit, it's real." Yuri and Laxus both breathed out at the same time.

* * *

{Author Notes}

So here we go folks! We look into the memories of old and stumble on to things that may never have been seen by mortal men!

I do hope you enjoy this arc, it's an original one and I'm having so much fun writing it. Since's it's completely my own, I don't really have to worry about following some of the standards of the cannon ones. Anywho, what will the founding members of Fairy Tail do now that they have met a real live Fairy Tale? (The word play! I've missed it so!)

Now lemme be a little technical here. The idea of the Wandering Myth actually came a long time ago, before I even thought of this story. This idea began as an OC I wanted to submit for one of the many Submit Your Original Character stories, or more commonly known as SYOC. I wanted to do something different instead of the usual, "Hey, this guy/girl is powerful and has a back story so complex so their personality must be complex! And we want them to have a lot of screen time.*****"

*****I have done the same exact thing before. So I'm not exempted from this.

The Wandering Myth (I) wanted to do something different. I created an actual Fairy Tale, for that story, trying to build up the lore and world building for the person writing an SYOC. He was created more for world building than anything else, and ironically, the writer planned a whole new arc of his story all around my own.

It was fun. But, the reason why you're all seeing it here is because, the original writer I was doing this for quit. And he quit fast. I was sad and disappointed, but I then made the foolish mistake of trying my own one. Boy did that end up in disaster.

While I find SYOCs to be really fun. They are insanely hard to write. For me when I tried one, there was always this stress of getting people the **right** way that their owners wanted them to be and that invaded each chapter I made it was stressing. Not to mention, because of my writing style and how excited I was, I forgot to completely factor in the amount of Gary Sues (Or those reaching that level) I did receive. I even got some trying to also get me to write their stories which conflicted with the plot I had in mind. One could argue that maybe I should have done certain things in a better way, like better and clearer rules to join, it would have been better, but the other things I just couldn't handle.

Over all, while making them was fun, writing them was and probably is not. I have a huge respect for those that still write SYOCs even though they're probably seen as less by others and are probably not that well written. It's still a fun idea having characters you made interact with other people's characters, and makes you feel like you're part of a group.

Well I'll state that this is the end of the chapter, but I've got some good news for you guys! I still have my Character Sheet of this Wandering Myth OC I created. Instead of filling out a form, I sorta did something else with it completely. It was one of my first ones, so I went really all out.

I hope you enjoy them and don't find them too cringey. (Oh and don't worry, there should be no spoilers in this. Especially in a character sheet of all things.)

* * *

Edit: September 14/2018

Okay, soooo... many people hated it. And I just decided to delete all extra stuff I had about it.


	32. Chapter 32

**{** **HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!}**

 **On September 8, 2017, I posted the first chapter of this series on Fan Fiction, flash forward one year, and this story has had almost 290 favorites, 320 follows, 60k plus** **views, and 200 plus reviews.**

 **Thank you all for the support this story has had. It's been quite a ride. And hopefully, you'll enjoy the many stories and adventures that are yet to come for this fan fiction.**

 **?(Future Mysterious Character): Be advised. The brightest of days comes after the darkest of nights. And here? The sun is slowly setting... whether it will rise again; however, is the real question.**

* * *

They say that stories, the most fantastical one, always have inspirations from real life itself.

It's hard to think that, especially since in the past, both the founding members of Fairy Tail and those in the present watched what should have been just a simple bed time story for wonder-filled toddlers—now exist and stand before them while they were all in a cell of a crazed city.

"Arf! Arf!' The horned malamute, or Uni-Malamutt as it was known in Earthland, barked a rather happily bark towards the wooden giant that was wearing a large white cloak.

There was a distinct sound of wood clacking on concrete as the puppet walked towards the puppy. A long, wooden hand reached out for the puppy and indirectly, a frozen Precht, and the hand just… petted the little pup. The little toys that Lara made from the bobble-heads also waved at the larger puppet.

The Wandering Myth turned to them and gave a thumbs up with his other hand while everyone in the cell and those watching in the present were still stunned speechless.

"He vent zis way!" A harsh cry came from where the puppet crashed in. The silly designed puppet tensed, fixed his patched up top hat then moved forward towards the end of the cell. Yuri got out of the way and the living fairy tale placed a hand on the wall. Instantly, the wall opened up and gave way for the puppet. There was no magic circle, or anything like the matter—it looked as if the earth itself allowed the puppet through as if it was as natural as running water!

With speed no one expected, the Puppet raced through the exit and with a single bound, jumped high into the night sky, his body flying into the air as one of his hands clutched tightly onto his top hat all the while his large cloak that almost looked like a giant blanket, fluttered from the movements in the air. He landed on the roofs and disappeared from everyone's sight.

As soon as he did, another blur past through the hole, a man wearing what looked to be a pilot hat from the 1950's of Kain's world, googles, and a long red scarf with some kind of golden symbol with a blade crossed with a sickle etched into the flowing end of the red scarf.

"Vere is it!? Vere did ze puppet go?!" Kain noticed the obvious German accent to the man as he looked towards the founding members.

He then noticed the hole in the wall and without another word, he sped past them all, revealing that he was some kind of speed mage.

"Holy shit! He was actually real!?" Yuri cried out again as the events that played out finally caught up with everyone.

Mavis shook her head violently. "Everyone! We're going after them!"

"What?"

"This is our chance! We came here to find and capture the Wandering Myth in the first place and this is our time to shine!" She blinked as she saw the rather confused look on her friend's faces before decided to use more unorthodox methods. "Our would you all rather stay here in this cell?"

"We're with you till the end, Mavis!" That made all four of the other members stand up with renewed vigor. And then all five ran out of the cell and after where the Wandering Myth ran.

"How are we getting these cuffs off?!" Yuri cried out before to his and the others; surprise, one of the mini bobble heads grabbed onto each of their cuffs.

"These things stop channeling our magic, but I can still order around the bobble-heads!" Lara said as each one of them stabbed their hands into the key holes and unlocked the items from all the Fairy Tail members. Also, Lara herself was removing the faulty footwear she was forced to wear previously while trying to keep up with the others.

"Well that's one less thing to worry about! Good job, Lara!" Yuri cried out.

"I feel that I should also state out that I recognized the symbol on the pursuer's scarf," Precht cried out as they ran the streets. "It's the symbol of a rather infamous Dark Guild known as Steel Reavers."

"A-A Dark Guild!?" Lara cried out in surprise.

"They're known to be almost uncaught in any arrest attempt and the Magic Council has them ranked in such a way that even an S-Class mage would have trouble taking down the guild on their own." The one eyed man said seriously while trying to care for the puppy attached to his torso. "But why are they after the Wandering Myth?"

"I think a better question is how are _we_ even going to find any of them? There's no way we could catch something that seemed to be using magic that just felt supernatural and a speedster!" Warrod said as he ran behind everyone, taking extra care about the towel that was the only thing keeping him form going full commando.

At that very moment, the puppy that Precht was talking care off started barking towards the group's right.

Mavis quickly understood. "Of course! The puppy has the scent! Everyone follow Barfy's nose!"

"Did you just name it?!"

"Less talking, more running!" Mavis cried out, ignoring Yuri's question, and running fast. A few feet into their sprint, something exploded not to far from where they were.

Precht motioned the rest to stop before quickly pushing his body up to a wall, it didn't take long for everyone to realize that he was trying to stay out of sight but look at what happened.

As they all turned the corner, they spotted a ruined plaza… and in the center was the Wandering Myth, restrained by over a dozen magic circles and surrounded by a colorful group of people with the same sword and sickle symbol.

The speedster who passed by the Fairy Tail members walked closer towards the giant puppet before turning back towards the other mages.

"We have him! Hurry up and transport him to ze base!" The man wearing pilot get up cried out before the others all moved at his words.

"Whoa. I know we're mages, but those magic circles look like some high class stuff." Yuri started to sweat as he looked at the many circles binding something stories say was filled with ancient magic.

"I think I've seen those symbols before," Mavis added in. "Those are high class magic runes. It's called a Prismatic Soul Seal, it's a very powerful, preparation based seal—you actually need to let the runes absorb three months worth of sunlight and moonlight before it could even activate. This guild either bought this, stole it, or have been very patient in trying to capture the Wandering Myth, but why?"

It was then that Mavis froze. As she was viewing the spell, her eyes happened to fall onto the face of the large, wooden puppet. His googling eyes, while silly looking, were directly looking towards her. Even though it should haven't been possible…

"Hey," Natsu looked closer. "Did the puppet just… wink?"

Kain turned to him. "You have sharper senses than most of us here. Did it really blink with glued on googly eyes?"

The young man's question went unanswered when a voice pierced through. "They're all starting to move, should we go in?" Warrod opened his palms, slowly raising his magic levels but Precht quickly stopped him.

"Are any of us in clear fighting condition?" Out of how badly off the four of them were, Precht happened to motion to the one piece of article preventing him from going full natural. "If we really are going after them."

"We are! We have to save him!" Mavis determinedly whispered for her group to hear.

"Then we should be stealthy about it." Precht finished after purposely pausing for Mavis to input her command. "Follow after..."

"ARK!" At the moment when they were all meant to be silent, the puppy that Precht was forced to carry around suddenly hacked, coughed, and barfed.

This act made the Steel Reavers all look towards the founders.

"Of course..." Yuri groaned before all the dark mage grunts pointed a hand towards them with varying levels of magical circles.

When the speed mage dressed like a plane pilot saw them, in one instant, he vanished, taking the chamber of the Wandering Myth with him.

Mavis cried out and pointed. "Ah! He's getting away!"

"Finally, something to hit!" Warrod regained his vigor as he charged in, towel swaying in the wind. He, slid before punching the ground and a huge pile of thick tree trunks bursted out of the ground to give the others more cover fire.

Droy cried out and pointed towards Warrod. "Oh wow! He's a plant mage like me! Does this mean I can be a strong as him!?"

At that question, everyone in the guild, including his best friend, started to laugh as wildly as they fight.

"HEY! ASSHOLES!" The plant mage slammed his fist on the table, though no one could hear it due to the laughter and the sounds of shooting.

However, while the attack was impressive, there was a scream that caught everyone's attention.

"KYAAH!?" Lara shrieked and was quick to grab on to Mavis and clamp a hand over her eyes, making the first guild master confused. The inventor's face was bright red despite it being night and her eyes were shut tight.

When some of the Reavers tried to flank from around the barrier, they all froze and gapped at what they saw. But they were also red in the face, maybe as not as much as Lara, but it was still easy to spot from a distance.

Yuri and Precht gapped and stammered as they pointed towards the plant mage.

While Warrod just looked confused. "What? Hey, what's going..." He then felt a breeze flow between his legs.

At that very moment of realization, Warrod's mind stopped everything it was doing to realize one thing.

"Oooooh," Kain winced as he almost turned fully away from the sight. "I was wondering how that towel stayed on for so long."

"It's a good thing Macao is still healing in the hospital, otherwise Romeo might have been here." Wakaba softly commented.

"Lara? Let go!" Mavis cried out as she tried to pull away her friend's hands, but didn't really have the strength to do so.

"Oh crap!" Warrod cried out and reached for the towel, having to bend down and do so, giving the attackers a full view of the second moon that night.

Yuri then blinked and then pointed a hand towards the stupefied group of attackers. "Precht! They're distracted!" As soon as he said that, a bolt of lightning shot out of his hand and shocked the attackers.

Precht also moved, the spot he was standing in turned into a blur as he sped in with magical chains surrounding him and whipping onto the dark mages of Steel Reavers.

The fight was easy to get into to forget about what had just happened.

It was also a chance to change the subject very quickly.

"Oh hey, you have the same magic as your great grandfather, master." The displaced boy commented off handedly about that coincidence, making sure to do his best to forget what he just saw.

Others were quick to jump on that lifeline out of talking about what they all had just seen. "You know, I do hear stories about how descendants are almost direct copies of their ancestors sometimes." Levy also commented.

"Yuri, above you!" Precht's voice rang out as the blonde mage looked up to see some kind of large lizard jumping right for him. But just as fast, there was a chain made of magical energy that quickly circled around the maw of the creature. Those fast enough, saw Precht yanking over the falling creature, changing it's trajectory towards the one eyed man as he threw one hand behind him where the light quickly condensed and exploded into the shape of a claymore. In a movement faster than a blink, Precht slashed the large creature in half with one slash. Erza Scarlet was obviously impressed that the second master had excellent form.

However, even with their teamwork, the make shift shield that Warrod made suddenly bursted open by the pressure of attacks.

As the three males raised their magical energy, Mavis stepped in with an obvious golden glow around her.

"Sacred Guardian Beast! Descend From The Heavens!" She cried out as she shot her hand out where the light around her lifted up and started to take form of a giant wolf with trees growing out of it's fur with piercing emerald eyes.

"Sirius!" The powerful wolf unleashed a guttural roar that froze the attacker in their tracks and made the bravest among them start to sweat.

One of the Steel Reavers didn't seem as scared as his allies and pointed towards Mavis. "H-Hey! Wait a second! Sirius is a Desirto Great Spirit of the forrest! And she's definitely not a shaman!"

Unbeknownst to most, Nab Lasaro twitched at the name of the country.

"Ooh?" Mavis tilted her head as she looked at the grunt in question. "I'm surprised: you're the very first person to see through my illusion by being culturally sensitive to a different country's lore. Now I feel a little bad about distracting you all if some of you are more educated than you look."

Mavis snapped her fingers, and the wolf disappeared, revealing that it was indeed just an illusion, but behind the illusion was something very real: Lara who was holding a… Kain had to rub his eyes… she somehow had a massive (mini) gun that already had it's barrel rotating at a high speed and glowing with bright blue lights.

"Mavis, move!" Lara reached for a lever and yanked out a large lever into the device, just a second before her pull reached the height, Mavis winked and vanished from sight, revealing that the girl talking just a few seconds ago was also a mirage and was actually behind Lara with the other founders.

The Minigun fired, and out shot over half a dozen laser beams that scattered into the sky and spread out to hit every single dark mage in the vicinity, the blasts all slammed each target through objects/trees/and walls. After firing, the magic minigun stopped and looked over heated. A second later, all of it's parts split up open and flew back into Lara's satchel.

"I always find it impressive how you can make almost anything from broken pieces of metal, Lara!" Mavis clasped her hands together and looked towards the taller girl.

"O-Oh, it's just a skill that comes with staring at a million blueprints and using my telekinesis to bend each metal object into their proper shapes..." The girl nervously laughed.

"We have more pressing matters. The speed mage long left with the living fairy tale." Precht spoke up as they all got together.

This was true. How could they catch up with someone who could get to the next city by the time their battle ended? However, there was a snap of fingers that made the founders look to Lara, who had a look of realization on her. "Wait a second, Mavis, you said the magic they used to capture the guy was pretty specific, right?"

"Yes. I recognize the key lines. They are laced with moonlight and sunlight energy beams, so it's a rather powerful magic."

Lara started fishing her satchel again. "The point is if it's powerful it might be complex, and if it's complex, it should be giving off a specific energy that's hard to miss..." She took out a pocket watch looking device that opened up. As she seemed to press something on the glass, a hologram appearer of the are around them. "I might be able to track it! And here it is, not too far from Gorge Valley!"

Yuri put his fists together to signify him connecting the dots. "Of course! They must have had a base of operations. The speed mage is one thing, but their grunts couldn't have made it here as fast and leave as quick."

"Ah!?" Lara cried out as the signal in the zoomed out map started to move.

"They're already on the move. How can we catch up?" Precht noted dangerously.

"Arf! Arf!" The horned puppy that Precht was still carrying around was barking towards a specific direction that made the founders and those watching all look towards.

"Oh my..." Lucy gasped in shock as she put hands to cover her mouth.

"That place has those!?" Elfman looked on as he felt his head starting to sweat.

At that moment, Mavis squealed like the little girl she truly was with a smile so wide, her cheeks threatened to break at any second—not that she cared when she screamed, "Alicorns!"

Kain blinked, recalling the term his younger half sisters used when they watched that famous TV show with the talking ponies. True enough, there were indeed horses with wings and horns all kept into a stable, where one of the grunts Lara knocked out had blasted through one of the fences, but the horses in them didn't seem disturbed in the slightest, one was even eating the straw that had fallen on the grunt's head.

Everyone quickly made their way towards the flying animals until...

"Wait," Lara began. "Wouldn't we be… stealing though?"

At that moment, someone came out from the door next to the pen. "Yeesh, whoever starting a fight this late better have money..."

And then everyone realized it was the very first person that meet with the Fairy Tail members when they first set foot in Gogre Valley.

"Heeeeyyy…. Friends!?" The conman laughed nervously. "Uhh… you guys look like you need a place toOOKFF!?"

And at that moment, Warrod decked the man in the face and knocked him into the ground. He turned back to Lara, "We're stealing."

No one wanted to argue, in fat they all looked like they wanted to steal even more, even Mavis had a dark look on her face.

"You guys go ahead. I need some much needed revenge." Warrod, who was usually so jovial and kind-hearted, said this with a look of venom and bitterness in his face before dragging the body around the corner.

As everyone quickly saddled up some of the alicorns, Warrod came back, wearing the long black thawb the salesman was wearing.

"It's kinda small, but it beats being clothed in only a towel." Warrod spoke out; the large robe like clothes still seemed tight as some of the sleeves seemed ripped, unable to contain his physique.

Precht looked over towards the tracker of this group as he jumped on a blue alicorn. "Lara, how far are they?"

Lara, who was already on a white alicorn, took out the device once more. "They are going south for some reason. But that's better! They'll have to go to a mountainous region, and we can cut them off with flight!"

Yuri pointed towards the night sky. "Well you heard her, Warrod! Get on! We have a Fairy Tale to catch! Can you imagine what kind of rep we'll have if someone is able to prove Fairy Tales are real and the guild, Fairy _Tail_ isn't the one to do so?"

"Yuri is right everyone!" Mavis threw her fist in the air as her alicorn still kept eating hay. "Today's the day we catch a real faire!"

"Well you heard the master, let's go! Hyah!" Yuri cried out and all of them started flying into the sky.

As all the founders raced along the night sky, those in the present now had time to really think about some things that didn't make sense.

"… Hey, don't you think it's odd?" Lucy spoke out as the founders all flew in pursuit of the dark mages.

"What is?" Gray asked out, while already being naked.

As Mirajane whispered to her friend that he was shirt and pants less again, Lucy continued on. "Well, it's just that this Lacrima holds proof that a fairy tale is as real as us. Even the founders say that capturing it would make anyone famous."

Levy seemed to be picking up the point where Lucy was going. "Hey yeah! If the founders not only saw and proved something so outstanding was real, why did they hide this? Or why haven't we heard anyone about this at all?"

"Wasn't it because of those embarrassing moments?" Gajeel spoke up. "Hell, I wouldn't want anyone to see me near naked and scammed out of every jewel I had."

"While that is a good reason, it doesn't explain the fact they were also not the only ones who found it. Why would a dark guild be silent about this?" Juvia added in.

Before she could say much more, there was a cry from the memory Lacrima. Lara was pointing ahead while all of them were still in the night sky. "According to this, we're catching up with them! We should be able to spot them in the plains after this forrest!"

"Alright, do we have a plan of attack?" Precht cried out.

"What? Just hit these guys from above! There's no way they expect an aerial..." As Yuri looked up ahead in the ending forrest, the words died quickly in his mouth.

Up ahead was a trail of noticeable smoke, and following towards where the smoke came from, Fairy Tail of both past and present witnessed a massive, fort like building that was moving along with giant, mechanical spider legs and moving at a rather impressive pace.

"Is anyone else getting Phantom Lord flashbacks?" Kain asked out loud before a second passed and he realized something. "No offense meant towards the two ex-members of Phantom Lord."

"Uhh what the heck is that!?" Warrod cried out as the five started flying towards the moving fortress.

"Still think we can take'm from above?" Yuri blanched when he heard Precht's dry retort on his earlier suggestion.

"Wait. Lara," Mavis began before looking towards the inventor. "You're the expert inventor, do you know what that is?"

"Well on first glance it looks like somebody created a mobile base! I'm convinced they have walls made of the dead carcass of Whale Beasts because it almost looks like the building is breathing and thinking out loud, it would be the perfect hard substance to help regulate heat and smoke throughout the building while being able to withstand natural forc—"

"Lara, as interesting as that all is, I think Mavis meant if there was some kind of weakness on it." Warrod soberly said.

"R-Right! Right." The raven haired girl scanned the moving fortress and started to fly left and right. "I think there's a balcony we can land in, but it's heavily guarded and if we fly in to close, they'll probably activate their defense systems and try to blast us from the sky."

"Buuuttt!" She continued before pointing towards the very top of the base where a massive, chimney "If they are relying heavily on steam power, or if my guess is correct, volcanic geostones—"

"Oh of course!" Mavis slapped her head. "There's no way coals could power up something that massive why'd I forget about that?"

"Please get to the point." Precht said, bringing the focus back.

"What I was trying to say was that there is more than one exhaust point that the massive one on the top of the base, design wise, to properly vent something this massive, there should be another large exhaust point under the belly of the guild. It'll be large enough for us to enter, but we can't take the alicorns with us."

"You know, now that she says all this, I recall the main Phantom Lord base had a similar design for it's mobile mode." Juvia commented.

"The words she's saying do sound familiar when those architect and engineers nerds were talking to me." Gajeel agreed, recalling that mumbo jumbo the nerd girl just said did sound familiar when the mobile base was being explained.

Back in the memory, Yuri got pumped up. "I think we can handle things from there. Let's go!"

Yuri flew ahead, using the cover of the smoke was all five soon stealthily reached towards the bottom of the moving base. Where there was indeed a huge vent of hot air, but no smoke coming out.

"Careful, the heat in these vents is going to be really hot, and dangerous if we stay there too long." Lara warned as she raised her hand and the screws and the vent itself started to get disassembled.

Mavis spoke up. "Don't worry, I think I know a spell which should protect us from the heat." She put her hands together in which a soft green light started to expand around her and her guild members. "This protective bubble won't last long, so we do need to move."

"I got it!" Lara finished opening the vent. "Get in! All of you!" All the human mages of the group jumped inside of the vent.

"Bark! Bark!"

They all looked down to see Barfy on the Alicorn that Precht was ridding.

"I couldn't take him with us." The usually stoic man tried to defend himself.

"Barfy, you take the others and leave! We'll come back for you all later, be safe, okay?" Mavis called out. While it was rather strange, it seemed like the horned puppy got what she was saying and they all soon left from the area.

Yuri turned to Lara. "Can you still detect the Wandering Myth from here?"

Lara took out the device. "According to this, he's near the top of the building. We're going to have to work up, and find a vent that should lead us to the boiler room."

"We should hurry!" The first guild master cried out, and also made the group start moving. "Who knows what they could be doing to that poor wooden creature!"

"We should also come up with another plan. We're in unknown, enemy territory and we have no idea what our opponents are capable off." Precht was quick to say.

At that very moment, Natus, Gajeel, and Laxus had their eyes snap wide open. The action was noticed by nearly everyone, but before they could ask what they could have possibly sensed, the vent the founders were all in suddenly started shaking violently.

"W-What!? AHHA!?" Mavis and the other cried before the memory Lacrima showed the vent suddenly trapped them all in a box.

"They knew we were here!" Precht yelled before everyone in Fairy Tail watched what happened next.

The vent switched upside down fast then started spinning rapidly, making everyone inside tumble around like toys in a shaken box. When it stopped, the walls around them soon started to morph into bars and no longer were the founders in the vents, but in a large, circular room where they were in the center of a hundred men with magical arms all aimed right at them from varying levels of platforms.

"And just like that, I can't believe I miss the jail back in Gogre Valley." Lara whispered in a way that was heard by all her friends.

"Intruders," A voice of calm, yet dangerous tone echoed around the room. The sea of gunmen parted to the side to let a man briskly walking with his hands behind his back in towards the room. "You have a lot of nerve trying to break in to the Steel Reaver's HQ."

The man had just entered into the room, and everyone, even the watchers of this recorded memory, could feel themselves tense. His presence alone commanded power, and many could see why this guild was ranked dangerously that even S-class mages would have trouble with.

He towered a little above seven feet tall, his eyes were a like the sea in the darkest of nights, his dark green hair was swept back and he had a beard and side burns that almost made him have the visage of a lion. He wore a fine, red uniformed shirt with a black cloak that had armored shoulder pads that depicted the symbol of the guild.

"Nerve!? You captured the Wandering Myth!" Mavis screamed out loud as she went towards the open bars of the cage.

In response, the giant of a man only glared harder, instantly killing whatever rising courage the first guild master had. Silence filled the air and everyone could feel the hundred of gunmen slowly twitch towards their triggers.

"Men," The leader began before turning around, "Terminate them."

Those were only two words needed before a hail of magical blasts and bullets all shot into the cage. Fairy Tail of present could only stare… as the bodies of the founders were turned into cheese and each fell into the floor in a pool of their own blood.

"Wait, this can't be right!" Freed cried out.

"It has to be some kind of ploy! None of them died there!" Cana, who was so engrossed with the memory that she even stopped drinking for a second, screamed out and pointed to all of the founders. "If they did, none of us would be here!"

"Calm down, everyone." Erza spoke out. "We have to have faith."

The master of that guild walked out of the room. "Clean up the bodies." giving one last order to his men as he did so.

The gunsmen put their arms down and walked closer towards the cage as it was put down.

As one reached for Precht's body, the one eye'd man's hand suddenly shot out and grabbed onto the man's hand, causing him to scream for half a second before he was punched so hard, he bowled into a dozen of his other comrades.

"What!? How are they ali—?!" Another didn't have time to even finish that sentence as he was kicked in the stomach by an electrical kick to the stomach.

All the founders got back up, much to the surprise of Present Fairy Tail who didn't understand how people with multiple holes in their head and chest could be fighting as if they never even seemed hurt.

After a few more seconds of people being cut, shocked, crushed by plants, and thrown into walls by telekinesis, the five of them came back together and Mavis waved her hand, making all the holes disappear.

"Quick thinking there, Mavis," Yuri sighed in relief as he pulled out the collar of his dumb shirt. "Telling us all to lay on the floor while you put illusions of us standing up. It was still kinda surreal seeing ourselves die..."

"Better that than actual death." Precht then looked over to Mavis. "You're getting better with your illusions. You can do sounds quite properly."

If those watching in the present hadn't figured it out the first master's magic then, they do now. Illusions, while they are impressive, don't really seem like a prominent magic for the first Guild master.

"Thank you, Precht. But now we have a problem! It's the master of Steel Reavers: he had a powerful magic to him. He even outclasses Geoffrey from Blue Skull."

"I mean, we've all grown as mages since Geoffrey, but yeah. That guy was powerful, and I don't think he even flexed his magical power in front of us in the slightest!" Warrod began. "We had to distract Geoffrey and never actually beat him, how are we going to face someone like him?!"

However, Mavis smiled. "Actually, it is still the same principle, but we need to move before anyone comes to check—"

Suddenly, Precht moved fast, pushing Mavis out of the way and summoning a shield in front of him, and not even half a second as the barrier was summoned, a powerful flying kick was blocked by the speed mage earlier that night and he backflipped before landing some distance away from Precht's move.

"You are far more cunning zan we realized." The speed mage took an Olympic running stance and placed his googles over his head. "But you have messed with ze wrong guild!"

On the opposite side of the room, something drooped from the roof, revealing a big man with a large, round body and hat reminiscent of Kain's vikings from his world.

"Well nae!" The man hiccuped before chugging down a barrel he was carrying—everyone in the present turned towards Cana who indignantly cried out "What" before the memory continued. "This be a sight for sore eyes! How would som of you fin' lasses share a drink with ol' Biscuit here?"

"Biscuit, for the love of god, both of the girls seem underage." Everyone paled when they saw the very guild master that just left, walk back in the same way he left. Despite how restrained his movements were, the sharper warriors could tell the man was beyond pissed off.

"Nae, boss! Aye was talking to dat beautiful blonde and de one eyed enchantress ovar dar!" With a horribly flushed face, he pointed over toward Yuri and Precht

Warrod greatly fought the urge to snicker when his other two friends both cried out, "We're men!"

"Ya are?" The round man with a long beard and a flushed face tried to squint his eyes towards the two men. "Ya bot are very pretty for laddies, ain't ya?"

Maybe it was because the man was drunk, or maybe it was because Precht and Yuri still wore pink clothing from their previous run in with the inhabitants of Gogre Valley, either way or maybe both, but it really didn't help the two men that the girls of their group were cupping their hands to poorly hide their sniggers and smiles. Even in a dangerous situation, it seemed like the day was not done insulting them when they were down.

"Can we please fight them now?" The leader of Steel Reavers spoke out with irritation.

Mavis looked back at the guys. "Can you hold them off as long as possible?!" Without even waiting for an answer, Mavis grabbed Lara's hand. "Come on! I need your help to pull this off!"

The first master ran, and Lara soon followed after her. Lara raised her magic and opened up a hole in the wall for the two of them to run into.

"After those two—" The guild master cried out before a shock of lightning forced him back.

"You deal with us." Yuri defiantly said before all three of them attacked the best that Steel Reavers had to offer.

"Hey!" Natsu cried out as the orb followed after Mavis and Lara, effectively leaving the room where the male founders were battling with the others. "I wanted to see that fight!"

"Sadly for us, we could only imagine how that fight went..." Erza spoke out as Present Fairy Tail could only continue watching as both Mavis and Lara kept running into the hallway.

* * *

"Kinda wishing I went with the girls!" Yuri screamed before jumping out of the way of a speeding opponent that smashed the floor he was in mere seconds ago.

"Oh suck it up, at least you're wearing clothes that fit you!" Warrod slammed his hand on the floor and instantly branches shot out of a green magic circle and all raced towards the heavy drinking viking. However, to Warrod's surprise, the large man's skin suddenly turned silver and when the wood spikes hit the man, they all shattered into pieces.

"Ya gan'e haf to do better than dat, laddie!" Biscuit chugged all of his drink and with speed that didn't match his body, tried to ram down Warrod.

This left Precht with the master of the Steel Reavers. The older man threw off his cape, letting it fall to the ground. With one hand folded behind his back he started to walk. The one eyed mage returned this gesture by walking in the opposite direction, while their friends were firing magic blast after magic attack, these two were slowly circling each other, looking for a potential weakness in their opponent.

For Precht, he was under much more stress than he dared show. The master, with just a few words and not even using his magic once, already felt leagues above Geoffrey. Where Geoffrey was arrogant and mocking, Precht's opponent viewed him like a hunter about to pounce on a prey.

This circling was already causing him mental stress already. As much as Precht wanted to attack now, that would be bad for him to do so while his opponent still seemed unfazed. (He has to be playing mind games on me on purpose! Damn, I'm either over thinking this, or hes just lucky, either way this is looking bad for me if I don't…)

His opponent stopped walking. Precht was caught off guard at the sudden action, until a large bark of wood was shot in between the two. The one eyed mage's mind knew that this was Warrod's attack, but his battler's instinct suddenly flared the instant the attack obscured his view of his opponent.

There was a shockwave that blasted a large chunk towards the future second master of Fairy Tail, who in haste, summoned a blade of energy and cut right through the trunk piece. However, the second he cut it to avoid it from smashing into him, his eye instantly noticed the distinct _lack_ of the enemy's presence where he was standing not even more than three seconds ago.

His instincts moved faster than his mind as Precht recognized his left arm rising to block an incoming punch from the man who had closed the distance without the second master of Fairy Tail even noticing!

The fist connected, and Precht's world blurred. His sight re calibrated and he found himself flipping into a slide. However, his right hand was bleeding like a broken bucket. There was a huge chunk of his skin that looked like it exploded and instantly, Precht's mind received the signals his body was sending him.

"Precht!" Yuri and Warrod cried out as they saw Precht fall to his knees with just one blow. However, they were under attack by their respective opponents and couldn't get to him in time.

If it was anyone but Precht, they would have tried to cradle their arm while screaming in pain. However, this was not the case. To stop the bleeding, Precht quickly encased his bleeding arm in a magic armlet to cover the gapping hole and stop the bleeding. Next, he was going to hate this next part: he caused his own magic to burn his arm and to reinforce the cracks he could feel in his bones. It wasn't ideal, but he could now use his arm despite it's horrible pain.

He looked back up, only to see the Master of Steel Reavers glaring silently at him.

Precht narrowed his eyes. He stood back up and raised his good hand. Light gathered in it and a blade of white energy appeared for him to grab. As he swung it to the side, he suddenly stepped forward, shooting out his broken left hand and firing five spiked chains at his opponent.

The dark green haired man punched away two with enough force to shatter magic chains that were thrown at him, and side step to avoid the rest. However, Precht then pulled hard, causing the remaining three to pull back something else they were attached to.

The tall man instantly turned around, only to see the metal roof of the vent/cage heading towards him from the pull of Precht's chains. He no longer had time to dodge, and so he punched the vent roof, causing it to split open, but as soon as he did, he felt a pain at the back of his legs, his calves.

Precht's attack was multilayered. He threw those chains to aim for the vent roof in the first place and made it look like he was aiming for his opponent. When he pulled back, the vent came sailing through the air towards the master of Steel Reavers. By the time he realized what the one eyed mage was really aiming for, it was too late, and he was forced to break it by turning his back on him. That was the opening Precht needed to fire energy daggers right into the leg calfs of the guild master, causing him to stagger and struggle with his own footing.

"Boss!?" The members of Steel Reaver called out and tried to get to their leader. However, it was Warrod and Yuri's turn to return the favor and prevent either of them from getting close.

Yet even with that, the taller man was still staying tall, in fact, he was able expel a large burst of his own magic that quickly cracked and destroyed the knives digging into his calfs like glass. But he looked to Precht and glared harder.

The man didn't even bend when his leg muscles were cut. Precht inwardly started to worry that not only was this guildmaster powerful, he could even take punishment just as well as he could give it.

(Mavis, Lara, hurry! We might not be able to hold them off much longer!)

Precht dashed, summoning another sword on his weaker hand, ready to slash the guildmaster. The leader of Steel Reavers saw this, and despite having his leg muscles damaged, was still able to run at incredible speeds with equals amount of ferocity towards Precht.

* * *

Meanwhile, up on the higher floors, Mavis and Lara were running down the hall, towards the room in which they were keeping the Wandering Myth.

"Something doesn't feel right!" The smaller blonde girl cried out. "Where are the others?"

"Didn't we beat them all up?" The black haired girl huffed in between breathes. She would note to herself to exercise more later if she was barely keeping up with Mavis.

"That would have been at least a majority. Seeing as how we barely saw anyone on our way here, I can assume that the rest of the guards are watching the Wandering Myth."

"W-What!? Mavis, you and I aren't even good at battling!" The steam punk dressed girl cried out.

The girl from the woods gave a confident smile. "Trust me, Lara, I can just use another illusion to trick them into going to a different area. But I'm going to need your help to break the seal."

"O-Okay." Lara pointed over towards a door at the end of the hallway. "He's behind that door."

Mavis put a hand up as it started to glow. "I have a illusion set up. Open the door!"

Lara did as she was ordered to—

Mavis dropped the illusion. Lara gapped in shock, all of present Fairy Tial could only stare in disbelief.

It was a large room filled with guards… who were all sleeping soundly.

And in the cent of the room, surrounded by glass, and the exotic and complicated magical circle seals…

...was an empty spot.

"W-Wh-Where did he go!?" Mavis cried out as she ran in, with Lara not to far behind her.

As soon as they got close, they indeed confirmed what their eyes told them: the Wandering Myth was no longer captured by the complicated magic circles. The seals were right there! It looked like they weren't disturbed at all, but the target they were meant to seal was no longer there.

"D-Did they already do what they needed to do?" The inventor looked down towards some of the knocked out men of this room.

"No, it doesn't make sense on why they would be asle..." The first guild master of Fairy Tail paused mid sentence. A memory played back in her mind: the scene where she could have sworn something with googly eyes just winked at her.

And then the large base shook violently.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **This took a bit to make. Mostly because I wanted a break and I was feeling tired. It didn't help that I had some very stressful and busy weeks recently.**

 **So I'm calling this Arc: Fairy Tail chases after it's Tale, or something else that's clever wordplay I can figure out later.**

 **I don't really have anything more to say this time, so just… have a good day folks. Thanks for reading.**


	33. Chapter 33

The mobile base of the dark guild, Steel Reavers, shook with the intensity of a rampaging beast. The founders of Fairy Tail and even the Steel Reavers, had to stabilize their footing as they felt the moving fortress, without warning, switch directions.

"What's going on!?" The guild master of Steel Reavers broke his pokerface as he felt the shift of movement from their base. He looked towards his two allies, "Biscuit, Baron! Forget them! Check the pilot room!"

"But sir!"

"Now!" The guild master yelled before he stomped on the metallic sheet nearby him, causing it to lift up with of the broken metal pieces and kicking it towards Yuri, then picking up a broken, spiked bar and tossing it at amazing speed towards Warrod.

This was all done like clockwork with such speed that the other two mages had to back off or else getting seriously injured. As soon as they avoided the attack, the other two mages left the room, leaving the guild master of Steel Reavers alone with the male founders.

And silence spread across the battlefield as soon as the two left. the towering man picked up one of the broken bars from the earlier break out and circled it around his hand.

With that done, he motioned his free hand out… then motioned all three of his opponents to come and get him.

Precht narrowed his eye while his mind went a mile a minute. (Wait, something wasn't right about that attack he just did. I simply assumed his magic was super strength, but something was off about what he just did. The items he threw didn't show any signs of being dented even after he gripped and kicked them. I sensed a subtle magical burst when he they were launched. Super Strength is passive by nature, not necessarily an active form of magic. So what could his magic really be? I should probably warn the others not to—)

"Don't look down on us! Warrod, let's get him!" Yuri cried out as he jumped with electricity charging up his palms.

At that moment, Precht was very close to face palming, but by some miracle of self restraint, prevented himself from doing so. (That's partly my fault, I didn't tell him in time.) However, his eye widened when he noticed the guild master stomp each of his foot, one at a time, before jumping at speeds the human eye could barely keep up with and punching Yuri in the gut with enough force to make him choke out spit and hit the wall for it to dent inward and trap the lightning mage.

"Yuri!" Warrod cried out and fired a tree trunk that slammed into their opponent's blind side. Yet Precht's eye noticed something: despite the attack making contact, their opponent didn't seem injured in the slightest. This was more apparent when he touched the wall and bounced off it, but unlike Yuri, there was no sign of damage in the wall even though Warrod put a lot into that attack.

(His magic… could it be?)

Warrod tried to shoot out more tree trunks at their opponent. However, the imposing man bounced off with speed faster than before, jumping on a different branch to avoid Warrod's attempts to counter attack and closed the distance between them. He reared his fist back—then Precht chained Warrod and pulled him out of the way before the punch connected into the wall behind the plant mage, creating a terrible tear through not only one wall, but five more behind it, creating a hole that looked out from the night sky despite being in a center room.

Warrod released a breathe he didn't realize he was holding and looked up to Precht. "Thanks man, I owe you one again."

"... I wanted to figure out what type of magic he used. I think I have a good idea what it is now." Precht stood back up and looked to Yuri. "Both of you, go after the two. If Mavis and Lara run in to them, they'll need help."

For a second, it looked like Yuri wanted to ask about him. But then he remembered that this was Precht they were talking about. "Alright, Warrod! Give us some cover!"

The bushy haired mage acted fast and quickly stood up and fired large amount of branches towards the Master of the Steel Reavers, covering him up in circle of wood that quickly began to shake and crack.

"Go," Precht walked forward. "I can take it from here."

"Get'em Precht!" "We'll leave it to you!" Warrod and Yuri respectively spoke out before chasing after their previous opponents.

As soon as they left, the makeshift prison burst open and the dark green haired man looked out, only to see Precht standing alone.

The master of the dark guild gave a cold glare before turning around and trying to go after Yuri and Warrod. However, a large amount of chains fell from above and barred his path, forcing the man to turn and face Precht.

"Let's finish our fight."

"I have no time for this." The dark guild master returned with a tone that could freeze flesh blood.

Those specific words made Precht confused even though he felt slightly threathened. "If you have no time for this, then what are you planning with the Wandering Myth?"

"That doesn't concern you. It never concerned any of you." The man spoke as he stomped his foot on the ground and continued this bizarre act.

Precht tensed into a fighting position, noting the act of him continually stomping with his right foot. "Look around you, whether it did originally or not, we're now too deep in it. So, I ask again: what do you want to do with the Wandering Myth?"

The man didn't speak, instead, he turned around, having to stop his stomping and looked back at the chains blocking his path.

Precht knew that he was about to break it down, so as soon as he turned his back, the one eyed mage got ready to attac—

Precht saw the sudden shift in his shoulders and jinked hard to the right. No sooner than he did, a strong pressure of air passed where he once stood and blasted through the walls behind him.

The blades-man sighed and stood back up by pushing on his right knee. "That proves it. Your magic manipulates Kinetic Energy."

As the last words left the mage from Fairy Tail, the guild master of Steel Reavers stopped his movements.

Precht noted the man's eyes briefly widening, before narrowing dangerously at the claim. "I was wondering why none of my friends physical attacks seemed to hurt you as much. You're controlling the impact and weight of each attack then redirecting it back to us or stockpiling it to increase the power of your attacks. That explained why you avoided Yuri's attacks and took on Warrod's." Despite Warrod's magic, it was basically him having trees wack his enemies. And this opponent could absorb all the kinetic energy there and practically make it as if he was just tapped lightly. However, it did explain why he seemed to avoid and attack Yuri so relentlessly. His magic wasn't based on physical trauma.

The best fighter of Fairy Tail felt his senses blare and quickly avoided an axe kick that created a notable crater on the floor he was previously. The master of Steel Reavers lifted his head up, and a fierce glare was seen across his face. He was no longer going easy; now he would fight him with everything he had since the secret of his magic had been revealed.

Precht gripped his energy blades then pressed on his right foot, launching him into a sprint towards his enemy. The still nameless master of the dark mages returned the action, running up with his fist reclined and already trembling with stockpiling power.

(He's absorbing kinetic energy from the steps he's making as he runs?! This magic is far more potent than I realized!) Precht knew getting hit by that would be a one way trip to next week, so he avoided it by firing an energy chain right for his opponent's face.

The opponent quickly caught the shot chain with his free hand and stepped closer in to Precht. Time slowed down, the last second before the punch was thrown, and the chain that the dark green haired man was holding formed into a snake and dug it's fangs into the space between the index finger and the thumb.

The kinetic mage filched at the jolt of pain he wasn't expecting, that allowed him to slow down with an off throw that Precht used to catch the arm of the punch, twist his back, and judo throw him over his shoulder.

However, mid air, the guild master then gripped onto the chain-turned-snake construct with enough force despite the energy fangs digging into his muscles. He yanked hard, causing Precht to suddenly be lifted right for the guild master. Precht's eye widened as he saw the guild master priming his punch still and with no option left, he summoned his blade once more—

 **BAM! SLASH!**

Precht unleashed a swing of his blade that left a crimson gnash across the chest of the guild master, but at the same time, the stockpiled punch shot like a bullet and made contact with the side of Precht's face that didn't have an eye patch.

A moment passed after both attacks connected and Precht was seen rocketing through the wall of the room while the guild master fell into a pool of his own blood that only grew with each passing of time.

The clock ticked on, as it did, something slowly was coming out of the hole, Precht was slowly struggling to stand, losing grip and balance on a flat floor. There was a groan, followed by a hum of magic as the master of the dark guild flipped over and grunted in pain, forcing his body back together to stop the bleeding with the wide slash that reached his left shoulder to the right lower hip.

Precht heard this and forced his construct magic to reinforce where he felt his jaw broken. His last eye barely saw anything, practically making him blind, but he knew he needed to get back up, despite his brain and body telling him nearly nothing was working as it should have been.

Both men groaned in pain and slipped and fell back down on their bellies like toddlers learning how to walk. But with each fall, they both furiously tried to stand back up, knowing how much was at stake if they lost here.

Eventually, the two found themselves weakly standing up, both gasping in pain from the critical blows. Precht was leaning on the side of the hole he was busted through while the dark guild master was on one knee, gasping erratically from the slash that almost killed him.

However, their fight, brutal as it was, was never meant to finish.

An rumble from elsewhere made sure of that.

* * *

"Uhh, was it just me or did the entire mobile base just suddenly turn in a different direction?" The steam punk girl asked after stabilizing herself and Mavis from the sudden shift.

However, the smaller blonde girl looked seriously towards Lara. "You're more mechanically gifted! If this place had a cockpit to control the movements, where would it be?"

The raven haired girl blinked but answered her guild master. "W-Well you would think it would be the higher areas, but for something this complex and with how they have a working, giant, exhaust chimney, I think it's more likely for the pilot room to be just above the base level, so back near the ground floor."

"We need to go! We just fell for a trap!"

"A-A trap?!" The inventor saw Mavis run and followed after her as to not get left behind. "Did the Steel Reavers plan something?"

"It's not them who planned this!"

"What!? Then who was it?!"

As soon as this was asked by Lara, the place shook with the intensity to make the two almost lose balance which caused the two girls to stagger in their run.

To their surprise, the floor in front of them opened up and out jumped—

"Ah! It's the Wandering Myth!" Mavis pointed as the large, top hat wearing puppet spun and landed in front of them like an olympic skater.

Googly eyes met with two pairs of startled ones. The large, supernatural puppet bowed, taking off his top hat in a showy manner before using his long hand to swing back and put it a top his head.

The animated movements of the living fairy tale calmed down the two girls somewhat. However, something else flew out of the hole that the Wandering Myth opened up, and it was none other than the speed mage of Steel Reavers.

"You two! I knew it! You intruders had something to do with freeing zis creature!" The speed mage grinded his teeth as he took another running position with full intent to run over the two girls.

The very last second before the speed mage could unleash his speed, the Wandering Myth acted first, grabbing the two girls and jumping, the ceiling above them opening up as if it was never even there in the first place.

However, he didn't just stop on the floor above. The jump was powerful and more and more floors were opening up for the Wandering Myth until with one bound, the ancient puppet jumped out of the moving base and up in the air.

Mavis and Lara both saw this and despite the almost mythical magic the puppet was capable of doing, it didn't seem to be to immune to the laws of physics as he started to get pulled down by gravity.

"AAAAAHHHHH!?" Lara yelled as the three started to fall. However, Mavis noted the hand carrying her was budging out and she saw reflections of moonlight—string! She saw string shoot out of the finger tips of the puppet and suddenly the three of them jerked mid fall and started to swing!

Mavis was in awe, she had experienced flying before, but this… this string-slinging was something she had never felt or imagined from all she had seen before! While carrying both of them, the puppet was using his strings to somehow support them all.

Though… Mavis was also soon surprised, slightly impressed, and kinda worried about how Lara was still screaming up to now without even taking a breath in between. The girl had lungs despite being one of the smaller girls in the guild, and that included Mavis among that group!

As the living fairy tale swung lower, a piece of the wall opened up for the three and they all ended up in a room that was dark, dimly lit and very hot.

Yet despite the sudden shift in atmosphere, one thing that remained constant was Lara screaming her impressive lungs out with her eyes tightly shut.

"Lara! Lara!?" Mavis cried out making the girl finally stop wailing.

The puppet let the girls both down, but the black haired inventor stepped away from the large puppet and pointed. "Don't you dare! … Do that again! I felt years leave me and I already know I'm not going to live long with friends like these!"

"What? But Lara, you've been flying before. It wasn't all that different." Mavis pointed out, but seemed to ignore her friend's exasperated comment.

"Flying!? That! That was **not** flying! That was more like-like… falling with style!" The steampunk themed girl cried out, not knowing that almost a century in the future, a displaced boy blinked at that worded coincidence.

Mavis tilted her head slightly. "Think we can do it again?"

"NO!" Lara was about to unleash a plethora of health-viable reasons as to why she didn't want to do that again, but was cut off by something: the lack of something to be more specific. "I—where's the puppet?"

Mavis turned and noticed the living magical being was already long gone despite being the most noticeable thing in the hallway. "Hey, wait!"

Soon the two girls ran in one direction hoping to catch up with the mystic and strange being and soon found him in front of a massive room that spanned more than seventh precent of the entire width of the mobile base.

This was because an enormous furnace was in the center, and the heat was worse than before Fairy Tail was forced to use the smokescreen as a cover.

The large, imposing furnace, which at this point seemed like a fire breathing monster, had flames spewing out of the caged door and smelled like brimstone.

Yet standing in front of it was something you would not want anywhere near a fire if you weren't going to use it as fuel: wood. More specifically, the giant, ancient puppet.

The googly eyed being raised a hand as the metal door of the massive furnace started to move. The large whine of metal was heard as the gate opened up and out floated a large chunk of blue coal the size of a melon.

"I knew it." Mavis gasped. "All this time, we've been the ones played like puppets."

Lara looked at her friend with some amounts of confusion before Mavis pointed towards the puppet that was nearly three times her size. "All this time, both us and the Steel Reavers, we were all brought together by the Wandering Myth! Look how he escaped from this place without even being bothered, but instead of leaving, he came back here! He somehow even got us tangled up so his captors could be distracted while he did whatever he wanted! He used us!"

A soft clack of wood made Mavis turn around. The large puppet was towering over her, the flames behind him made shadows descend over the face once meant for silliness, giving it an impression that it was darkly glaring.

For an instant, both Mavis and Lara were frozen. This was a being with magic so ancient that it defied the rules as they knew. It it seemed that mavis had just angered—wait… why was the large puppet kneeling towards Mavis?

The dark imagery from awhile ago faded, and the large wooden being opened up his cloak, to reveal he opened up the heart in it's log shaped torso, the very one described in Mavis' story before all this.

The wooden being took out a flower, a special purple flower that Lara didn't recognize and the large puppet slowly moved it towards Mavis.

The guild master blinked and took the flower.

"Mavis?" Lara finally managed to ask despite being quite confused as to what that was.

"This..." The founder of Fairy Tail looked at the purple flower. "This is a Hyacinth. In the language of flowers it means..." She looked up to the still kneeling puppet with confusion written across her face. "It means to ask for forgiveness?"

The puppet reached in for the compartment with his heart and took out another flower, a different one than the purple hyacinth. And like that one, he handed it over to Mavis.

It was a pink, and vibrant flower, but it also looked far too exotic to be a normal flower. "This one is a freesia, in the language of flowers, this means friendship, innocence… and trust?" As that last word came up, Mavis looked back up towards the puppet. By the two small flowers she was handed, he had just both apologized and asked for her trust.

"Uh wait, what exactly is he doing then?" Lara soon got a sort of answer when the puppet stood back up, closed the literal door to his heart, and walked back towards the large, blue geo stone he left in front of the furnace.

It shattered in front of him like a cracked egg, and like before, the puppet took out something from his heart door. However, unlike the flowers, this time it was revealed to be a lab flask with a red potion inside it. The two girls, and those watching in the present, watched with anticipation and curiosity as the wooden fairy tale took a piece of the cracked rock and placed it into the red liquid inside the flask.

Everyone watched as the blue, burnt rock fell into the liquid and slowly melted away, turning the hue of the potion into a noticeable white pigment than the color it was before.

"You're making a potion?" Mavis blurted out. Knowing this knew fact only brought up more questions than answers. "I don't get it. Why go through all this to make a potion?"

The puppet turned to them all and raised his free hand. Everyone could only look on with more confusion as the puppet brought up all five of his long fingers… then folded one… then another…

"Wait, is he counting down?" Lara asked one second before there was one finger left on the puppet's hand.

As soon as she finished, the last finger folded, and again the large base shook with all the intensity to throw off everyone but the puppet off their feet.

* * *

Yuri and Warrod were running to the very best of their abilities. The lives of their weaker, but important friends were at stake, and there's no way they could let the two girls fend for themselves.

"Warrod, are you sure they went this way?"

"Wait what!? I was following you!"

And at that moment, they realized they had another problem.

"You mean to tell me that we have no idea where they went!?" The electric mage cried out in a slight panic.

The plant mage looked equally distressed. "Yuri, I don't think _we_ know where we're going. Lara was the one who knew how to recognize the structure of this place."

"Crap! What do we do!?"

As Yuri started to look around, Warrod tried to coax his friend down. "Yuri, we're no help to anyone if we start panicking."

"AHH BLAST IT ALL!"

"Yeah see? That's not going to help..." Warrod trailed off as he realized that wasn't Yuri screaming right then. Yuri didn't have a heavy accent that was just like the guy he fought a while ago.

Both Fairy Tail mages looked down the hall where they heard the scream. After sharing a glance, the two raced down the location of where the scream came from.

As they did, they entered into a room filled with buttons, levers, a large window that showed the landscape outside—it didn't take long to figure out that this was the pilot room.

In the front center, where there looked to be a steering wheel made of metal, the man who could absorb the properties of whatever he touched was seen struggling turning the steering wheel.

"Why in da devil ain dis budging!?" The man heaved with all his weight—which was impressive—in trying to budge the wheel that refused to move.

Warrod and Yuri looked at each other and nodded once with a serious look. They raised their palms raised then jumped with war cries intended to catch their opponent off guard.

So many would be surprised that it was they who ended up getting blindsided and hit into panels at the opposite side of each other.

Baron had raced in, smacked the two and landed back down in a slide nearby Buscuit, who had just turned around.

"Wha? How'd they find us?"

"Zat is not important, Biscuit, let us deal with these two first." Baron then broke off in a burst of speed. Yuri snapped his eyes open fired a blast of electricity in front of him, forcing Baron to dodge to the right.

Warrod slammed his hands into the metal floor and instantly a green magic circle expanded around him. Tree Trunks shot out of the circle and towards Buscuit who touched the steering wheel and turned metal to make the spikes of the tree shatter on impact of his metallic skin.

"Dat didn't work den an it won't work nae!" The large man cried out.

However, behind him, Yuri noticed this and quickly blasted the metal man.

Baron noticed the attack that wasn't aimed for him and yelled to his friend. "Buscuit, look out!"

The man did so before the warning was called out. A magic circle appeared beneath the sole of his booth and he stomped on the pieces of wood beneath him. As this happened, his metallic skin turned to wood. When Yuri's electricity hit, it did no effect on him.

Biscuit turned to point and laugh at Yuri. "Ha ha! Wat are ya gonna do naAARRRK!?" However, as he did this, Warrod was able to close the distance and land a clean punch sucker punch right into the wooden cheek of his opponent. The blow made him fly—then crash right through the metal steering wheel.

All four noticed that and heard the sound of the entire mobile base slowing to a halt with megatons of metal screeching as they reached a stop.

"Uh oh." It spoke volumes when all four mages of two different allegiances had the same feelings as to what was about to happen.

The base then screamed in gears. It shot off in it's max speed, signaling this was the event that trembled the base all through out while everyone was doing their own thing.

Nearly everyone was thrown off their feet and slammed into a wall opposite of the direction where the mobile base moved. However, for Lara and Mavis, their opposite direction just so happened to be towards the opened furnace. The two girls cried out as they saw themselves heading into the fire and brimstone area. However, they were quickly caught by the magical puppet who took them in its arms and raced towards the ceiling.

"Nooootttt aaaaggggaaaaiiinnn!?" Lara cried out as she saw no sign of the puppet slowing down as it defied physics and ran closer towards the ceiling. Her suspicions were confirmed as the wall opened up for the ancient puppet and they ended up a good one hundred stories up in the air.

Also in the air was Lara's voice screaming like a banshee again as she started to panic in the air.

Mavis on the other hand noticed in the distance, the mobile base was heading towards a large cliff. At the rate they were going to go, all of them were going to die! What could…

The smaller girl's thoughts were distracted when she heard a whistling noise. Even Lara's screaming stopped as the wind around them… it almost sounded like a hundred air instruments playing something akin to the music of a forrest.

However, even while the music was playing, the mobile base was rushing right for the edge of the massive cliff. It didn't take long for it to topple over…

But the girls watching from above, and those watching in the present stared in disbelief at what had happened next.

The cliffs extended, the ground reached out, the trees grew… all into a path for the mobile base to run on, slowly making it move downward gently. Each 'platform' looked to be in the shape of a note.

"Mavis, I… I didn't know magic could do this." Lara, who was now a complete opposite to her screaming self a few seconds ago, commented as she witness the moving platforms from below perfectly support each metal foot which should have been more than a half a million pounds of steel.

"I think we're witnessing magic from the dawn of time..." Mavis gasped, her eyes shinning. "Probably… even before _his_ time."

The dragon slayers in the present heard the guild master whisper that last sentence, but didn't understand who the first guild master could be referring to.

The music soon slowed down, and as it did, the base seemed to slow it's wild movements as well. Not only that, but as the music came to a stop, the last of the legs hit solid ground before halting once more.

Lara screamed as the puppet leapt from it's high point, as they 'fell with style' the Wandering Myth happened to pass by the window of the pilot room.

Two of the four groaning men sprawled on the floor of the pilot room heard the familiar, crazed scream that just passed by the window.

"L-Lara?"

The screaming continued even when the puppet had already touched the ground in an open area ten seconds ago.

"Lara, please!" Mavis shouted, even her ears were now starting to hurt from hearing her friend.

When the inventor finally realized they were no longer falling, she felt blood rush to her face. She stood back into the ground and looked to the puppet.

"Uhhh… thanks for saving us?" The raven haired girl stammered out.

The puppet picked up his top hat, and gave long, flourished bow before tossing the old hat and letting it land perfectly on his head.

Mavis cooed and clapped her hands together, even while still holding the flowers given to her. "That was fun! We should do that again!"

"Please no." Those watching from the orb could tell how desperate Lara was despite her soft whisper.

Mavis was feeling chipper until she recalled the dark guild base literally hanging above her. As she looked up, she saw glass shattering and she, Lara, and the Wandering Myth moved away from the falling glass.

A green magic circle appeared and a tree shot up and revealed to work as a slide for two familiar faces.

"Yuri! Warrod!" Mavis cried out as the two roughed up mages slid down the tree.

However, her smile was cut short when she realized there were shadows cast above them. "Look out!"

The two looked up and jumped off the tree before something heavy crushed it.

The other two mages of Steel Reavers slowly got back up.

"You vill be giving zat puppet back to us."

"We can't lose ere, got too much at stake." The other man spoke with equal amounts of seriousness. "Nae come here n have a go!? If ya think ya're hard enough!"

Their bold claims were cut short when a sonic boom exploded above them. As the wind died down, two men landed on the two opposite sides.

"Boss!"

"Precht!"

The two best fighters of each team looked worse than all their teammates combined. Precht had pieces of his skull patched up by magic, though that didn't do anything for the patches of still-drying blood on the side of his face where his good eye still was. The leader of Steel Reavers was clutching his chest, in some futile attempt to somehow heal that huge trail of blood across his clothes and torso.

The boss raised his hand and pointed over towards the Puppet. "Hand him over, now." His clothes were ruined, he had dirt and blood mix across pieces of his face and body, it looked like he was doing his best to stop his body from trembling, but if any of that lessened the impact of his threat, then why were all Fairy Tail members feeling a chill up their spine?

Mavis raised her hand. "We won't let you—"

Despite her amazing effort to bring back her and her friend's courage, she was distracted when the puppet stepped forward towards the Steel Reavers! Even the dark mages broke their intimidation when they saw how easy it was to get the escaping puppet back to them.

"Wait—what!?" Yuri, Warrod, and Lara cried out at how the Puppet was now in front of the older man.

However, the puppet then reached for his heart door once more. No one could see it properly since it was getting very late at night, but, in the wooden palm of the puppet was a small, purple-polka-dotted flower with red spots.

And then he shoved it right into the mouth of the master of Steel Reavers.

The sudden action caused an impressive number of dropped jaws from both sides.

Understandably, the skillful warrior was taken off guard by this. Becuase of that, he swallowed what was shoved into his throat and no sooner than he did, the puppet pulled out a hand mysteriously dry from saliva.

There was a sound of flesh rending and the guild master of Steel Reavers fell to his knees and curled over while holding his stomach as he trembled.

Before his allies could could get to him, the Wandering Myth was able to shove his giant, wooden hands into their jaw-opened mouths. It seemed like he hd forced the two of them to eat something as well.

"Uhhh… what's happening?" Warrod then noticed that the large puppet turned back towards them with three more of the flowers in his hands.

"Is he going to—" Yuri didn't get to say another word as another flower was shoved into his and Precht's mouth. Warrod stepped back, but a flower brought up by string surprised the guy and flew into his mouth when he opened it to yell.

With all men now hunched up and holding their stomachs, Mavis and Lara, along with those in the present, stared in confusion and curiosity at what was going on.

"I was not prepared for today." The combination of today's events made Lara feel minuscule amongst the cosmos.

Mavis could only silently agree with her as she watched the tall puppet step back. To the surprise of many, the master of The Steel Reavers got back up, his was still bloody, dirty and such, but he looked as good as new. His wounds were completely healed and his magic power spiked back to the amazing presence of a while ago. Since he was the first, all the other battlers soon got back up and a majority of their wounds became healed along with their magical power.

"W-What was that!?" The older man looked at himself with disbelief and soon so did the others. "Some kind of ancient medicine that heals wounds?"

"I-I think I've heard of a legend of flowers that could heal wounds by eating them, but I didn't know they were real." Mavis then looked back. It was obvious that the Steel Reavers were now back to full health along with them, but why would the Puppet do that? None of his actions made the a lick of sense.

"Healing... flowers?" The guild master eyes widened as his brain processed what he just ate and looked up to the magical being. "These flowers—can the heal even diseases!?"

That question confused all of Fairy Tail, but the puppet could only lower his head slightly and shake it, before reaching for his heart door once more. The two girls from Fairy Tail noticed that the Wandering Myth had taken out the same flask from a while ago.

"A potion?" Baron removed his googles to get a better look at the liquid inside the glass.

"Okay, I'm confused!" Yuri cried out what a majority of people were already thinking. He pointed to the ancient being then to the dark guild members. "Why does he have a potion out? And why were you guys after him in the first place?!"

Silence filled the air before the guild master of the dark guild seemed to raise his head up. "Among all the folk lore of the Wandering Myth, there is one that describes that the sap he carries in his body can cure any sickness or disease. A person dear to me has been diagnosed with a terminal and incurable disease. When we thought all hope was gone, this puppet appeared near us, jumping across the skies. We then realized that if he was real, there was a chance to save this person. And we did everything we could to catch him."

The Dark guild master turned towards the large puppet with a silly smile drawn on his head. For the first time, he sighed, his stance slackened, and he gave a solemn smile. "But why is it that I feel like he's been purposely leading us on this wild goose chase from the beginning?"

In response to such a rhetorical question, the puppet only tilted his head.

"So, all of this… was to save your friend?" Lara asked out.

"Yes," The man turned towards the puppet. "I need your sap to..."

The puppet could not speak, but his actions usually spoke much louder than the words of normal people. This next action was the puppet ripping out a chunk of his left arm after putting the flask on his head. As he did this, he showed the piece to everyone around him.

It was bone dry.

"Y-You don't have healing sap? B-But the other legends were true about you!" The Guild master pointed before looking back at the flask. "Wait, did you make that as the cure?"

Most of Fairy Tail were now feeling pity for the powerful mage as even they could feel the desperation in his voice as he asked this question.

When they saw the puppet shake his head slowly, they never would have imagined feeling pity for a dark mage as the hope left his face and soon rage started replace it.

"THEN WHAT WAS IT FOR!? WE SPENT MONTHS CHASING YOU, HAD TO FIGHT THESE BASTARDS, AND MY SON WILL DIE FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!?" That shout of rage made everyone step back. His emotions just revealed that the person dying… was the guild master's son?

A piece of ripped paper was brought up to the wrathful man's face. The anger from the older man stopped as he picked the paper out from the puppet and saw there was something written in it. As he read it, his eyes widened.

"Boss?" Buscuit, along with baron then looked beside him to see what the piece of paper said. "All dis paper says is, 'He won't die. Trust me.'"

The puppet turned towards Fairy Tail. The male members seemed somewhat tense, but they had this feeling to… walk away as the puppet came closer towards them. He stopped in front of Mavis and kneeled to the little girl.

The first guild master watched the puppet take out something from his heart door once more. However, because he was so close, Mavis noticed an inscription at the back of the heart door. She realized that what she was reading was the name that the maker of the puppet gave to the wandering myth that was lost to time.

But before she could react to it, the wooden toy had a slightly dirty monocle with rusted gold frame in one palm out to her, and a strangely familiar conch shell in the other.

The conch shell drew her in the most as she picked it up and had an overwhelming need to put it near her ear.

"Hello? Is anyone listening?" Mavis' eyes widened as she heard a voice come from the conch. But it wasn't the fact a voice was coming out of the shell that surprised her, it a very specific voice that caught her off guard. "Oh wow! This really is one of those shells that capture voices! The guys from the Red Lizard Guild were right! Hi, fairies! My name is Mavis Vermillion, age 4 and I want to meet you!"

The memories hit her like the very runaway base she was riding on no too long ago. During one day, she wandered into the beach of her home island, in search of the possibilities of fairies hiding around the island. She never found any, but along her search she had found a beautiful conch that she later learned could capture voices in them.

"Mavis, you alright?" Warrod's voice snapped Mavis out of her nostalgia and made the founder look up towards the still kneeling puppet.

"You were there?" She found herself asking in awe before she was handed the second object.

"There? Mavis, what are you talking about?" Yuri was going to ask more but then the puppet stood back to his full height.

He reached for his old, worn out, and patched up top hat… then gently placed it on Mavis' head. The puppet slowly walked some distance into the opening that they were all in.

The inventor of the group was distracted by something else in the trees at the edge of the opening. "W-When did all those animals get here?"

Everyone could see many animals from different species around the edge of the opening. From crazy looking birds with antennae and hands for feet, to—what Kain would say—normal looking deers and rabbits.

There must have been hundreds of animals, all looking towards the puppet as he made his way to the center of the clearing.

"Hey, I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but what's happening here?" Yuri asked again before he was answered by the puppet's next action.

The giant puppet stood in the middle of the open field and raised the flask over his head… only to pour it on himself.

As the potion started to run down on the ancient being, the liquid running down started to glow gold. There was a hum of magic that almost sounded like a melody as the puppet's body was covered and light and started to expand.

Soon, the puppet was gone, and as the light faded, it was revealed that a giant tree with golden leaves now stood where the puppet once stood.

The humans watching could only continually stare in confusion. The potion made by the being was just to turn him into a tree? What would that accomplish at all?

However, the animals around the opening started moving in one area. A large, white wolf walked towards the tree and on it's back was a black wolf pup, laying down but also seemingly coughing weakly.

As the white wolf got near the tree, it was able to bite on the fur of the little black pup and put him near the large trunk. The black wolf seemingly sniffed the trunk and started to lick it. Those with sharper senses noted that the little creature was licking sap oozing off the trunk.

As it licked it some more, the little pup soon stood up on it's own and then seemed energetic enough to bark and race around the bigger wolf with the opposite color. There was a noticeable smile on the bigger wolf as it put it's head down to nudge with the smaller pup.

The little pup that was no longer ill-looking started to circle around the wolf as it made it's leave form the tree.

This was cue for the other animals to swarm towards the tree, taking some leaves and eating some of it's bark.

"Wait a second! We need some of that sap!" The master of the Dark Guild spoke out as he and his men raced towards the tree and used their magic to gather some of the sap itself.

"Umm, why are they getting that sap?" Yuri could only scratch his head, obviously confused as to what was going on.

He got his answer from Mavis. "From what I gather, the puppet never had any of the healing sap that some of his stories described. But apparently for the past few months, he's been making a potion that would turn him back into a tree and properly give out real healing sap."

"Whoa what? Then let's get some too! We could sell miracle sap for a big load of cash!" Yuri cried out as he also raced towards the tree.

"Yuri! Really? We witness something as close to the oldest form of magic in the world, and all he cares about is the cash?" Warrod cried out.

Precht sighed and relaxed his stance. "Keeping some sap might benefit us in the future. It's a good idea to get some before the animals take everything."

Hearing even Precht say something sensible, Fairy Tail then went after Yuri, including the orb for the present watchers.

However, Mavis stayed behind looking at the second item she was handed: a very old but ornate monocle. Curious, she put it over her right eye.

"….!?" She gasped as she looked around with it, glancing almost everywhere with her eye under the monocle.

"All this time..." Mavis couldn't even believe what she was seeing. "Fairies were—"

"Hey! Mavis! Come on! Help us get some of this stuff!" Yuri's voice snapped Mavis out of her stupor, but it was so sudden that it frightened her. As she jerked forward and lost her balance, she accidentally drop the monocle and it's glass fell right on a rock and it shattered on impact.

Mavis looked heart broken as the glass shards now on the grass. But as the seconds passed, her frown lessened and she reached for the top hat she was given. She looked under it and a small smile appeared on her face.

"I'm on my way!" Mavis cried out as she ran after her friends, leaving the monocle behind and carrying the hat which confirmed her suspicions: the name of the Wandering Myth.

In the hat and in the door, there was an inscription that read, "To my child by love, Petto. May he grant people's wishes as he did mine. —Gep, master toy maker."

* * *

After gaining some sap, and after most of the animals left, Fairy Tail stared down Steel Reavers.

This time, some of the other men were now waking up, but instead of attacking, the guild master of the dark mages told them all to stand down.

Now? Most of the Steel Reaves, with the main three in the front, were now standing in front of a very tense Fairy Tail.

"… What will you do now?" The guild master of the Steel Reavers asked.

"What will _you_ do now?" Yuri returned back, not liking how vastly outnumbered they were.

"Go home, cure my son." The large man stated plainly before looking towards the tree. "And to make sure no one ever says a word about this tree existing."

"What?! You wanna keep all this to yourselves, don't you!?" Warrod passionately yelled but Precht threw his hand out in front of him as a sign to tone it down.

"I admit, the thought tempted me on more than one occasion." The dark green haired guild master admitted easily but never raised his tone. "But at the same time, I owe the legendary puppet. If everyone were to find out about this tree, I can only imagine how many people would want to get their hands on it: the magic council, the other dark guilds, and desperate mages? Or even worse still: other countries?"

Everyone was surprise to hear a man from a dark guild say something like that. But it was true, if a tree existed that could cure any disease existed, there was no doubt that people would be fighting over it like starving dogs.

"It might even cause wars… forcing… fathers away from their families… and orphaning other children. I can't let that happen, even if a miracle was done for me and mine, and could do for others in my place." The guild master of the Steel Reavers said this and looked back towards Fairy Tail. "So I have decided to burn down the tree."

He raised his hand, and his followers quickly raised their magic guns. They all shot a magical blast that set the golden tree ablaze.

Yuri and Warrod made a step for the tree, but Precht stopped them again. "No, as much as we don't want to, he's right, a tree like that ironically threatens the peace of the land."

The great grandfather of Laxus gripped his hands tightly as he tried to refute that, but his subconscious knew that this was the logical decision, but his heart wouldn't let him have it. "That puppet sacrificed himself for your son, and all you can do is burn him!?"

"It's because he sacrificed himself for my son that I can't let such a noble sacrifice turn into something twisted by other people who I know will abuse it!" The man yelled back with equal amounts of anger before his tone became soft. "I wish the world was better to allow such a thing to exist in the first place, but if that was the case, we wouldn't be a dark guild in the first place."

Mavis felt saddened by the burning of the tree. Yet, the magic fire only seemed to turn that lone tree into ashes. It never spread to the rest of the field or the surrounding of the other trees.

She turned back to the master of the Steel Reavers with a stare that was far older and powerful than her body allowed her to be. "I can see why you would say that, though I don't fully agree with it. But… Fairy Tail will keep silent about this event ever happening. You have our word."

At this moment, Lara looked over to her orb and then her eyes widened. She focused back in front of her and did her best not to panic at the fact she already broke the word without meaning to. Her fidgeting hands and shifting eyes were dead give aways, it was a miracle that only the people in the present noticed this.

"Then we will keep our promise as well. Men, let's get back home." The dark guild master turned, as he did the other men did so as well and walked towards their base.

"Wait!"

The older man turned back to Mavis who seemed to have been half regretting saying that. She steeled herself after a moment of doubt and spoke out, "For a dark guild, I'm surprised how much you value others."

In response to such a statement, the guild master of the Steel Reavers gave a small smirk. "Not everyone is good at following rules made by governments rather than their own heart."

"… What is your name?" Now that Fairy Tail thought about it, they never did get the name of the powerful kinetic mage they were fighting this entire night.

"Ishamel Joob." And that was all he said as he turned back and walked away once more, the rest of his guild following after him.

Fairy Tail watched the mobile base of the Steel Reavers start, and then move away from the founders.

Lara released a breath she was holding in. "That scared me, Mavis."

"Sorry, I just wanted to know. He didn't seem like a bad person."

"As much as we would like things to be black and white, they almost never really are." Precht added in sagely.

Yuri threw his hands over his head and folded them in a casual manner. "What Precht said, but I still think what he did wasn't right, but it wasn't really wrong either."

"As much as I'd like to think of all the lives a tree like that could have saved, I can't help but also think of the people would would want to abuse it themselves, or hurt other people to get to it." Warrod added in. "Kinda makes people look bad in general."

"But..." Lara started to speak out. "Even if we're really bad, why would the Wandering Myth continue trying to help people and kids for centuries? Shouldn't it have gotten tired of us long ago?"

…

"I'm just saying the same thing Mavis basically said about the Steel Reavers: we probably all look bad, but we aren't really _that_ bad."

A poignant silence filled the air once more until someone decided to speak up.

"… Geez, all I came here to do was maybe by some exotic goods and keep Mavis from being swindled; I didn't expect to argue about humanity as a whole after potentially meeting a being with almost god like magic and fighting a dark guild that was trying to save a child." Yuri spoke out.

"Are you saying nothing about the hell hole that was Gorge Valley? At least you kept your pants on!" Warrod pointed out.

"Oh god, I just realized I lost like half my money in that tourist trap. How am I going to pay rent for my studio!?" Meanwhile in the present, Lucy Heartfillia was feeling a kindred spirit in the raven haired inventor.

"You can take jobs like the rest of us." Precht stated with all the delicacy of a cold, spiked bed. He doubled as the treasurer of Fairy Tail, and ever since a bad loan with Yuri, he has locked down the funds like a dragon to his gold.

"But I can't fight at all! Yuri, please help!" The girl turned to the lightning mage who was now rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"I dunno… I mean, I feel for you but—"

"I can get Rita to agree to an afternoon tea session with you."

"Don't worry, Lara, money's not a problem with me! Ahahaha!" Yuri changed his tune very quickly when his future wife was involved.

Warrod chuckled at how easy it was for the girl to manipulate his friend. "So how are we going to get back to the guild?"

"Ah." Everyone else recalled that they had no money left for return tickets and they were left in the middle of nowhere.

"Bark! Bark!"

Everyone looked up tot he sky to see some familiar figures up above. Mavis gasped and screamed, "Barfy!"

The horned malamute puppy was coming back with the Alicorns they stole from the city not to long ago.

Mavis waved over to them. "We're over here Barfy!"

The alicorns all started to fly towards the group. However, as they came closer, Barfy stopped barking and swallowed hard. Something looked to be pilling in his throat.

It was then that the founders of Fairy Tail instantly realized two things: they had remembered why they were 'sold' that dog in the first place, and two: they were standing right beneath the creature with an uncontrollable gag reflex.

That night, you could hear the screams of five people after something liquid like rained downed on them.

* * *

Kain reached for the orb as it ended it's run, showing the misadventure of founders through and through.

"So that was kinda fun." He spoke out as he noticed something outside. "Whoa? It's already night time?"

Everyone in the guild looked out the windows and indeed noticed that the stars were already out. This made a good number of the members panic and quickly leave, having lost track of time watching the memories of the founders.

"We didn't make any progress in finding in how to get you home and it's already late?" Erza spoke out before looking to the brunette.

"Oh don't be sad, it was nice spending a day of relaxation after a long time. I'm actually glad we got to do the closest we can do to 'Netflix and Chill' back in my home world."

"What's Net flick?" Natsu folded his arms and tilted his head.

Kain blinked and put a hand on his chin. "Huh that's kinda complicated to explain since I've lived with it." It also seemed as if the boy form another world was fine with Natsu mispronouncing the name, even though it was more than likely he wouldn't bother Natsu with trying to remember a name he'll get wrong for a while.

"I guess I can explain some things about my world while we help Mira clean up."

"Thank you, Kain." The white haired bar tender said from a few tables down.

"No problem, now where is that broom again?"

Those remaining did start to help clean up the guild. However, a few minutes in, the door opened up again.

Many simply thought it would be one of the returning guild members seeing if they left something, but a stranger in a flowing white dress and red coat walked inside the guild and looked around. Her face was covered by a large, white sun hat so no one knew what she looked like.

Lucy, being the closest to this person, started walking up to her. Before she could get close enough, she asked, "Hello? May I help you?"

As Lucy got closer, she saw the sun hat lifted up to reveal a woman with black hair with a collective strand of gray hair. It was long as the bottom of her neck and she could barely spot wrinkles on her face, showing that she was somewhat old.

However, when seeing Lucy, the woman had a kind, warm, and young feeling smile along with her gray eyes. "Oh yes, I'm here to visit Makarov Dreyar? Is he still here?"

Lucy blinked when she realized this woman was looking for the previous master. Was this woman one of his old friends? "Master Makarov? Oh I'm sorry, miss. He's not here right now."

The woman put a hand closer towards her mouth as she learned that fact. "He isn't? But I already checked his house here, and he wasn't there." Lucy was about to say more, but it was then that she noticed that on the back of her right hand, much like Kain and her, there was a much more faded gray symbol of Fairy Tail on her hand.

While everyone was looking over, Laxus came out of the office and noticed everyone being distracted again. As he followed everyone's view and noticed the woman standing near the entrance.

His eyes widened as the old woman noticed Laxus from afar. She raised her hand and waved. "Laxus, sweetie! Over here!"

"Sweetie!? No way! Laxus' girlfriend is an old—" Erza smacked the back of Natsu's head before he could even finish that sentence.

The fourth guild master of Fairy Tail was so stunned he didn't even hear Natsu with his own sharpened senses. Instead he only said one word in response to the warm hello the stranger was giving him. "Grandmother?"

...

" **GRANDMOTHER!?** "

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **So yeah. So ends the much lighter arc: Fairy Tail Chases a Tale. (I thought I could come up with a catchier name before this arc would end. I didn't. I'm sad.)**

 **Has anyone ever noticed that in a story named after magic and fairy tales, it has so little references to any fairy tales, even Japanese ones? Like I feel that is a huge and missed opportunity.**

 **So the Wandering Myth's name is Petto, and if you put it with Gep, you get Geppetto, the name of the toy maker who made Pinocchio a very famous story for kids. It's very obvious, even though I didn't try to hide it, that this arc was a different take on the Pinocchio story in the Fairy Tail Universe.**

 **As I said before, until I deleted it because no one liked reading it, this was meant to give the world of Fairy Tail a far more 'mystic' feel to it. In this chapter, you see me try to touch on that, with Petto using magic that's so different, but somehow supernatural in a place filled with magic. Petto's 'magic' was more like him talking to the world and it would listen to him. It's why he could make walls act as if they were never there. Also, that feat with the mobile base, if he needs bigger guns, he can ask the world for help through it's most ancient of languages: music. I really wanted to capture the feel of the mystic side of magic, because as a kid, I've always been in awe of how… beyond such a thing really is. I hoped I was able to show some of that here.**

 **Now, with this extra arc out of the way, we can tackle the big one around the corner.**

 **That's right folks! The next arc is the Oracion Seis arc!**

 **You know what that means, right? It means we finally get to see Wendy in this story, the anime loli requirement!**

 ***FBI Guns being pointed***

 **I was joking!**

 ***FBI: (Hesitantly draws back guns and makes aggressive finger to eye signs) We're watching you, punk...***

 **With that out of the way, I like to think of the Oracion Seis as like a half way point before the Seven year skip, which I like to think of "that" as the "unofficial" halfway point of the Fairy Tail series as a whole, which would mean that we're potentially a quarter of a way done with this story? (Not really with all those original arcs I'm planning. Saying that aloud makes me realize this might run even longer than the actual manga. Well crap.)**

 **But it's still a mile stone. I'm only like what? A year in and I'm already reaching 300,000 words and starting the Oracion Seis arc? I feel like I should be proud of that too and you guys should also feel proud. It's your support that makes me keep this up for an entire year! My success in this story is also all of yours as well!**

 **Anyway, I hope you are all excited for the upcoming Oracion Seis arc, I even asked for a little help with it. You'll see why very soon.**

 **Have a great day guys, and please support the fic with favorites, follows, and reviews.**

* * *

Extra: Hey, wait a second.

"Now that I think back," Yuri said aloud while everyone was flying on their way back to Magnolia after a slight… mishap. "Didn't the puppet give you two things Mavis? What were they?"

"He gave me an old voice conch that I played with as a kid, and the other was a monocle. Unfortunately, I dropped the monocle on a rock and it shattered, so I had to leave it there." The girl easily answered.

"What was the monocle for?" Warrod seemed interested at the random object.

Mavis opened her mouth, but no words came out as she seemed to struggle to form coherent speech.

Precht seemed to figure it out. "That monocle, I sensed a bit of old magic in it. It allowed you to see something didn't it?"

Mavis said nothing, but she was never good at hiding her facial expressions, so it was easy to read her face as a yes.

The raven haired inventor of the group seemed to have something click in her brain. "Hey, now that I think about it: the Wandering Myth was smart enough to plan everything that happened tonight. Do you think he let himself be seen in Gorge Valley so they could make a quest, and by proxy attract you?"

"If the Steel Reavers believed he did the same for them, I suppose it's not out of the question." The founder of Fairy Tail answered back vaguely.

"But you wanted to capture the Wandering Myth because you wanted to see if fairies were rea..." Warrod's voice died out as he was about to state that. All the other members suddenly had the puzzle pieces fit perfectly in their minds.

"Mavis," Precht began. "What did that monocle allow you to see?"

The blonde haired girl seemed frozen despite holding on to the horned puppy in her arms. However, a second later, she smiled and said, "That's a secret!"

The men of the founding group groaned. "Of course it is." Yuri rubbed his head. "Still though, if you're not going to tell us, what about your question? Did you at least get an answer to your question?"

Mavis thought back to when she had the monocle. As she viewed through the lens, she saw something she couldn't believe: fairies of all shapes and sizes. Sparkling, golden sprites with little wings, flying around the tree.

One of them suspiciously looked like a friend she had been living with in Tenrou Island so long ago and waved at her.

Yet, fairies were as different as people: some had no wings, some had more than two wings, some had antennae, some had butterfly wings, some were fat, some were muscular, some had really big heads, and they were all so diverse.

But her question, 'Do Fairies have tails?', was the one she was most focused on, and lo and behold, her question had such a simple answer.

Some fairies did have tails and some didn't. It felt anticlimactic to her life long question, but she was strangely okay with that.

"Yep!" At that moment, in the night sky, Mavis smile was so bright, one could almost mistake it for a star along the sky.

Warrod ended up giving a soft chuckle. "So what? Now that Mavis nows the answer, do we cancel Fairy Tail since it was made for that not so eternal question?"

"NO!"

"I'm kidding, Mavis! I doubted we would stop it even if we did know." The future god of Ishgar raised his hands to defend himself from a small girl.

Mavis huffed, causing everyone else to laugh at their leader's cute reactions.

"By the way, I see that you're no longer wearing the hat he let you have," Precht looked up to Mavis. "Where is it?"

"Oh."

Back in the fields of where a tree burned, there was a lone top hat in a field of ash. Faeries gathered around the hat and watched as the ashes around started to shift and move despite there being no breeze that night.

The ashes all formed into a giant eight-feet tall wooden puppet with googly eyes and a silly smile and the large being bowed to the fairies who all cheered and whooped at the presence of the old being.

The googly eyes of the ancient being fell on the top hat not to far from him. He reached for it with his long, wooden arms, he dusted the hat off and placed it snuggly back on his head.

It would be odd to see a patched up top hat on top of a wooden puppet, but there was just something that felt right about a magical being wearing something that, despite being so worn out, still felt as warm and as soft as if it had just came off the head of a man who loved the best in life.

Petto, the Wandering Myth looked up to the moon in the sky. … Before walking in a random direction, to where he could be needed next.

"I left it where it needs to be." Mavis finished her answer.


	34. Chapter 34

This is a goldmine, not the Guild Master named Goldmine, but a figurative goldmine.

"Kain. Stop. Smiling."

"Alas, it appears I have conveniently forgotten how to do such a thing, Master Laxus. Woe is I in such a sorry state." Since I was standing right next to him while he sat down on a bench, I could see the veins bulging from his hands as he gripped his fists tighter.

I finally knew how Tien Shinhan from the Dragon Ball Abridged series felt. It was cathartic having word superiority over someone infinitely stronger than you.

"Oh you poor thing," The source of my smug smile and Laxus' stress spoke out with concern as she looked over towards me before back to her grandson. "You shouldn't be working your guild mates to sickness! Your grandfather had the opposite problem of trying to handle everything by himself, I swear you two are more alike than you pretend to be, Lala."

"Snrk!" Okay, that wasn't just me, even Natsu and Gray caught what she just said. "La...la?"

Much to the dismay of the ticking time bomb of an electric dragon slayer, Illana Dreyar heard the two males and explained. "It's a pet name I gave him when he lived with me during his toddler years. Sometimes, before he could speak his own name, he would repeat the first syllable like a little song! It always warmed my heart and the nickname stuck ever since." The old woman spoke this out with a most nostalgic of smiles that Laxus was **definitely** not sharing at that moment.

And thus, I became the epitome of the phrase, 'In for a penny'.

"That is _very_ interesting!" My smile grew wider, Laxus's pupils shrunk even more, and the remaining Fairy Tail Members had looks on their face as if they had all struck an untapped oil mine. Even Freed of the Thunder Legion was mildly curious about his leader's childhood.

"Oh!" The older woman's lit up as she obviously recalled more childhood memories. "Have I told you about the time when Lala here dressed up as a super hero and—"

"Grandmother." Laxus almost shouted that one word out. The usually stoic and serious fourth master seemed to be close to snapping. And everyone was enjoying every second of it. "May I please ask why you're here in Magnolia?"

The older woman seemed sad. "Aww, aren't you going to call me Gram-gram like you usually do?"

I would like to take this moment to mentally remind myself to thank the jerk gods that abandoned me into this world for allowing me to realize my true purpose here of relishing Laxus Dreyar's darkest hour.

"Grandmother—"

"No no, I get it." The Grandmother then sniffed and her voice almost sounded like it was going to cry. "My little Lala is all grown up now, no time for his dumb old Gram-gram, not even a letter after all these years." She took out a handkerchief and wiped her slightly wet eyes.

Oh my god, she was guilt tripping him. I saw Laxus practically glaring at me with looks that could kill an immortal dragon a million times over, but my smile only threatened to grow even more, and risk the very limits of my cheek muscles.

The fourth guild master showed a mental battle the likes that will overshadow all future Fairy Tail fights to come and none could ever hope to match. He placed hand into his face and sighed deeply.

"Gram-Gram." One could almost reach enlightenment by feeling Laxus dying a lot inside with every syllable uttered out loud for what was left of the guild to hear. "What. … Are you doing here?"

The levity of the older woman seemed to drop, causing me to slowly see that there was an urgency to her being her. "Is… is your grandfather here?"

Laxus looked back at me and I towards him.

"When was the last time you saw the old man?" The blonde guild master asked with a calm tone.

"Oh, a little over a month ago when he called through a Lacrima Orb. We had a talk and he seemed to be in a… I wouldn't say good mood, but he looked peaceful, more content than I had seen him in a while."

A little over a month? That was probably after the Phantom Lord War.

"Well the old man is doing some sightseeing that he's always wanted to do now that I've taken over the guild. Knowing him, the old coot is probably sleeping his worries away."

The Fairy Tail Alumni gave a soft laugh. "He probably is, isn't he? I was getting worried since he hadn't called like he used to. But then again, he has missed some calls here in there, doing his own thing."

"I'll be sure to remind that stubborn coot when he gets back. I'm sure you're tired form your trip from Elisyuz. Have you checked in a hotel?" Laxus stood up from his bench and I slowly understood his body language: get my grandmother out of her fast and gently.

"Oh… yes. I have. Now that you mention it I am rather tired."

I stepped closer to her and gave kind smile. "We can arrange more time to see the guild when it's open and can even escort you around the town, but it's getting late, and we should all hit the hay."

"That does sound about right." The rather normal sized woman stood up as well and I looked over to Elfman.

"Can you escort Mrs. Dreyar back to her hotel?"

"Not to worry, it's a man's job to protect someone's gram-gram." There was a joke in his voice and I could only crack a smile. Yet…

I knew that everyone was just waiting for the grandmother to leave to start unleashing their contained laughters. The temptation was too great not to, and to be honest, I would have too, if she did not ask **that** question.

As Elfman led Makarov's wife out the guild door, Laxus closed it shut, and then the laughter behind us erupted without filter.

We didn't care about that, as much as I wanted to, something more important was at stake and hidden beneath that innocent conversation.

"What you said, would Master Makarov really do that sightseeing first?"

Laxus turned to me with equal amounts of seriousness. "He would have at the very most taken a week even if he did do that. He always prioritized grandmother, it was one of the few things we saw eye to eye on."

"What about the magic council, could they have called him back even though they fired him? Or maybe he was visiting the other guild masters?"

By now, I could hear the laughter quickly die down. Instead of seeing Laxus flustered, everyone saw him and me talking with urgent looks on our faces.

"That doesn't make any sense, and if he did meet with masters Goldmine and Bob, he wouldn't have stayed long." Laxus shot down my ideas again.

"Hey, what's going on?" Gray's smile was now gone as he he and the rest seemed to notice the air around the two of us.

Laxus and I shared a look. The taller, and infinitely more muscular man silently gave me a nod that allowed me to explain everything.

"Before master Makarov left, he told me and Laxus… that he was going to be visiting Laxus' grandmother. But as all of you just plainly saw, she came to us looking for him and she expressed not even hearing from him around the time of the Phantom Lord War."

That information made everyone's previously happy emotions into one of realization and dread.

"Is gramps, alright?" Natsu looked towards me.

"I… I hope he is." All though I said that, another part of my mind added in. "But considering our luck? I think we should be prepared for the worst."

Laxus stepped forward. "I want the Thunder Legion, Alzack Conwell, and Bisca Mulan up front now."

Those people were indeed still here as they all came forward. "Conwell, Mulan, you two are our best trackers. Kain here will give you the info of my old man's trip the day he transferred power to me, and the Thunder Legion will assist you if you need more fire power."

"Fire power?" Bisca asked as sweat started to pour down the side of her head.

"My old man my be a Wizard Saint, but he can get careless. And even knowing that old geezer, a Wizard Saint isn't something you can mysteriously hide for a month. You five are going to track him down." Laxus looked over towards me. "Brat, do you have anything that can help them?"

My mind instantly thought back to that day and I powered up my armor and sped back to my office. I looked through the new cabinet I was given and with super speed I got the file I needed and re appeared back in front of Alzack with paper in hand.

"This is the receipt of the train ticket that Master Makarov had me buy. You can start your search there." I said as I handed the paper to the gun mage who then looked at it with Bisca.

"Also," Laxus' voice echoed through the near empty guild. "I want no one else to say anything about this to the other guild members, Elfman should be briefed this when he returns, but in case he babbles, Rocko!" The telepathic mage winced at the call of his last name. "Give him a link. Tell him when he's done, he is to report to back to the guild and talk to no one."

"R-Right sir!" Warren then placed a hand on his head, already sending the message.

"Wait, what about your grandmother?" Lucy would of course be worried about that sweet old lady that even Laxus had trouble saying no to.

"Not yet. I'm still hoping that the old geezer is being an idiot, so I can smack him hard in the head for worrying grandmother." He inhaled. A dark thought was crossing his mind, and seemed to battle with himself wether to say it or not. "If… I will wait for more information before telling her myself."

Even Laxus, who was usually so standoffish, was being delicate about this. "And we also don't want the public to panic at the possibility of a Wizard Saint missing. The dark guild activities have already increased since the Magic Council is still rebuilding. If more people found out one of the saints was missing, that could paint Magnolia as a target for idiots who think my old geezer is the only one to fear." He gripped his fist and electricity danced across it. "But there's no way Magnolia can keep up being constantly attacked like it has these recent times."

Phantom Lord and the civil war of Fairy Tail have left Magnolia in a fragile state. Even if Fairy Tail could fend off potential attackers, the city and it's people might not be able to last.

"Got it?" Laxus asked while looking around the guild. "Freed, your in charge." He spoke to his right hand man who nodded once.

I added in more info. "The train station is also open 24/7, since we're pressed for time, you guys should go as soon as possible if not right now."

"Do you two need any preparation?" Freed turned that question towards the two trackers, implying that the Thunder Legion was already ready.

"We're good." Bisca smiled as she pulled out her sniper rifle. "Let's bring the master back home."

Laxus folded his arms. "Then go."

The makeshift team of five left through the door, leaving us waiting in anticipation.

"Hey! Wait!" Ah right, Natsu. "Why don't we go out too!? We can help find gramps!"

"Natsu," I began, my hands already leaning on my hips. "I'll put it in simpler words: we need a team that understands delicacy and efficiency." I pointed a thumb to my torso to explain this next point. "We're the team to send when something needs to be broken… even the things not meant to be broken."

Natsu grunted and folded his arms. I would have to keep an eye on him in case he would try to find Makarov on his own—wait, why is his nose twitching?

We all turned back towards the door to the guild and it slowly opened once more.

"Oh come on! Who else wants to see us this late?!" I managed to complain as a stranger in white came through he door.

"The Magic Council." The stranger declared as he removed his white hood, revealing a man with tied up black hair and glasses. "I am Lahar Vondarun, Head Captain of the 4th Custody Enforcement Unit. Fairy Tail, I apologize for the late entrance, but we have a job that you **must** accept."

I sighed and shook my head. My mind was picking up a phrase I heard a lot as a kid to describe this situation. "When it rains, it pours."

* * *

It rained, it poured.

Azkal'Duzan Prison, a maximum security prison in the northern isles of Fiore. It prided itself as the second most secure prison in Fiore, under the one the Magic Council itself watches over.

In here many magically inclined criminals sat in their specialized anti magical cages, locked in anti magical restraints, and were watched with guards equipped to take down any potential riot at the first sign of trouble.

The had multiple cameras watching every possible inmate the prison had, each was monitored by over a dozen camera rooms in constant communication with each other.

In one of these camera rooms, a lone guard was preparing coffee and noticed his coworker return with a platter of sandwiches.

"Why the heck did all the funding go on the security? Shouldn't there have been enough left over so we'd get good food? Their sandwiches are just practically two pieces of bread!" The one carrying a platter cried out as he placed the tray on a table and took one of the coffee made by his coworker.

"You complain that every time you come back."

"Because it's damn true. Hell, the prisoners get better food and it's mostly just three star buffet stuff!" The one who brought the sandwiches sat down on his seat, sipping the coffee and begrudgingly eating the 'sandwich'.

"How about I make you forget your troubles?"

The worker wondered why his coworker suddenly sounded so effeminate. As he looked up, he was met with the sight of an almost naked chest with side boobs shown. He looked further up, seeing a woman wearing some white-bird themed clothes, smiling devilishly at him.

His brain processed this while his body made him sip some more coffee. "Damn, Kaden, did you drug my coffee? You sound and look like a horny striper with a bird fetish."

Said 'striper with a bird fetish' slammed him with a magical power that snapped his neck, instantly killing him.

"The nerve of him!" The woman cried out indignantly, stomping her foot and kicking the corpse of the man while he was down.

" _HAHAHAHA!_ " Laughter exploded in a mental link.

The woman placed a hand near her head and shouted, "Cobra, shut up!"

" _Hell no! I heard that both through the link and with my own ears! That's like the best guard I've ever met just for how little shit he gave!_ _I'm kinda upset he's dead even. Shame._ "

" _L-Let's all focus._ " A deeper voice near the point of laughter, tried to keep things professional. " _Angel, send the regulation codes and move out. Cobra, how is the outer security?_ "

A man with purple hair was seen petting a giant purple snake while standing in a dock filled with fallen bodies and broken ships. " _I've been done with that for the past ten minutes. I think this place is my favorite prison so far. The guards have a lot of funny thoughts—almost thought I was in a comedy show sometimes."_

" _Well at least one of us like this place. The jail has too many narrow and tight turns. Not a lot of room for a speedster."_ Inside, guards were taken by an invisible wind. Their weapons were taken and they were hit with a powerful unseen force.

" _Racer, when you're done, aim for the control room_ _to release all prisoners, but not their collars just yet. Cobra, move in towards the facility and help Racer with any stragglers. Hot Eye, is the main generator down?_ "

Down below, many controls and guards were seen beaten up, and have buried into the metal walls and the trail of destruction led to a large man with very shape-like face standing in front of a lever that powered down a massive generator.

" _Uh! Imagine all the money taking and selling this generator would bring!_ _Oh yeah!_ "

A figure under one of the watch towers looked towards the facility despite it being near unseeable due to the heavy rain pouring in. _"_ _Racer, activate the unlock_ _button and herd all the prisoners towards the main hall._ _Also, I seem to have lost track of Midnight. I know he's asleep, I just don't know where._ "

" _Angel here, Midnight was in one of the camera rooms I already emptied. Even though he's asleep, he holding one of the cups of coco the guards made. You know, looking at all the coffee machines here really makes me want to have some hot coco afterward."_

" _Huh, now that you mention it, hot coco does sound good right about now._ _Right,_ _Cubellios?_ "

The obvious leader of this group walked inside the now emptied halls of the facility. " _Just steal the drink machines there_ _later_ _._ _Now,_ _I would very much like us to focus._ "

" _Brain, the inmates are all gathered into the hallway."_

The man smiled as he exited the hallway, reaching the platform high above the mess hall that allowed him to look down on all inmates.

"Men and women of Azkal'Duzan Prison! Today is a glorious day for you all!" He shouted out loud for all to see and hear nothing but him. "My name is Brain, leader of the Oracion Seis, and you can consider this an early release for 'good' behavior."

The criminals all cried out with cheers.

"Hey!" A voice of a lone mage rose above and silenced the cheers. "Why didn't you remove these collars then!? We can't use any magic with these thing still on!"

"Oh that." The man with many tattoos fought the urge to laugh then and there. "It's not good business to give our clients everything. We want to be sure that if we let you out, you'll be joining Oracion Seis in overthrowing the Magic Council!"

Brain motioned his hands towards the crowd as they started to murmur. "Now, I know what you're thinking: the Magic Council is practically the strongest magical army in all of Ishgar. They have rumored weapons that can blast the entire continent to the sea, and as someone who was once a part of their Magic Bureau… I can assure you that the rumors are true and more." His voice became low as he said that last part, his mind flying back to a moment he wished he could forget even with memory magic.

But he pressed on and threw his hands out. "But because I know what the Magic Council is capable off, I also know it's weakness. And more importantly: a weapon the council doesn't have that would make even them powerless against us all!"

He had snared their attention. A weapon that could destroy the Magic Council? Was there truly such a thing that could over throw seven hundred years of magical regulation and power?

At that moment, there was a communication from the link.

First it was a yawn, followed by a half lazy voice. " _Hey, Father, the council sent an air force en route to us. Looks like they had a silent alarm we didn't know about. Should I take care of it?_ "

" _I appreciate it, Midnight, but it's time for our 'new' member to prove his worth up in the air._ " Brain responded before throwing his hands out.

"Now if there's any doubters among you, I invite you all to watch what will happen to an incoming Rune Knight task force." With a wave of his staff, a large screen appeared, showing the image of not a task force, but a battalion of Magic Council planes, boats, and men rushing towards the prison.

* * *

"Blue Commander! This weather is really giving us trouble! Some of our wind mages are having trouble calming down this storm!"

The leader of the first wave of magic planes answered the comlink. "Copy that, Blue 5, but stay your course! We've lost all communications with Azkal'Duzan, it's a priority Alpha!"

There was a beeping coming from his proximity alert followed by another call from someone in his squadron. "Sir! The scanners below detect a bogie at 12 O clock!"

"Weapons primed! Everyone get ready! How many, Blue 3!?" He looked out the rain, trying to see any sign of enemy fighters, but even with his magical equipment helping him, he couldn't spot anyone.

"S-Sir! The scanners! They're just showing one bogie coming in fast!"

"What!? Just one!? Then where the hell is..."

There was a bright light up ahead.

And in an instant, Blue Squadron was shot out of the sky by a powerful beam of light. All the planes fell down, forcing their pilots to all eject.

"Blue Squadron!" Green Commander yelled out from the fighter planes on the side. "Brown Commander, go to formation Jigsaw! Find out who shot that—"

And in another flash of light, Green Squadron was blasted out of the sky in a massive explosion, by some miracle the survivors were able to eject before they could fall with their aircrafts. Brown Squadron soon followed, and soon the Magic Council's air support reached a fat 0.

Back down below, the leaders of the boats were in panic as they saw debris and flames falling down along with the heavy rain.

"What was that!? How did it take down our fliers so easily!?"

"Captain!" A man cried out from outside. "You need to see this!"

The Captain ran out of the main room and saw that the storm was finally letting up. The skies cleared and the moon was absolutely beautiful.

… Almost like the final moon anyone there would ever see.

In front of the moon, flying in the center to all remaining boats, a figure donned in a black cloak was seen, placing his hands in the pockets of his long coat, and looking disinterested despite destroying almost a hundred planes within the span of seconds.

"Captain… that's..." A Rune Knight gasped as the flying strange reached for his hood and pulled it off. As the drops of water fell, everyone could see blue hair and an all too familiar tattoo across the right eye.

The Captain noticed the flying man raising his palm towards them and a golden magical circle appeared from his hand.

The Captain pointed and shouted with every single fiber of his being. "Everyone, open fire!"

All remaining boats fired their magical cannons, all mages on board fired their spells, and a plethora of magic that could annihilate an island raced for the blue haired man.

Yet, the man with his back turned to the moon could only sigh. "I'm sorry."

The magic circle expanded to a massive size that matched the size of the moon from where they could see it. The light of that circle became blinding before it fired every blast right back at the ships.

The Captain saw their own blasts heading right for them, and mere moments before oblivion took them, he screamed out at the top of his lungs, "JELLAL FERNANDES!"

And then a massive explosion filled the air. Jellal was left alone in the sky among the black sea and all he could do was frown and place his hood back on.

* * *

The inmates of Azkal'Duzan could only stare in awe. Silence filled them as they saw one man take down an entire fleet of Magic Council Rune Knights.

The screams of victory, vengeance, and vindication that came after shook the island to it's very last rock.

It was then that they were silenced by a powerful slam of a staff and looked back towards Brain who had a smile that could make the Devil sweat.

"And now!" He threw his hand out, as if for them to grab on to. "Follow us! And we will grant you power that will make even that of a Wizard Saint cower before you!"

And the cheers returned ten fold, even greater than before.

Brain could only smile as he saw this. However, he suddenly felt a pain in his chest. He turned away from the inmates and walked back into the hall, clutching his chest and coughing violently as he did.

"N-No… I-I'm so close." He coughed several more times, each time more worse than the last, even spitting out blood. Brain forced himself to lean on a wall. "Not yet. I need more time… I need to get Nirvana soon, before it's too late..."

* * *

"Uuuggghhhh." I couldn't help but groan after hearing that. Oracion Seis had just destroyed the second most secure prison facility under the Magic Council? That sentence alone gave countless impressions, not a single one of them any good.

"Brat." Laxus said from his desk.

"I know, I know. It's just… we have to deal with a lot right now."

"That is none of my concern. Official guilds must accept summons from the Magic Council without fail." Lahar stated without a shred of empathy. The longer he spoke, the more I was getting the feeling he was strictly 'by the books' type of person.

"So let me try to understand here," Laxus leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table and letting his chin rest on his hands. "Oracion Seis, one of the most wanted of the Dark Guilds, has made their move and since the Magic Council is still rebuilding, you're hiring us and five other guilds to give you each a team of mages so you can combat them from completing whatever it is their doing?"

Lahar pushed up his glasses. "A mundane retelling of what I explained, but yes. If you want to know, the other guilds are Phantom Lord, Blue Pegasus, Qautro Cerberus, Lamia Scale, and Cait Shelter."

I recognized every name except that last one. Phantom Lord: we fought them. Quatro Cerberus and Blue Pegasus? The guild masters there were old friends of Makarov and even Fairy Tail Alumni. Lamia Scale had been gaining attention recently by Sorcerer Weekly, but Cait Shelter? I never heard of those guys before now. Why were they included?

"I didn't really care about them, but since I know two of those guilds are our unofficial 'brother guilds', we'll help," I didn't know Laxus cared about something like that. "What type of mages are you looking for?"

"Preferably your best combat team." Lahar answered.

"Unfortunately, they're still on another mission. So you'll have to settle with Team Valiant."

Oi.

Despite my flat look, Laxus ignored me as did Lahar.

The Rune Knight stood up, fixing his uniform as he did so. "I see; have Team Valiant report to me in 0800 hours at the Sun Flower inn. Any longer and there will be repercussions." Without even a word from us, he left.

"Dick." Laxus muttered under his breath after the council member left the office room.

"So, we're going with him after all?" I asked the current guild master.

"We don't have a choice. Either we answer the call, or the guild pays for it. Just try to keep those idiots under control?"

"You make it sound like I can," I responded before sighing. "But even so, can you handle things while we're not here?"

"Are you kidding? Having Natsu away from here might be a godsend." Laxus scoffed, but I could tell that he wasn't sincere about that. "You should go. Team Valiant is going need all the time to prepare and rest they're going to get."

With that, I left the room. However, I could feel my stomach turning. I knew things would get even worse than they were now, but the killer question was no longer 'can this get worse', but 'How' and 'When' it will.

But all things considered, having some new back up didn't sound like a bad idea. I can only wonder at what type of people we're going to meet from the other guilds?

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Edit: October 13 2018: Thanks to Specter HellScythe for making me remember that Nukes don't exist yet and I accidentally used that phrase in the story when it wasn't Kain that said it.**

 **I noticed that whenever it's the opening chapter of a new arc in this story, it's usually one of the shorter chapters before the next chapters almost double or triple in word count. I don't know why, but it is.**

 **This might be my longest arc yet considering the next draft is already... well... I'll keep that secret for now.**

 **I hope you guys like this preview on the Muggle among Mages take on this arc! I have… *rubs hands evilly* ideas.**

 **Anyway, support the fic by Favoriting, Following, and leaving a review! Thank you for your support and reading this fic!**

* * *

Extra: Naming is everything. (Translators Note: Seis in Oracion Seis means six. And according to google, Oracion can either mean Sentence or more likely Prayer. In other words, Brain named his guild after the Six Prayers body link magic he has. Talk about redundant.)

Angel was about to drink a cup of hot coco until she realized something. "So now that Jellal is part of our group, doesn't that mean we should change our guild name into Oracion _Siete_?"

Racer looked towards her. "Now that you mention it, siete is close sounding enough to seis. So if we were to change it, it wouldn't really take long to get used to the new name."

"It's a good thing thing too!" Hot Eye pointed a finger up. "Can you imagine if we were named, Oracion Ocho? … Wait, that actually doesn't sound bad."

Cobra wanted to try something. "Oracion Uno, Oracion Dos, Oracion Tres, Oracion Qautro, Oracion Cinco, Oracion Nueve, Oracion Diez… they all don't sound that bad."

Angel looked over towards Brain sitting comfortably behind the warden's desk. "Hey Brain, did you do that on purpose?"

The leader of the Oracion Seis realized that he hadn't made Jellal a part of his body link magic yet. Though, making a new one wouldn't work now and the more that he thought about it, why did he name the guild after his body link magic?

"Yes." Brain lied then looked back at his mug. "Wait a second, I wanted mine with the tiny marshmallows! Who took them!?"

And thus ended another daily conversation of the Oracion Seis (now name pending), one of the three most evil dark guilds Fiore had ever faced.


	35. Chapter 35

"Good, all of you made it." Yeah, keep pushing up those glasses, it just make me want to shove them into your eyes even more. "Now that you're here we can… what is that?"

I pointed towards the red creature behind me. "This is Ignis, one of Fairy Tail's mascots."

"Hey! I thought I was the mascot!" The familiar cry of a blue cat screamed towards me.

But I didn't even look his way and continued on. "He also is our ride basically anywhere around Fiore. We save a lot of expenses on travel." And a lot of grief in having Natsu not almost die every time we get on a vehicle.

Lahar looked around the street in front of the Magnolia Inn. The people of the City were actually very used to Ignis since he used to do laps around the city. Some kids were even waving over to the red wyvern as they walked by in the streets despite it being the early morning.

"You… fly on a wyvern?"

"How did you get here then?" I asked while I scratched behind the ears of dragonic creature.

Lahar lifted up a circular device that reminded me of car keys. As he clicked it, it beeped and something appeared in the skies above: it was some kind of sleek looking aircraft. It was circular and had a tail, like a Helicopter without any blades and instead had glowing runes to replace the metal blades.

"This is a Magic Council issued, Hawk-Blade transport, an aircraft designed too carry ten or more people over long range. It's been commissioned for this mission and I am allowed to use it to take you all towards our base of operations in the Worth Woodsea."

My mind blinked as I thought back to the maps of this place. "That's… north of here, right?"

Lahar nodded. "Yes, I did intend to bring you all there through here, but seeing as you have another form of transportation, it seems that we are all ready to go."

We of course had to follow him, but that wasn't really a problem when we went into the air.

Natsu slammed his fists together in excitement. "Can you believe it?! We get to fight some of the strongest dark guilds in Fiore!"

Lucy groaned when hearing her friend's words. "Are you kidding me? I'm not even that good of a fighter? Why did Laxus have to send me along with all of you?"

"Lucy," I began, while still keeping my eyes on the white ship in front of Ignis. "You do realize, i'm not a warrior too, right?"

"Yeah, but at least you've got super armor! I don't have that luxury!"

"Give yourselves some credit," Erza's voice cut in. "You two have both grown tremendously since you both entered into the guild. Even Laxus must have realized your growth if he chose us when the Thunder Legion wasn't present."

"Are we really sure we should be away from the guild?" Gray added along. "Master Makarov is missing, and Fairy Tail is down two of it's strongest teams." One could argue that Fairy Tail was potentially at it's weakest at this moment, and we weren't even there to help it should something happen. Of course we would all worry.

"We really don't have a choice." I spoke out. "It was a call from the Magic Council. They really, really want Oracaion Seis stopped that they're even sending troops while still rebuilding. The situation looks grim for them too."

Lucy's whines could be heard before she spoke up. "Man, I knew taking this mission was a bad idea, but seeing how so many things are going on, I can't help but feel this is going to be a really, really, really bad mission." Even I could hear the fear in her voice, and with what was happening all around us, it was hard to feel confident.

"We should remain strong. We're not alone in this mission. Remember, other guilds are joining us and it would be a good idea to build our rapport." Leave it to Erza to remain diligent. It was good to have her on our side.

Still, what Lucy said did bother me. Something about this quest did not sit right with me at all.

* * *

We eventually reached the Worth Woodsea and found out that Lahar was flying lower towards the trees. Erza figured it was so that we wouldn't get spotted by the enemy if we flew to high. However, not too long after entering, I saw a sight that almost made me want to wipe my googles.

"Uh guys?" I asked while still keeping my eyes ahead. "Why is Lahar flying right for that cliff?"

The white machine the Rune Knight was piloting made no signs of slowing down.

"Is he crazy!?" Gray cried out while Lucy panicked.

"Wait," I felt Natsu place a hand on my right shoulder and heard him sniff the air. "That cliff has a weird smell..."

To our surprise, Lahar flew right into it. Instead of a crash, he phased through the solid rock as if it was water.

"Camouflage magic? Of course!" Erza cried out. Ignis didn't seem to be as impressed as he flew faster into the cliff without my signaling him to do. So without much warning, Team Valiant and I flew into the cliff and saw a large, white light house tower even though we were a very good distance away from the sea.

"It's kinda dark in here?" Lucy said as she squinted her eyes to adjust. When they flew into the mountain, the place was darkly lit like it was night despite it being day mere seconds ago.

"Then that means the camouflage doubles as a barrier," Erza explained. "If there's barely any light getting in, this is a very complex protection spell is up."

Lahar's ship was landing down right next to another helicopter-lookalike. Near the other air vehicle, there was someone standing and looking right towards us.

He was a young, well built young man around our age if not older. He had a short mustache funny enough. Unlike Lahar who had uniform of the usual Rune Knights, this one had a specialized uniform that reminded me the armor of medieval archers with a small cloak draped over his shoulders. He even had a quiver full of arrows, leading me to believe he had a bow somewhere hidden either in person or by magic. And from what I could see in the air, there were knife sheaths around his quiver.

"Yo, Lahar! Is that Fairy Tail? You wouldn't happen to bring in Mirajane Strauss did you?" He laughed with a huge smile as he said this. He was definitely jovial when compared to Lahar Vondarun.

The Rune Knight with glasses sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Major William Tovar, please act accordingly. This is one of the highest ranked missions of the Magic Council to date in recent times, and you shouldn't take this like a field trip."

Overhearing that didn't sit well with me. The magic council was putting a lot of resources into this, more than I originally thought in the first place.

"Yeesh, don't get your robe in a twist. Still at least there are some cuties from Fairy Tail." The wink he sent this way went mostly ignored by our Erza and our stripper.

Lahar focused back on topic. "Did you bring the Blue Pegasus Members?"

"Oh yeah, they went ahead to the base. I let them..." He trailed off when there was an echo of clapping and snapping done together musically in the distance.

"~Hey! Hey! Hey! He~llo!"

"~Hello!"

"Fairy!"

"Fairy!"

"Tail!"

"TAIL!?"

And then from somewhere a spot light shone down from somewhere on to three silhouettes. I'm just going to assume they're using magic somehow.

"WE'RE SO GLAD YOU MADE IT." Three handsome men exclaimed all together at the same time.

We're they practicing that?

"We are..." Wait, they're still doing a show for us.

"The Blue Pegasus..." And here comes the third.

"Elite crew…"

"The Tri-Men!"

They then introduced themselves in fancy knight names; Hibiki for the handsome brunette who even winked in our direction, the small blonde was named Eve, and they guy looking like a vogue model tsundere was Ren.

And then they posed. Lucy seemed to be blushing as she gushed about them, specifically Hibiki, which makes some sense since they and he are handsome. I wonder what kind of beauty practices they do to keep that handsome?

"And we have to meet these guys!?" Gray cried out before panicking at the fact he defied all odds and lost his shirt and coat in almost a second when I looked away from him. "I feel horribly undressed!" He panicked as Natsu somehow got—

"How are you motion sick!? You rode Ignis!" I cried out.

He weakly pointed to one of the Rune Knight flying machines. "I-I just looked into the cockpit.. and imagined...erp!" Natsu cried out as he fell to his knees, making me slap my forehead.

Lucy sighed. "And that's why those two are not on the list of Sorcerer Weekly."

"Kinda like you, huh Lucy?" I managed to comment nearby before she pointed at me accusingly.

"Now listen here! I didn't get to that annoying reporter because of Gajeel and Natsu fighting!" The blonde pointed to me with cartoon anger even though that reporter somehow didn't know she existed even when he wasn't near the two dragon slayers.

Meanwhile, the three hosts/mages were already flirting with Erza, which… well I suppose that would make sense to handsome people? I don't know, it feels like handsome and beautiful people get together easier. Though I have to wonder where they dragged that large couch with the heart from.

I heard them offer her food, but knowing my luck it's not meant for me not matter how much I wanted to snack on something.

Without me noticing, Ren came in and flirted with Lucy, who fell for it almost instantly.

I heard a soft whine next to me as Ignis seemed confused and tilted his head. I ended up petting the side of his head.

"Man, what's with these cornflakes?" I heard Gray walk beside me with Natsu slugging behind.

"I was conked out, who are these guys again?" The dragon slayer asked.

"From what few conversations I heard from Master Makarov, Blue Pegasus is not only a mage guild but a Host and Hostess Club. I'm sure the mages are just doing what they've trained to do and are just taking care of people like they were their customers."

"Oooohhh!" The fire and ice dinguses beside me seemed to understand my explanation.

"What's a host club?"

"I'll tell you later, Natsu."

"Calm down men." A fourth, commanding but smooth voice behind the three Blue Pegasus Members called out, making them all tense up and call out a name, Ichiya. "Give the ladies, some breathing room!"

Everyone but Erza seemed to be impressed with the voice. I wondered why our leader was like that until…

"It's been far too long, Miss Scarlet."

My mind started cranking on written quest reports. Now that I think about it, there was a report from Erza that did catch my attention. Unlike before where she would be one of the most detailed filers, there was one quest report that she strangely wrote far too plainly and with as little details as possible, like the few ones Natsu bothered to do, only not as crude. Didn't that report mention Blue Pegasus?

Eventually, Ichiya revealed himself—meh. Good on him that the other three seem to look up to him greatly.

"It seems destiny has brought us here together!" The man smiled as he turned towards us with sparkles somehow. "Erza! Miss Lucy!" And then he pointed to us males. "You three not so much."

Gray gawked while Natsu still somehow wasn't healing. I on the other hand finally recognized him and walked up to the man.

"You must be, Ichiya Vandarei Kotobuki," I said with a smile. "Whenever Master Makarov spoke about Master Bob from Blue Pegasus, your name came up as one of his best mages." I gave a small but sincere bow. "It's an honor to have you join us for this mission."

Ichiya looked at me for a second before his smile—and sparkles returned. "Oh ho!? Forgive me, you must be the lawyer that Master Bob mentioned! Master Bob has expressed jealousy he couldn't recruit him before Master Makarov, but now I see why! You've got a clean 'parfume' on you, my good man, and I'm proud to have you aboard too!"

"Thanks, but I mostly am just a back up than a front line fighter." I felt blood rush to my cheeks at the compliment and I rubbed the back of my head.

He reached out his hand and I shook it kindly. Behind me, I could hear my friends comment.

"How is it that Kain almost never get's phased by anything?!" Lucy cried out.

"I must admit, I'm jealous at how polite Kain remains… even to someone like Ichiya." I could feel Erza stepping farther away from us.

Gray then spoke out, saying how the 'pretty boys' should stay away from the girls, but unfortunately, of course Blue Pegasus would respond with the same hostility.

It didn't help that at the sound of a 'fight' Natsu was back in energy, trying to incite and join it.

"Can we all please calm down?" I went in between Gray, and Eve and Ren. It seemed like even Lahar was about to step in.

Erza tried to back me up, but Ichiya somehow got closer to her and started sniffing her. I thought he was a host, so why isn't he respecting personal space?

Our S-Class mage reacted like I thought, and she punched the smaller man away… only to be stopped by someone new who entered into the camouflage field.

Ichiya was caught by the head and then his head started to freeze, I could feel Gray gasp in shock before...

"You dare to greet us with this flying buffoon?" Well he wasn't flying before hand so—hold on, I know that voice… "Lamia Scale deserves more respect. We insist on it."

Oh hey it's! … That guy Gray fought! Our interaction was low when we first met, so I the only thing I remember was that he has the same master as Gray. Everything else was overshadowed by Symphony.

"It's you!" Both Gray and Lyon cried out when their eyes met. Huh, if I was a fan girl, you could probably read that as sexual tension increasing between them.

"Hey! So you went and joined a guild after all!" To be honest, I think this was a great time for Natsu to be happy about all this. We could use anything to kill the tension among everyone for now.

Lyon then threw Ichiya towards us and I sighed, moving head on to catch the guy, turn into my armor and rip the ice out.

"Maaann~. … Thank you my friend." How is he still sparkling? I swear, if he turns out to be a vampire—

Blue Pegasus interrupted my thoughts as they also threatened Lyon for attacking their leader.

However, a female voice echoed around and suddenly, the ground beneath Lucy made her lose balance. Lucy seemed to recognize the magic and voice as a girl named Sherry came out. She looks vaguely like that unconscious chick who was laying right next to Lucy in Galuna Island.

However, things got worse as Ichiya got away from me and tried to get back near Erza, she started to panic and bring out a weapon, at the same time Lyon and Gray were about to fight again, Blue Pegasus was glaring daggers, Lucy and Sherry seemed to hate each other, and of-creaking-course Natsu was provoking everyone!

"Desist, all of you! You are under the employment of the Magic Council! This will not be allowed!" Lahar shouted out loud but it seemed like he had little power over the rest of us.

I was about to help him until…

 **Bang!**

The sound of a staff hitting the ground made us all look behind Lyon and Sherry. There were two very tall men, one was a bald man who had the staff in the first place.

The other one was obviously the host of Lamia Scale from the Magic Council because of his special uniform.

He was a man just as tall, if not taller than Laxus. He wore a full body Rune Knight armor that had the blue and white colors of the Council and the gold ankh symbol on his breastplate. What caught my eyes was the fact that he had a very owl themed helmet that was not only the same shape of one, but it's visor holes were glowing, maybe from his magic? I spotted two long handled blades hung behind his back and those blades looked pretty cool.

"Enough! We're here to work together to defeat the Oracion Seis under the guidance of the Magic Council! This is not the time to fight amongst ourselves!" The bald man cried out.

Lyon and Sherry relaxed first, surprisingly enough. "Yes Jura." As soon as Lyon said that name, everyone else seemed to recognize the man with a staff. He was a Wizard Saint, and dang, we have fire power like that with us but we still need more? What is Oracion Seis?!

The giant Rune Knight looked over towards the two Rune Knights, more specifically the major.

"Major William Tovar, why didn't you help Captain Lahar Vondarun keep everyone in line?"

The usually laid back rune knight straightened up and saluted. "I was about to, sir!"

Lahar did the same, but in a much more formal manner. "Field Commander, it's an honor to meet the Head Captain of the 9th Strike Force Unit, Tarsus Steelsoul."

"Captain Lahar," The large man walked over towards the Rune Knights. "I'm sorry I couldn't attend the first briefing, there was an issue with… retrieval. And at ease."

The two men let go of their salute.

The large man with an owl helmet turned to look towards the other guilds. "This is not just some quest; this mission determines the fate of countless innocent lives, and you're all fighting each other on a whim!?" His words made everyone flinch at the harsh truth. "Continue this any longer, and I will not hesitate to kick you out then and there. This will never continue again, agreed?"

Everyone begrudgingly relaxed.

The man named Tarsus Steelsoul closed his eyes and relaxed his stance by putting his hands behind his back. "There are three teams, only three more remain. We should wait patiently for them."

As soon as he said this, there was a boom as a red portal appeared not to far from where we were.

I could feel the others, including me, recognize that magic. Someone stepped out of the portal, revealing it to be none other than…

"Alexandra Raphael!?" Erza gasped as the bronze knight with flowing green hair tied up in a pony tail and vivid red eyes stepped out of the portal.

The mage who battled even Erza to a stand still had a different reaction to that of Lyon in that she gave a small and polite smile, easing whatever tension anyone in Fairy Tail had.

"Whoo-hoo! A portal to another place!" A upbeat voice cried out before something shot out of the red portal and skidded to a stop right next to Alexandra. It was young woman a half foot shorter than Alexandra with blue hair, wearing armor to me that looked almost like a, pink Norse Valkyrie what was noticeable was the massive halberd hanging from her back.

She gasped as she looked around and unhooked her halberd, orange colored eyes sparkling despite it being a little dark. "Oooh! Are we in Helheim!? I can't wait to fight an army of the undead!"

"Kara, our current master doesn't have the ability to open portals to the underworld." He looked like a Chinese martial artist. He wore a monk-like robe, black beads around his necklace, and he had surprisingly pink hair and black colored eyes… though that could have just been the lighting.

"Oh silly, Genji! You should open your mind to the possibility of **GLORIOUS** battle!" The valkyrie screamed as she threw he weapon up and had a foot raised on top of a nearby stone.

Alexandra looked to the pink haired monk with a black highlight. He sighed and pointed back to the portal. "Jason?"

Something wal—something tripped out of the portal and fell in face first on the ground. I noticed a mop of blue hair and a guy wearing knight armor.

The South Captain of Phantom Lord quickly helped him, revealing a scraggly blue haired guy with golden colored eyes wearing white knight armor.

"Uuh!? I'm fine! I'm fine!" The young man messily tried to stand up by himself—only to fall again.

"I'm okay!" He pointed a hand up while his face was down.

Soon he got back up and looked back to Alexandra. He sighed dejectedly and said, "Thanks, Alex."

Alexandra nodded and let the blue haired young man walk forward.

"Uh h-hey. W-We're Team Jupiter from Phantom Lord. I'm Jason Dracoheart. That's Genji Hako, she's Kara Geirdriful, and this is Alex—andra Raphael."

Wait a damn second, Team Jupiter? That just is nailing things in the head, are these guys just like the Weasely Brothers I met here!? Are these Fairy Tail versions off—

The sound of someone else exiting the portal was heard, and made me put aside those thoughts for now.

This person looked back towards the portal. "Thank you for your assistance, Master Voyu." And then started walking away from it as it started to close. Considering how Jason didn't introduce her, she must have been with the Rune Knights.

Yet as she stepped closer to all of us, we all noticed something was amiss.

"Huh? That armor!" Lucy gasped. "Isn't that from the Royal Fiore Army?"

The one who had just exited the portal as it closed was a knight woman with dark hair in a bowl cut, and piercing dark blue eyes. "My name is Raina Zoxen. I am a representative of the Fiore Army and am still currently cross-helping the Magic Council rebuild. I was asked to participate in this mission." She bowed. "Please to make you acquaintance."

So she's like a female Lahar. Great.

There was a gasp coming from the Kara girl as she moved closer towards Erza. "Oh my god! You're Erza Scarlet! I've heard amazing things about you from Alexandra! How you shined with the light of a million blades and fought with after images and your hair shinning gold with your aura!" That sounds a lot like a certain famous animation from Japan. And that also sounds completely not true… I think?

She was pulled back by her monk friend. "Kara, they had a sword fight. Nothing that extreme."

The valkyrie warrior started to rapidly talk, even going around us and saying some rather over blown rumors. Genji, the monk styled warrior, seemed to be patiently following around her and saying small talk in response to his friend's overzealous nature.

"So that's four. We have two more: Cait Shelter and Qautro Cerberus." Lahar spoke up. Since those two names were said in one sentence, I realized we were basically waiting for cats and dogs.

"If I recall," Major Tovar spoke out. "Cait Shelter gave us a message saying that they would send us one person."

"Wait, they're only sending one!?" Lucy cried out, before everyone around us started to murmur about it. "What kind of monster are they sending if they just sending one person!?"

"Kyah!" Huh? That voice sounded far too young.

I spotted Jason Dracoheart look behind me. "Oh thank goodness it's not just me—I mean is that person alright!?"

I turned around and… What? A little… girl?

Everyone turned to see a little girl dusting herself off after falling down. She looked at the group of people, and it wasn't hard for her to feel intimidated by the sheer number of people already there.

"H-Hi. I'm sorry I'm late. I'm Wendy Marvel from Cait Shelter."

It wasn't a lie to say that everyone, including me, were surprised that the person we were sent to team up with was a little girl with blue hair and wearing clothes almost that of a Native American.

"Why would Cait Shelter send a little girl alone in this mission?" For once, I was vehemently agreeing with Sherry from Lamia Scale.

"She is not alone! You shouldn't jump to conclusions, you gaudy tramp!" A posh accent screamed out as behind Wendy… is that a white, female version of Happy? You know, come to think of it, I had seen normal cats sometimes, so I never really questioned Happy. Are there more cats like him if that female feline is?

Oh wait, speaking of Happy, he looks love struck. The first girl he sees? Man, he must have been lonely.

"Wow, what a cuite." Blue Pegasus posed dramatically; they were really going to try and flirt with a little girl and a cat—oh god they were. Don't they know how to act like normal people?

"Hmm?" My attention was caught as Erza was staring intently at the girl. "Is something wrong?"

"Her magic..." Whatever Erza was about to say, she stopped, it looked like she wasn't as sure as she thought she was. "It's probably nothing."

It's never nothing for us. I wanted to say that, but I was too focused on something else.

"I know you're excited, but please wait for everyone." This must have been the representative of the Rune Knights to pick up Cait Shelter. She was a tall, slim, but toned, young woman with medium-length choppy light blonde hair and brown eyes. She wore a feminine Rune Knight uniform that resembled a practical version of a regal noblewoman-esque dress with a white cape, and its skirt was knee-length and had modesty pants underneath, along with protective enchanted chain mail and a breastplate added within which had the white and blue colors of the Council and an ankh symbol on the chest. In addition, she also wore high-heeled armored boots and white ladylike gloves. At her back was a long metal staff which was coiled at the tip, and bore the Rune Knights' symbol on it. Within the center was a sphere, seemingly a globe made of crystal, topped by a small cross.

Wendy looked back at the woman and bowed. "I'm sorry, Ms. Bella Solaris."

"It's fine, sweetie," The woman said as she walked forward. "Just stay close to people you trust."

With them arriving, and with Blue Pegasus going back to flirting with all the newcomer ladies, things fell back into a state of well, I guess pseudo-harmony?

"Five teams are here." Jura of the Wizard Saints declared. "This means that there is only one team remaining, Quarto Cerebrus."

Erza sighed and folded her arms. "Knowing them, they'll send in Bacchus Groh."

For the first time, I heard Ichiya, who was usually so positive and bold, drop down his stance and put a hand on his head. "Meen~ Do they have to send in him?"

The other three Blue Pegasus members actually slumped and had varying levels of annoyance and… was that fear? "The last time he was there to send a message from Master Goldmine, he drank all our bars to the last drop and broke our main lobby! The place smelled like booze even after we got it fixed and it took a month to get rid of it!" Ken complained as he rubbed his hand through his hair.

I spotted even Jura sigh. "I too have met the ace of Quatro Cerberus. An excellent mage… but his personality leaves for much room for improvement."

"Whoa wait, even Ichiya and Jura are hesitant to see this guy?" Gray cried out before looking towards Erza, "What's the deal with this Bacchus guy?"

Our unofficial leader looked at our team. "He's basically like Cana. However, while Cana has times she is sober, Bacchus is drunk even every second of the day, even when asleep."

That made the rest of Team Valiant think back to an always drunk Cana, but was powerful.

"But I must admit, in a fight, he would be an excellent ally to have." Erza sighed before glaring towards a certain Blue Pegasus member.

"Oh hey, speak of the devil." Among the rune knights, William, he looked up to see the last air craft fly through the barrier and land on the ground outside of the tower.

Lahar walked up to the rune knight getting out of the cockpit. "Doranbolt, you're late."

"Huh? Uh y-yeah. S-Sorry about that," The man fidgeted as he looked over towards the mages and seemed to rubbed the back of his head frantically.

"Where are the Quarto Cerberus Mages?" Lahar looked behind him as someone came out of the other side of the flying machine.

"Right, here boyo," A scratchy and familiar voice cried out as the person who stepped out was…

Wait a second, **him**?!

" **Master Goldmine?!** " Fairy Tail, and even Blue Pegasus shouted out loud as they pointed to the man who had just stepped out. Instead of it being the Bacchus fellow I was hearing about, it was the very same old man we had briefly met all those nights ago when we first fought Lullaby!

"Doranbolt!" Lahar quickly looked to a now horrified Rune Knight. "Why did you bring the Guild Master of Quarto Cerberus!?"

"You all didn't say anything about Guild masters not joining. Don't tell me I'm too old to join your club?" The old man smirked as I could tell, even in this dark place, there was a wink behind his sunglasses.

Without another word from Lahar, Master Goldmine looked towards the mages and raised his hand. "Yo, Fairy Tail! It's funny to see you wackos here of all places again."

"W-We," I found my self stammering, and what was worse was that I was the least train wreck right then and as everyone else in Team Valiant, even Erza who was too dumbfounded to speak, were too confused to even move from their frozen state. "We didn't expect to se you here, Master Goldmine."

"Oh wow, I haven't seen a face that shocked since I tried to throw Master Precht a surprise Birthday Party!" He laughed at an inside joke before it just as quickly fell to a stop. "I shouldn't have used vodka after all..."

He looked over towards Blue Pegasus. "Hey, Blue Pegasus, you all look good as well. How the heck are you guys so handsome?"

"Master Goldmine, it's an honor to see you once more! You're wild parfume is unmistakable!" Ichiya posed as he responded.

"We're glad to see you once more!" The other three said at the same time and gave a bow as well. It was kinda interesting seeing Blue Pegasus show more respect for the man than they did with the other male gender mages here.

Goldmine seemed to say hello to not just Blue Pegasus and Fairy Tail, but the other guilds as well. I soon noticed something, the old man was purposely being friendly with all the other guilds. It really showed how experienced the old man was socially. While when we all met, we were about to be at each other throat, but the old friend of Master Makarov was putting everyone at ease with his casual talk, and making us more comfortable around him, and by proxy everyone else.

In a sense, it was a good thing a Guild Master actually came in after all than another S-Class mage with a big personality. If anyone could manage everyone to work together, it would be Master Goldmine.

"Sir," The largest of the Rune Knights, Soulsteel, approached the master of Quarto Cerberus. "I must ask why you volunteered to come instead of sending your own mages?"

"Well, kid," Oh right, for a second there, I forgot he was as old as Makarov. He honestly looks younger than both Master Bob and Master Makarov. "To be honest, I had no one to send. I had my boys on certain missions around the town and out, and those that remained didn't really have the skills yet to take on this wild mission. So I thought about joining back in the fray myself. I hope I'm not going to slow you down too much."

The Field Commander nodded once. "No, your presence is just as welcomed for this, if not more," He then turned to look over towards the rest of us. "With the arrival of Master Goldmine, all teams are now present and accounted for. Please all head into the tower so we may begin the debriefing of our mission and it's conditions."

It seemed like this large group of Six Rune Knights, sixteen mages, one Guild Master, two talking cats, one wyvern, and me was shaping up to be some power house that I doubt any dark guild would want to face.

So it only confused me when we would need this much people to take on the Oracion Seis.

Where they really that strong? But more than that… that Wendy girl…

"Hey, Kain! You coming?" I looked over towards Natsu who was calling me over.

"Sorry, right!" I spoke out before I ran up towards the door. However, as soon as I got closer towards the double door, realization hit me.

I turned towards the red wyvern. "Sorry, Ignis, you can't fit through the doors."

The wyvern gave a low growl of annoyance before he lifted his neck and yawned. The red creature didn't even seem bothered and quickly went to sleep.

I leered at how laid back the dragonic creature really was.

"So hey, I feel like I've heard that little girl's name before." Natsu's voice brought me back as we both walked inside the tower. "But I don't know where."

The fact that Natsu said that he might have known Wendy made me surprised. "You do?"

Natsu looked at me and pointed into the direction she went ahead. "Hey, can you remember her for me?"

I gave him a flat look. How the heck was I supposed to remember his own memories? I sighed before answering him. "I can't do that, but I can try to jog your memory. Was she related to the hospital girl that was possessed by an evil spirit on her birthday?"

"Nah, that can't be right, she was bald."

My eyes snapped open. "That was a cancer patient and you still—no. Not falling for that. Well, there was another report in the town of Gozven, and that had a little girl you saved from a burning building that you caused."

Natsu seemed to think hard. "… No, she became bald too when her hair was burning and I swallowed the fire and her hair to save her."

Dammit, Natsu. "Dude, I have a feeling the more I try to remind you, the more depressed I'm going to get."

Our conversation got cut short as we entered a really cool looking command center. There was a holographic table in the center and the place was filled with Lacrimas projecting data and screens. It felt like something straight out of a high tech military base.

Tarsus Steelsoul walked towards the table and Lahar shortly followed him. A holographic map of the area were were in sparked up and the large man spoke out.

"What I am about to say is confidential, but important to the quest of taking out the Oracion Seis. Yesterday, at 0207 hours, Azkal'Duzan Prison, a maximum security mage prison located among the northern isles from here, was breached and utterly destroyed. A Rune Knight battalion was sent to stop whatever problem the prison had, but as of thirty minutes later… we lost all contact with both the battalion and the guards and wardens on the isle."

Everyone seemed to stay silent at the fact. I could feel my stomach flip.

"Approximately, the prison held 513 dark mages, all listed with A-class crimes or higher. Among them were thirteen dark guilds that were defeated by other guilds and Rune Knight officers." Lahar stated out loud. "Before we lost contact with all of them, video feeds describe the prison was breached by around half a dozen individuals, Oracion Seis. It's no stretch to say that the Dark Guild has recruited them as manpower to their main objective."

"W-We're up against more than five hundred people!?" Lucy cried out a she paled and had dread filled over her. Wendy and that Jason guy also looked completely horrified to learn such odds were against them.

"Oooh! Ooh! The battle shall be legendary!" Kara had like the exact opposite response.

"Five hundred?! Oh yeah! Let me at all of them!" Oh dear god there's two Natsus.

"Erhm!" Lahar coughed into his fist to bring focus back. "Continuing the subject on their objective, we go to our current location: The Worth Woodsea. This is a place where an ancient civilization of mages sealed away a powerful magic known as Nirvana."

The guild master of Quarto Cerberus placed a hand on his forehead after sighing deeply. "And here I thought it was just a rumor of it existing."

Jura looked over to him. "I don't believe I've heard of that before today."

"From what little reports of information we have left," Lahar spoke out as he turned towards Jura. "Nirvana is believed to be a strong form of conversion magic."

"Conversion magic?" Erza repeated.

Tarsus elaborated more. "The info directly quotes, "Turning Light to Dark", but Nirvana can switch emotions and energies between their opposite. For example, I am loyal to the Magic Council and what it stands for. However, Nirvana has the capability of completely reversing my morals, making me hate and despite it even with all my memories and reasons from before. It's nothing short of brain washing magic in a grand scale."

M-Mind control? On a grand scale?!

Lahar continued. "It's not just it's brainwashing power to look out for. The incomplete info suggests that Nirvana also has a destructive capability besides that."

"Why on earth would the ancients create something that powerful!?" The blue haired knight from Phantom Lord cried out.

"That information is lost to us." Lahar stated. "It is also one of the reasons why the Magic Council is sending a small, but elite group to handle this situation. Sending a massive army would only be turned against us in seconds should it be activated."

"But does that mean we would have to fight each other if it does activate?!" Wendy's voice hit my ears as it was filled with fear. If anyone of us lost ourselves, she would easily be one of the first to get…

Damn it! What was her guild thinking in sending her here?!

"Do not worry," Lahar spoke out calmly, as he and Tarus looked towards the right, the other three Rune Knights and Riana from The Fiore Army brought a box containing small Lacrima devices that looked allot like a blue tooth from my world.

"The devices you see before you are special anti-telepathic Lacrima, meant for your ear. These were created around the idea of dispelling hypnosis, telepathic, mental, and emotional magic based attacks. Unfortunately, to protect the mind further, we can't even have a telepathic link, but the Lacrima are designed as com links."

At that, everyone took one and placed it around their ear. I heard Lucy, Wendy, and Jason sigh in relief at the fact that with those on, they wouldn't have to worry about—

"But I must warn you, the Lacrima were made under research of _current_ mental based magic. We have no idea how this will hold up to Nirvana's older and less refined energy."

Whatever hope the cowardly trio had, was now dashed horribly. But to be fair, the rest of us were also very upset that this wasn't a 100 percent fix.

"So what's the point of these things?!" Gray said as he held on to his Lacrima.

"Would you rather go into battle without it then?" Our ice mage flinched under the glare of the Rune Knight with glasses. "Our scientists were rushed to create these things, and this was the best they could do. It's a testament to their skill that they were able to make something to protect all of _you_ in such short notice."

I turned to Gray. "In other words: it's better than nothing, Gray." I spoke as I hung mine near my ears, making the Ice Mage sigh and him following my lead.

Lahar continued. "As you can see, Nirvana is their main goal. However, we do have good news: it hasn't been found yet by Oracion Seis. In fact, despite the many years of people visiting this land, no one has found Nirvana."

While that was indeed good news, something bothered me as I stepped forward and asked, "Then what makes Oracion Seis so confident they can find it?"

"We don't know. But what we do know is that we can't allow them to find it."

"Our mission is simple, but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous by any means." Tarsus pressed a button as images of six people floated above the Holographic Table. "These are the Oracion Seis."

The first screen was that of a man with brown hair and a giant, purple snake around him. "This is Cobra, all we know about him is that he's some sort of snake wizard."

Natsu frowned when he saw the face. "Beady eyes and a mischievous smirk. He looks like trouble to me."

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black." Both Lyon and Gray spoke out at the same time.

They moved on, showing someone in a track suit with an outrageous mohawk and glasses. "This is Racer, from what reports we do have, his name is straight to the point. He is believed to use Speed Magic, but for some reason those few people who survived encounters with him described something off besides normal super speed."

"I don't know what it is, but I think I really hate this guy." Gray leered towards the picture.

"I actually concur with Gray on this one." Lyon added in, signaling that the ice mages seemed to hate the speed mage.

The next picture showed a man with tiles on his face. This time, Riana from the Fiore Army spoke out. "This is Divine Eye' Hot Eye. From what we could gather, he does almost anything for money, and has done so, destroying and killing countless army battalions before this." There was an edge in her voice as the picture showed a battalion of Fiore Knights, broken beneath the man. It didn't take much to realize that she was speaking in behalf of her fallen allies.

"A sickening man." Jura commented as his eyes leered.

The next showed a picture of a woman wearing a feathery dress. "This woman is known as Angel. Not much is known about her, but intel suggests she's their reconnaissance agent due to the fact she was seen in high security places and was able to escape with important information each time."

"She must be the scary, pretty girl…" Lucy shivered at the dark smile of the creature.

Afterward they showed a man sleeping on a magic carpet in a dark room. "Unfortunately for us, we know next to nothing about this member, only his name: Midnight."

"Just his name?" Genji from Phantom Lord asked out loud.

"Could it have something to do with his magic?" Erza commented more for herself than for everyone involved.

Finally, they showed a dark skinned man with tattoos all over his body and white hair. "And this is Brain, the leader of The Orcaion Seis."

There was a second of silence as I assumed everyone was taking in the man who brought them all together, but we soon were distracted by Goldmine opening his mouth.

"Whoa, whoa. That's all you're going to say about this guy? Nothing on the fact he used to be the head of the Magic Bureau?"

"Wait a second, this guy worked for the Magic Council!?" The blue haired Jason screamed out what everyone was thinking.

"H-How do you know that?!" Lahar screamed out. "That information was classified!"

Goldmine turned towards Lahar and gave him a flat look. "Are you really asking that? Kid, when most people here were learning how to tie their shoes, I was already gaining wrinkles. I was there when in his early years, the Magic Council liked showing him off in Sorcerer Weekly because of him becoming the youngest head of the Magic Bureau on record. He looked less like a thug then and was easy on the eyes of women and some dudes."

You know, I'm starting to see why the Magic Council was so adamant about stopping the Oracion Seis now. This is starting to feel like the Figo Valley Incident all over again, only this time, more people involved. As much as I wanted to open my mouth, the fact that they hid information like that from us, already is a bad sign if the rune knights and mages can't work together like this.

Jura turned towards the officers of the Rune Knights. "Why withhold information like that?"

Tarsus answered calmly. "It is the rules of the higher ups. However, I must actually thank you, Master Goldmine for bringing that up. It saves us a lot of future hassle of keeping it in the first place." He stood up straight and puffed up his chest. "Brain, or who he was previously known as, Dr. Bryan Ockado, was one of the Magic Bureau's most prominent mages and magic scientists. He has paved the way of magical research and created over a three hundred new magical spells outside the conventional and historic ones. The man is as dangerous as he is smart."

No one liked hearing this. However this did bring up a question that one of us was quick enough to ask. "Wait, why would someone so highly acclaimed by the magic council, leave and create a dark guild of his own?"

"That is classified information." Lahar quickly spoke to shoot down that question of Eve from Blue Pegasus.

"It's alright, Captain," Steelsoul looked towards the man before towards Eve. "That information wasn't given to us at all. None of us here have clearance as to why he left in the first place."

"But there are rumors," Everyone glanced towards Goldmine, his voice and tone more serious. "aren't there?"

"… What did you hear?" The Field Commander asked plainly.

Everyone looked towards the only guild master in the room as he began to speak. "There was a lot of them when he was 'fired'. There were a lot of crazy ones, he had an affair, he was too greedy and inhumane, and another was because he crossed one of his bosses." He spoke of those first rumors nonchalantly. However, his tone shifted as he began once more. "One of them sounded different from the others: rumors of Dr. Bryan witnessing a secret of the Magic Council… and going insane after learning of it."

We all looked towards the Rune Knights after that.

"Those are just rumors, and are exaggerated by the masses, they hold no validation whatsoever." Lahar dismissed adamantly.

"Well, you're right on that kiddo. The last thing you wanna do is believe in the hearsay of barmates." The old man scoffed as he relaxed into his easy going state—now that I think about it, he's pretty laid back for a guy whose guild motto is to go wild.

"To finish my previous point," The Field Commander spoke out after the subject passed. "Alone, each user has the power to destroy a guild. Together they are a force to be reckoned with. Even with all of you together, I doubt we can beat them head on."

"Do we have a plan of attack?" Ichiya posed, pointing two fingers from both hands towards the giant of a man.

"With how outnumbered we are in an unfamiliar location? A plan of attack now, where we don't even know the temporary base of our enemies, would be like firing a spell at the sun. As much as we are in a hurry to stop the revival of Nirvana, a careless mistake will cost us dearly. We need reconnaissance and we need team building. Lady Raina here and Major Tovar will be scouring the land, while we go in one of this tower's training rooms and get familiar with our new allies."

The idea of something easy for now was both relaxing and stressful considering what it was for in the near future.

"We need to be slow and careful in this."

Slow and careful were not the words I would have described the room suddenly turning red and emergency alarms blaring at max volume.

* * *

Deep within the Worth Woodsea, six figures all walked into a dark room where a giant stone table marked with glowing green runes stood at the center.

"Brain, what was the call for? I thought you ordered us to begin searching for Nirvana?" Angel asked as they all arrived.

"The convicts can handle that, I need you all here for something far more important. The Magic Council has made another move against us. And from what few strings I have left in the Council, I was told that there are six guilds hired to take us on along with six capable Rune Knights." Brain pointed towards the table where specific runes glowed and revealed nearly thirty pictures.

"The pictures you see are supplied by the fact that the Magic Council is heavily based on formalities..." His face fell as he thought of something. "I won't bore you with the many machinations of their systems and rules, but to make a long story short, I hacked an info base that allowed me to see the files of those who they hired to fight us."

"They sent only twenty three people at us?" Racer folded his arms as he saw all the pictures, a smirk appearing on his face. "We've taken down more people than that in a minute."

"They asked for teams from the best legal guilds in the country. Do not underestimate them." Brain's light glare was enough for Racer to silently take back his comment. "This is a briefing, I need to tell you all who we're up against."

"Briefing? But there's a lot of them." Hot Eye blanched as he looked up, cluing everyone else into the info dump that was about to occur.

"Dang, I can hear it from Brain's mind, and it is a lot." Cobra started to sweat, and for the first time much he disliked using his hearing magic.

Midnight was already going back to sleep, much to the envy of all the others.

However, Jellal Fernandes silently looked at a picture of a familiar scarlet haired woman.

Brain ignored the obvious indignation of his guild members and started.

"I will start off with the number one threat out of all the people gathered against us: Goldmine, or as previously known as: The Golden Hell Hound. He is the guild master of Quarto Cerberus."

"They sent a guild master after us?" Racer then looked over towards another picture. "Hey wait a second, this picture here is that of Jura Neekis from Lamia Scale, isn't he a Wizard Saint? Why is this random guild master higher priority than someone on Jellal's level?" The speed mage threw a thumb over towards the still dazed blue haired Wizard Saint, who kept his eyes on the picture of a red head like a man on a life line.

"Because, Racer, Goldmine _is_ at the level of a Wizard Saint, a lower, if not the same level as Makarov Dreyar. He, Makarov, and Bob of Blue Pegasus are nearly all in the same level of magical prowess due to them being previous teammates, but both Bob and Goldmine have formally declined being called Wizard Saints. If they had accepted, you wouldn't see Jura in that list at all, considering even Phantom Lord's Current master, Voyu Carliso, was a candidate until he formally declined."

That caused everyone in the room, except Jellal and Midnight, to gasp.

"I don't even think all the money in the world can make me go against someone in Makarov's level!" Hot Eye started to sweat at the notion.

Brain raised up his hand in a motion to get everyone to calm down. "I understand everyone's apprehension at our biggest threat already, but rest assured, I have failsafes to deal with him. However, I must stress this enough, if you face him, escape is your only option. Jellal and Midnight, that goes for both of you as well. While both of your powers are great, Goldmine's experience is more than likely going to get you."

The two silent men remained quiet, but it seemed like they both absorbed that information.

"Let me continue, I will go on with the briefing, explaining each mage we've detected, including the Rune Knights."

Brain went on talking from the most dangerous to the least. Jura and the S-Class mages among them were emphasized to be careful when facing, Jellal kept staring at Erza's picture even after her mention. He then went on to explain the Rune Knights in charge, who they were and had information on their magic. Brain then went on to explain possible weaknesses they had.

There was a lot of commentary from the Oracion Seis as the briefing went on, Angel being interested that a Celestial Spirit Mage was among them, to Cobra hearing about a Salamander, Racer expressing how he disliked the two ice students of Ur for some unexplained reason, and Hot Eye being interested in Phantom Lord's Team Jupiter due to the fact Phantom Lord was said to be one of the richest guilds in Fiore. Even Midnight seemed to wake up for a moment and eyed Doranbolt of the Rune Knights oddly before going back to sleep.

However, Brain lingered on this last mage.

"If Goldmine was the most dangerous, this one is the most important mage for our plan to succeed." Brain pointed towards the picture of a small girl with blue hair. "Wendy Marvel of Cait Shelter."

"A little girl?" Hot Eye seemed surprised to hear such words about something like that. "Why is she important?"

"It's not her, necessarily, it's her guild." Brain stood up straight and put his hands behind his back. "I've told you all about Nirvana and that finding it was the key to our victory, but I didn't tell you everything yet because I needed to see if the Magic Council would take the bait… and thankfully they did."

"Take the bait?" Angel tilted her head as she repeated the confusing phrase.

"When I had heard that the Magic Council was crippled because of Jellal here, I saw it as a chance to finally destroy the fools in Era. Nirvana has the potential to allow us to defeat the council and to rule over all of Ishgar, but no one has ever found it. Even the Council has no idea where it is despite a general location. However, that doesn't mean no one knows where it is."

Cobra seemed to put two and two together. "Wait, you said her guild… does that mean?"

Brain looked towards the mage with a snake. "Yes. After years of research, I have found a hint that describes the people of Cait Shelter to be descendants of the very makers of Nirvana. The last of my traces in the Magic Council was spent in having them hire that reclusive guild along with the five other ones in the guise that they would better know the lay of the land."

Everyone looked back towards the picture of Wendy. Even Jellal broke his stare to do so. "She is the key to finding Nirvana. If the council was unable to get her or anyone from her guild, I would have abandoned this quest all together."

"So she knows the secret to Nirvana?"

Brain narrowed his eyes after Angel's comment, but it wasn't towards her; it was towards the picture. "...They knew..."

His guild looked at Brain as he slowly clenched his fists. Then the were startled as he slammed both his hands on the table, making the images turn static for a moment from impact. "That was why they sent a child in their stead! It was to obey the council! If we got her hands on her, there is no telling that she wasn't old enough to be taught their secrets! Damn!"

Jellal released a breath he didn't know he was holding in. To be honest, the idea of a little girl being involved with this upset him greatly.

"Calm down, Brain, maybe she does know?" Hot Eye tried to coax their leader.

"As if they would teach her all their dark secrets—" Brain's expression changed suddenly once more, he put a hand on his chin and looked back at the picture. "… But they would teach her the best of their culture."

Brain looked to them all once more. "This might salvageable after all, but none of this can happen without us taking in Wendy Marvel **alive**."

"Want me to do it boss? I can swoop in and pick her up easy." Racer volunteered, his stance loosening up at the prospect of running.

"You're not going in that easily with their base lined with Justsu Shiki Barriers made by the Rune Knight Lahar. And despite reports from our scouts of almost half a dozen ships, we have no idea where their exact base is, just a general location around the southwest area."

"I'm assuming there is a plan then?"

Brain's response was only to smile like someone had asked him a topic he was all too eager to share. "It's a simple strategy, used for hunters to get rabbits and foxes out of their hiding place."

* * *

"CAN SOMONE PLEASE TURN THAT OFF!?" I could barely hear my own screaming with my hands clamping my ears down hard enough to prevent water from going in, but Lahar quickly activated the controls of the place and shut the alarm down.

However, Lahar was still pressing buttons at the same urgency with the alarms on. The screens all changed, showing a flame lit up in the forest.

"Are we under attack?" Tarsus narrowed his eyes and made a motion towards his blades. His action made all of us tense as well.

"No that was a proximity alert. There's a fire not to far from our location." We all looked at the fire on the scree—

FHSOOM!

Another fire exploded, followed by another, and another. Soon, more and more flames started to show in different locations. However, the problem was that they all seemed to be within our area.

"Is this Oracion Seis?!" Someone from the Blue Pegasus group asked.

"They're setting the forrest on fire! This is a tactic some hunters use to lure out their prey! They're trying to flush us out!" Tovar, the Rune Knight host for Blue Pegasus shouted out.

"Everyone, calm down!" Lahar shouted. "The barrier around this tower is built with specialized camouflage. Even should the forrest burn, our location will not be given away and we will be protected by the flames."

"We're just going to let them burn the area around us?" The disbelief in that knight Jason's face was easy to notice and feel after saying it.

"Better than them gaining the edge and finding out where we are. We can't lose our base of operations now!" Lahar returned back.

There was a shriek coming from the forrest. The camera automatically panned to see hundreds of critters of both recognizable from my world and weird creatures from this world. They were all running in fear but…

Some of them were being killed, blasted, and one even had a magic rope snared around it's neck and it slowly chocked to death in front of the screen.

Then there was the cackle of mad laughter. Figures appeared, but the dim light of the fires casted shadows over the figures, making the screen unable to see who was walking into view.

"Haha! Look at these stupid creatures run! How much you wanna bet the Rune Knights and those legal mages will do the same thing!?" One of them shouted out loud.

"I bet they'll squeal like little pigs! I bet they'll **taste** like them too!"

"Speaking of animals, I hear that some of these animals skins will reach a hefty price in the black market! Let's all keep hunting them so we can get their pelts!"

The camera shook before the three figures turned towards the direction of the camera and fired small blasts. The result was pieces of an animal body flying towards them, and…

There was squealing heard as everyone turned to a baby dear with two broken hind legs. It was close to the camera and all it could do was scream in pain, its wide eyes showing horrible fear as it just cried and cried… it made me look away. But I could still hear it's screams of fear and pain.

The men all laughed as they charged their palms… and the combined blast towards the little creature made that camera lose transmission.

SLAM!

The holo table shook and crack as we all looked towards… Natsu, who had just slammed his palms on the holo table with steam coming out of him.

Veins were showing in his forehead and his teeth were grinding so hard that you could swear they were making sparks to add to the steam coming out form him. "THOSE… BASTARDS…!"

"Desist this instant! We cannot—"

My mind moved fast. I knew what Natsu was about to do. The logical thing would be for him to wait it out, but seeing that just now?

All I could do was step away from the space between him and the door.

No sooner than I did, Natsu blasted off from where he was with reckless abandon, destroying the door as if it wasn't even there in the first place.

"What!? What is he doing!?" Lahar yelled, his eyes in disbelief. "He's going to ruin everything!" Magic seemed to gather in his hand, and I could tell he was about to do something to stop him.

Yet, it seemed like I got something from Natsu after spending so much time from him as I yelled, "STOP!"

Everyone looked towards me. The strangers and friends, all the while, flames kept growing in the other screens. I inhaled and stepped back towards the exit.

"...You're right. Natsu is so damn stupid, he never listens, and he's stubborn as hell!" I shouted out loud, gripping my fist in anger as I said this… but... "But damn him and his bleeding heart! ... He cares. Even though they're nothing but animals, even though we can have an advantage over our enemies by just standing by… I know he won't because he knows even animals deserve to be protected and cared for."

I ended up looking towards Happy and giving him a small smile. The blue cat seemed to realize, that if Natsu would ignore those animals, it would be like ignoring Happy in pain.

"Which is why, I'm sorry Rune Knights. I know you have a really great plan but... I need to my job as lawyer of Fairy Tail," The red armor activated around me in a flash of red light.

"And and protect my clients." With that, I ran out there, chasing after Natsu as fast as I could.

* * *

"What!? Hey!" Lahar yelled as Kain left.

"Kain is right. Natsu is stupid," Erza started to walk towards the exit. "But to let those vile people do as they please, is a far more foolish choice." The rest of Fairy Tail started to follow after her until...

"Fairy Tail! Desist! Continuous insubordination will result in..." Lahar's voice died down as Tarsus Steelsoul put a hand on his shoulder.

The Field Commander looked up to Erza. "We need a plan. If you're going to go out there, activate the comlinks."

The S Class mage gave a small, but thankful smile at the understanding of the field commander. She nodded and pressed on the device attached to her ear, signaling the other Fairy Tail members to do the same.

"Come on guys! Natsu and Kain are going to need our help!" Happy cried before the rest of Fairy Tail bolted out the door.

"Hey! Wait a second! We can't let our rival team take all the glory for themselves!" Kara Geirdriful, the girl in pink-themed norse armor, pointed dramatically to the exit and threw her customized halberd into the sky. "We shall return honor to Phantom Lord! Tally-ho!" She screamed as she ran.

"Wait, Kara!" Jason yelled before Genjii and Alexandra ran after her. The knight with blue hair groaned, rubbed his hair, but ran after his team.

"Come now, students!" Ichiya posed and pointed towards the door. "Let us show them the true power of Blue Pegasus!"

"The time of Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord being the best is over," Lyon scoffed. "Now is the time for Lamia Scale!"

"Well aren't you all pretty wild?" Goldmine managed to laugh with a smile on his face that wasn't going away any time soon.

And with that, the rest of the teams except Cait Shelter and the Rune Knights, left after Fairy Tail's lead.

Lahar groaned into his hand. "This goes against protocol!"

The field commander actually nodded. "I know. But no plan survives contact with the enemy, in this case, our allies." He looked over towards the little girl still in the room. "Ms. Marvel?"

The little girl winced at the call. "Y-Yes, sir!?" She even saluted in nervousness.

"You stay here with Ms. Bella Solaris. She is more capable to defend herself and you, while in this place."

"S-Stay? I-I can help!" The little girl tried to say.

"I know you can, but trust me when I say you're better off in the back lines than the front lines." The giant man then looked towards the rest of the Rune Knights and Riana Zoxen. "As for the rest of us? I believe it's our duty to bring back these escaped criminals."

"Right!"

* * *

"You think it would be easy to spot someone with pink hair, but no." I could have sworn he ran in this direction. But did he take a turn somewhere else?

My ears caught the sound of wind whistling—something was coming my way and I jumped back from several magical blasts that destroyed a tree beside me.

"Well, well, well..." As soon as the voice hit my ears, my brain sent messages telling me that I **recognized** that voice.

"I remember that color. The same exact color of that _damned_ wyvern that was supposed to work for me!"

I turned and spotted him in the lead of over a dozen other criminal mages. Trauma returned, my heartbeat quickened, and I ended up pointing towards the man who brought me to near death on Team Valiant's first mission, the man who even Kageyama was once afraid off, and the mage who killed more people than I met in this world, and was the ace of Eisenwald…

The one… the horrible…

"Guy wearing mascara!"

Okay, blurting that out loud sounded funny despite how fearful I was.

I mean, some of the other escaped criminals started to drop and howl with laughter, which at least lightened up this bad situation somewhat.

Theeennnnn my dangers senses spiked to eleven when I realized that the guy who almost killed me was showing a face mixed of murder and anger at the realization that I completely forgot his name.

I hate my life.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Edit: thanks to gwong981 for pointing out an error I missed.**

 **I am sooooo worried for this chapter. This was more character interaction and introduction, and there's like… 10 extra Characters compared to the original! Handling that many would be a task already.**

 **Anyway, I can't take credit for some of those Rune Knights.**

 **Warmachine375 helped me out since he was the one that was always so passionate about Rune Knights in general. And I got the idea of having the Magic Council hiring guilds from him. This allowed me to up the scale of something that was already a fairly big idea.**

 **He created the Following OCs and allowed me to use them.**

Tarsus Steelsoul

Bella Solaris

William Tovar

 **If you don't recognize the name,** Riana (Zoxen), **she is a minor character from the second Fairy Tail Movie, Dragon Cry. She was part of an elite fighting force and I saw that she might fit into this story earlier.**

 **The other two rune knights, I'm sure most are far more familiar with: Lahar (He doesn't have a last name?) and Doranbolt/Mest.**

 **There's a lot to talk about besides the rune knights. Phantom Lord, Quarto Cerberus, are included into this guild alliance and therefore I have to briefly go over them as well.**

 **Phantom Lord's Team Jupiter: These hints are not exactly subtle if you know which fandom I'm directly referencing. If you're one of those people who don't know, Team Jupiter is based of Team Juniper from the RWBY Series.**

 **Some people told me that Alexandra reminded then of a specific character from that series, and that was on purpose because I was planning to bring in this knock-off Team Juniper early on in the story.**

 **Quarto Cerberus I feel gets the short end of the stick.** **Goldmine is described to be an old teammate of Makarov, but he gets shafted more than Bob does which is a shame, because I do love his design and motto.**

 **I played with the idea of bringing in the Cereberus teams from the Magic Games or a new OC team, but I ran into problems with the number of characters was already massive. And then it hit me. What if Goldmine himself joined the fray?**

 **Thinking back, there wasn't much reason stopping the guild masters from joining in the first place. True, they had to mange things while their teams were gone, but I feel like that's not really strong enough for some than it is for others.**

 **I'm excited to bring Goldmine in because of certain… reasons.**

 **I guess while here, I should explain about why I included the Magic Council having more of an active hand in this. Like I mentioned before, Warmachine375 inspired me** **to give the council more influence in things,** **and I enjoyed the idea that they aren't as incompetent as described in the story.**

 **I guess that's all I'll talk about for now. Next time, we catch up with Kain and Mascara Man in their epic revenge cage match.**

 **See you all soon and thanks for reading.**


	36. Chapter 36

They were known as Umbral Typhoon, a pseudo dark guild that believed by bathing in the blood of their innocent, it would call upon their 'dark god' into this world.

As they stalked through the forests, the killed any animals they could see, collecting their corpses and tossing them into a cart.

"Each and everyone of you are disgusting, amoral filth that poison this land." The dark mages stopped their low chanting and looked ahead, seeing a black haired woman woman wearing Fiore's Kingdom armor.

Raina, leader of the White Tiger division took a stance with her blade pointing behind her. "By order of Field Commander, Tarsus Steelsoul, we are allowed to use lethal force."

Her eyes narrowed. "Be cleansed."

The two words had left her, and not even a full second after, the mage at the very front of the cult found a blade stabbed straight through his heart.

It took her a second to realize that the man she stabbed through was still moving. He raised his arms, and a magic circle went through them, turning his limbs into tentacles.

Raina grunted and twisted the blade before forcing it up—splitting the man's head in half before she followed it up in quick slashes and looking up to the rest of the dark guild, changing their hands to different colored tentacles that didn't move like any animal she saw before.

Instead she simply went back to her sword stance. "Looks like killing you all will be harder than I first thought."

* * *

If a tree crashed down, and no one was around hear it, could it be used as a weapon?

The man that could put the size of monster trucks to shame, grabbed the fallen tree with all the effort of a child picking up a stick. The criminal held the large trunk like bat before swinging it over a large arc, blowing away several trees like dust in the wind.

As he looked through the emptied field, he glared harder.

Another large man, not as big as him, wearing an owl helmet, specialized Rune Knight armor, and wielding two chakram blades, walked towards him unbothered from the previous feat of strength.

"Prisca Dorance!" Tarsus Steelsoul slowly walked forward despite the edge in his voice. "Will you come peacefully, or will I have to use lethal force?"

In a Spanish accent, Prisca responded while clenching his fists. "If you think death has any fear over me, you are poorly mistaken, officer."

There was a glow seen from both the owl eyes in the helm, and in Tarsus' eyes. An almost monstrous aura appeared behind him.

However, Prisca only laughed at something that would have obviously scared lesser men. "I have heard rumors of your Overpower magic that I paralyzes those who witness it. I must say, I am disappointed."

It seemed like the criminal had more magical resistance than he looked to have. "You won't be saying that in a second."

"Perhaps, but I may also be severely disappointed at how easy it is to defeat someone of you caliber." Prisca only lifted his hand and motioned the field commander to come at him. "I hope you're a gambling man."

Without another word, Tarsus ran right for Prisca, both men reclining their fists.

* * *

"GAAAH!" Some criminals fell as arrows hit their knee—I mean torsos.

William Tovar was on top of a tree branch as he viewed the now cleared area. "Well that's one area clear."

The man made a move to jump on the next tree branch before freezing pre-momentum. His ear twitched and he turned his head to what he thought he heard.

…

"Aaah!"

He wasn't imagining it as William raced towards the scream. There was a small blonde girl running away from around a dozen criminals.

The brown haired, blue eyed archer readied his bow and fired several arrows that instantly got the criminals chasing after the girl.

"T-Thank you mister!" The kid wearing a poncho, and a long hat managed to stammer out and look up to—an arrow?

The sound of a stab was heard as the body of the child flew with several arrows shot into the face.

"You actually fooled me there for a second, Diara Zidone." William said as he reached for another arrow and pointed towards the girl's body which could have been mistaken for a pin cushion.

There was no blood that fell from the girl's body, instead, plastic skin fell off… the body of the 'little girl' stood up and the face of the girl had an obvious crack split in middle of the face that seemed frozen with two pupils facing opposite directions.

"But I guess I need to thank Lahar for nagging on for hours about which criminals were in the prison. If any of the mages from the guild saw you first, they would have fallen for your puppet magic. So I gotta ask, will you surrender or..."

Something came out of the crack of the little girl's face, giggles that sounded more like a gasp of someone's dying breath.

"Wow mister," The voice was raspy, dry, and it almost sounded like it was coming from a dehydrated old woman, but even with the flames slowly growing nearby, William could feel goosebumps on his skin. "You're really fun to play with."

The 'criminals' chasing the little girl rose up like upside-down nails, sudden and forceful. William turned and fired arrows back at them, but as they all connected, he could hear the sound of his arrows hitting through wood.

Soon, more clacking noises were heard, and William found himself surrounded by puppets.

"Well, crap..." The Archer said as he pointed his bow around him. Being surrounded was never a good thing for an archer.

In the back, the cracked face of the little girl tilted her head, "Do you want to play tag, mister?"

* * *

"Well done, my students!" Ichiya posed after he and the Tri Men had defeated two dark guilds. "Another victory for Blue Pegasus!"

"Thank you, minister!" The three pretty man once more choose a different name for their teacher.

Ichiya made another sharp pose as he pointed behind a tree. "Hold it right there! I could smell your disgusting parfume a mile away!"

"Parfume?" The voice grunted, in a very, very low octave. "Pig-skins talk too much."

Blue Pegasus wasn't expecting a large, green skinned Orc carrying something like a dull, but massive knife on his back to walk from behind the giant tree.

"An Orc? The magic council captured an Orc?" Hibiki gasped as all of Blue Pegasus stared at the non-human.

"Man, they're even uglier than I've heard off." Ren commented off.

"Ren, isn't that racist?" Eve looked towards his taller friend.

"I thought other races called us ugly?" The taller man shot back.

"Pig-skin sounds worse than squealing pig." The Orc unhinged the large machete off his shoulder and it dug into the ground by it's own weight. "Butcher going to kill you now."

Hibiki's eyes narrowed. "Guys, Narcissus Formation. Something tells me that's not just his name!" In that sentence alone, his voice rose when the Orc ran at them with speeds no one expected off a massive green lug.

* * *

Thunder struck, Kara struck. To those that knew her, those were sometimes the same thing with more often than not Kara Geirdriful being considered worse.

The pink armored Valkyrie smiled, she turned around from a pile of groaning, broken, and unconscious criminals that 'attacked' her and looked towards her pink haired monk friend. "Yes! I have defeated a hundred men in a single blow!"

"That was twenty men, and you beat them under a minute."

"Our battle was legendary!"

"They started getting scared after you knocked out their vanguard."

"And to think this is only the beginning!"

Genji remained silent after that, putting a hand on his chin. "You do have a point."

Jason, who was seen gasping for breath, walked up to the two. "H-Hey guys! I-I beat one!"

"Way to go fearless leader!" Kara raced up to the knight and slapped his back. Genji wasn't quick enough to stop the girl before causing Jason to kiss the ground like a long lost lover.

"Ooo fome on!?" The blue haired knight cried out as he was breaking even Kain's previous record of trysts with mother earth.

Alexandra could only give a small smile as she watched her teammates. However, a clang of metal caught her attention and made Team Jupiter turn towards the opposite end, where another group of people were appearing.

"Well this be an interesting sight! If it ain't the metal bender and her sorry crew."

The gladiator's red eyes narrowed as the leader of this new group revealed themselves.

"To think you were in that prison, you must be Brown Beard, aren't you?" Genji spoke out as the rest of Team Jupiter moved towards Alexandra.

The pirate took out a flint pistol and fired it towards the green haired gladiator. Alexandra raised her hand—then moved out of the way before the bullet passed through a tree, and ignited it into flames.

"I learned my lesson! Not a single one of my men have metallic equipment with them anymore! This time, It's payback for defeating me, bitch!"

The Southern Captain narrowed her eyes, but the rest of her friends stepped beside her. "We're with you on this, Alex!" Jason cried out even though he was sweating somewhat.

"Then you die with her, brat! Get them all!"

* * *

"GAA!" A man fell as he was attacked by an Ice Bear.

Lyon scoffed and undid his spell. "This was the best they could do?"

"Do not let your guard down." Jura spoke up as he undid some of the fires. "There are still more of those criminals."

"With love, Lamia Scale shall win!" Sherry added in while throwing her hair in a flourish.

There was a low laughter in the air. "Jura Neekis? A Wizard Saint all the way over here?"

The Trio of Lamia Scale went back into a fighting stance as they heard the voice, but felt no sign of magic anywhere near them or the downed criminals they already beat. However, they could tell by the voice that the owner was a woman.

"I feel like I've seen ice like that before, what was her name? Us? Ul? Urie?" The voice added in, making Leon's eyes widen. "She was quite a bitch really. How is the old hag?"

The air around Lamia Scale lowered and the other two looked towards their ice user who was trembling with fury. "WHO ARE YOU!? SHOW YOURSELF!"

In response to his fear some shout, mocking laughter echoed around them. "What are you talking about, boy? I've been right in front of you this entire time."

Jura's eyes widened and he pointed a hand towards Leon. "Duck!" He screamed as He fired a rock towards the Ice Mage. Lyon obeyed the Wizard Saint and as he did, the air in front of his twisted and distorted to avoid the boulder.

Lyon jumped back and the distortion unveiled, revealing a woman clothed in all black, wearing a crow mask with a long beak and barred eye holes.

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Beliere Val Belbala." The plague doctor spoke in an older accent and made an exaggerated bow towards Lamia Scale.

"I don't have a lot of love for her."

"There is something uncanny about her more than the others."

Shelly and Jura commented, but they had forgotten about something in the presence of this newcomer.

"How dare you speak ill of Ur, you pathetic crow!" Lyon didn't hesitate to fire a powerful ice lion right for the plague doctor.

Jura instantly noticed the distinct lack of movement coming from their opponent and his instincts flared when she motioned to pick up something from her cloak.

It was a green glass container that contained green liquid. The Plague doctor threw it at the giant Ice Lion and as soon as the glass shattered, the liquid ate through every ounce of ice like super termites.

"Hmm it seems like that new salt-acid works even faster on ice than other substances." The figure put a hand under their mask where there chin would be.

"Cease and desist!" Jura cried out as he gathered magic. However, Beliere, in one movement, brought up eight more multicolored potions held in the gaps between her fingers.

There was a dark shine coming from behind the barred eye sockets of her mask. "Lamia Scale, how would you like to conduct an experiment with me?"

* * *

Even with the flames in the distance slowly devouring this forrest, even with the fact that there are around six, powerful-doesn't-begin-to-describe dark mages lurking around, I found out that the most dangerous thing in front of me was the dark mage whose name I completely forgot.

"What did you just say!?" Wow the fire behind him doesn't make this any easier at all, he looks like a demon out of hell—that wears mascara-I really don't know why I'm focusing so much on that.

"I am Erigor!" Right! I was close; there was an 'i' in his name! "The rightful ace of Eisenwald, the one who mastered Lullaby!"

"You do realize Lullaby was using you right? Heck, the dude is way better off without you and he's in a much better evil relationship with Deliora." Ahh natural sarcasm. How I both love and loathe thee.

My mind started to send bad signals when I realized that Erigor stopped his flaunting and a look of recognition fell over his face. "That damned mouth… I know you! The magic-less fly that hangs around with fairies!" After he screamed, his mouth curled upward as a sinister smile replaced his scowl. "Oooooh, I've been waiting to see you again, brat."

Despite the obvious venom in his voice, and ignoring how he was brandishing his scythe to reap an unsuspecting idiot, it occurred to me that out of all the prisons this guy was sent too, it was the damn one Oracion Seis destroyed.

Because of course my luck is like that.

I jumped out of the way as a blast of wind was shot my way, and I landed on my foot—and ran like hell in the opposite direction. I could faintly hear the sound of a dozen criminals running towards me after a not so subtle scream of an emo man copying a line of a very famous pre-kill video game quote meant for an ice ninja.

That only made me run away faster, and because of my increased senses, I could feel over a dozen, varying magical hums and sounds coming my way—dam it! Does super speed mean nothing in this world?!

Exerting my cape to turn to wings before flying through the forest, as I turned behind a large oak tree—

"Fire Dragon's Talon!" It took me an instant to almost not dodge the enflamed fist coming my way. However, it took another instant to realize that I dodged the fist, but my forward momentum was still heading straight into a confused and surprised Natsu.

My world fumbled and it was easy to understand that I crashed into my Dragon Slayer friend and may have looked more like an idiot than I usually did.

"Dang it, Kain!" After getting off each other, Natsu yelled at me. "I could have hit you! What's the big idea!?"

The tree I was turning suddenly exploded, forcing the two of us to quickly get back up. "I was trying to get away from them while looking for you!"

"You were looking for me?" The pink haired mage looked over towards me before his attention was taken away by the guy who almost killed me.

"Well, well, well, isn't that a familiar fly? Luckily for me, I get to swat both of you once and for all."

"No way!" Natsu's eyes widened when seeing mascara man then he… raised out his hand and smiled? "Hey! What's going on Cool Breeze!? Long time no see!"

… It took everything I had to not face palm at that moment. Of course Natsu wouldn't be threatened by this guy. From the boasts after that adventure, he practically one-shotted Mascara dude a while back and Natsu has definitely gotten stronger over the last time they met.

"Natsu, he's the guy who tried to use Lullaby, but was actually being used by Lullaby?" I spoke out, wishing I could pinch the bridge of my nose but my helmet prevented me from doing so.

"Oh wait that Mascara guy?" The other villains laughed again as Natsu pointed back to the wind mage with his thumb while looking at me.

"That's it! I'm killing you both!" Erigor unleashed a burst of wind around him as he flew towards the both of us.

Natsu smirked and jumped to meet him head on while I jumped back—only to find myself landing on body of some dark mage. I turned behind me while Natsu and Erigor clashed and I noticed there were over thirty unconscious thugs already on the ground with singed earth all around them.

Dang, Natsu already beat this many guys?

My attention was cut short when Natsu's scream echoed through the forrest and he ended up punching Erigor back into the criminals that were following him.

Some of the other criminals passed by Natsu and went directly for me. I acted fast, threw my Cracker Spheres and shielded myself as they exploded, blinding my incoming attacker and allowed me to knock them down in quick succession.

As I turned back to the fight—or the beat down now that Natsu was almost untouched while Erigor already seemed to be standing on his last legs.

But something was wrong, why was it too easy? Things never work out this well for us.

Mascara dude seemed to be seething in rage despite barely being able to stand. "You think you're hot shit!?"

"He is a Fire Mage!" It took me a second to realize I was still blathering out loud in sarcasm mode. Maybe I shouldn't be goading the crazed looking assassin.

Laughter seemed to explode from Erigor. I noticed al the other baddies that our resident dragon slayer beat up slowly get back up. Seeing that incoming madness, I ended up jumping towards Natsu and ended up being back to back like those cool kung-fu movies.

"Well then flies, the Oracion Seis said that they would promise us power beyond that of a Wizard Saint, and boy did they deliver!" The criminals all reached for a pouch, revealing some kind of small, circular—

"It's a magic increasing drug, isn't it?" My mind jumped ahead and my mouth was all too unrefined to blurt it out.

"Well you're obviously the brains of the group, though seeing flame boy over there, it's not too hard to do." I could feel Natsu growl at the insult before Erigor went on. "This handy drug is called Rhodonite and it will increasEEERRRK!?"

"LIKE HELL I'LL LET YOU USE THAT!?" I moved fast and decked the emo man in the face, knocking him through another tree.

"Kain, what the hell!? He was going to power up and I would beaten him down again!"

I looked back towards Natsu, "Are you kidding me!? Natsu, I don't like fighting! And we really, really need to find the others!"

Natsu was about to argue, obviously about to say something along the lines that he could take them all on or something, but then his eyes widened. I may not have been a mage, but I realized that both he and I were distracted in our arguments, essentially giving the other mages time to eat their drugs.

As I saw all our enemies essentially going super saiyan, hulking-out, and other veins popping out around their eyes, my worst fears were realized.

And then they were surpassed.

Something exploded behind us, and Erigor was seen, floating back up with wind surrounding him and despite all the pain Natsu easily inflicted on him, he was smiling like a curved, bloody knife.

"I don't know what that armor does, brat." Erigor spoke up. "But as I was saying, this drug will right all the wrongs that has ever been done to me!"

"So what?! You still aren't all that!" Natsu blasted off to attack Erigor, who erected a much more potent wind barrier around him. However, Natsu's flames turned white, signaling he was using his more powerful flames and once more powered through and made the assassin look like a fallen Meteor.

But even with an attack strong enough to dig a deep crater, Ergior flew back up, laughing even louder than before, making me realize what Erigor said previously. He wasn't just referencing a power boost, did it somehow make him immune to pain?

"I didn't even feel that! This drug is amazing! It doesn't even matter how strong you two have gotten, because my attacks will actually stick!"

Well Happy crap. But this also means the other criminals have these things as well. Looks like I was right after all about this being not easy.

The other criminals raced for me, as Erigor and Natsu began their rematch. Several blasts of magic came at me that were much harder to dodge, and those that I knocked back down, didn't stay down.

I doubted that the drug's effect would wear off as fast as it activated, but yeesh! Oracion Seis really is pulling out all the stops to find Nirvana…

Hold on, where exactly are The Oracion Seis?

* * *

Back in the base, Bella Solaris, a Colonel of the Rune Knights, was watching over a dozen images of the alliance fighting criminals.

She pressed on her communication link. "Lahar, you and Doranbolt are three clicks northwest of Lamia Scale's group. You can regroup with them when you two are finished there."

"Understood, any sign of Fairy Tail's Lawyer and Dragon Slayer?"

"None of the active scanners can pick them up. But they should still be in the vicinity. I'll try to keep track of the groups of criminals." The blonde haired, brown-eyed woman looked up and noticed a rather dejected looking little girl sitting in one corner of the room.

Bella sighed and walked over towards the little girl, she kneeled a little and gave an honest smile. "Hey, mind if I sit next to you?"

The little girl stammered before inching to the side, Bella sat down with her while Carla, the white cat eyed her suspiciously.

"Did you know, when I was your age, I wanted to be a musician?"

The blue haired girl looked back up. "A musician?"

"Yep, a musician. My father just had this talent that whenever he would touch an instrument, it would be like he played it his entire life despite holding it in his hands for the first time in his life. I wanted to be just like him, but there was one huge problem..."

Bella looked over towards a focused Wendy and gave a laugh that seemed more pitiful than funny. "I couldn't even play kid's music for the life of another. Whenever I would have an instrument, somehow, someway, I would make sounds that would make nails to the chalk board sound like works of arts."

"R-Really?" The blue haired girl seemed surprised to hear such a thing from the beautiful woman.

"Yes, so you could imagine how heart broken I was, not living up to any of my first dreams." Bella had a look of nostalgia on her face. "And you could imagine, me moping and brooding so much that I know when others are doing it."

Wendy seemed to blush as she realized the implications of Bella's words.

However, soon she felt something warm on her head and found out the Rune Knight was patting her head. "Don't worry, sweetie. We all feel bad when we don't meet our expectations. But trust me when I say, you're going to prove yourself in the future. Just work hard and safely, alright?"

The blue haired girl slowly smiled more confidently, "Thank you, Ms. Solaris."

"No problem, sweetie," The Rune Knight looked over to the cat that was still eying her cautiously, but a little less than before. "Now come on, help me manage the screens on everyone else. I'll tell you the story of how I came to be a Rune Knight as well."

"THIS IS A #3 ALERT!" The voice on the com link, from William Tovar of the Rune Knights, put Bella and the others on edge. "The criminals have access to Rhodonite Drugs! Everyone, it doubles their magical power and nullifies theirs sense of pain, do not let your opponents use them!"

Bella ran back towards the holo table and instantly switched the cameras.

Before, everyone was handling their battles with little to no trouble, but now? Despite Willaim's warning, the Rune Knights and Guild members were starting to have trouble with those who had their magic doubled and were basically immune to pain.

"Hey, Bella!" Doranbolt's voice hit the com link. "Lahar and I are getting overrun here! Can you send someone else over?!"

"I heard it, sonny, I'll be there in a moment." Goldmine of Quarto Cerberus was the one who answered that. "Just point me to where they are."

Bella looked at the closet screen showing Goldmine had already defeated all his attackers. She, Wendy, and Carla were impressed at how fast the guild master handled it, but the Rune Knight quickly gave out the instructions. "Yes, they are northwest of you by half a mile! Please hurry!"

"Always in such a rush you young ones are. Damn, I'm getting old." At least one of them was obviously having fun.

"D-Do they need help?" Bella couldn't help at smile how adorable Wendy was at trying to be brave.

"They can obviously handle it! There's no need for you to go out there!" Wendy's cat friend, Carla if she heard once, chastised the young girl.

"She is right, we're safer here."

Those words rung true for only two seconds.

Alarms reactivated, the room turned back to red, and Bella hurried back towards the controls, only for the lights all shut off and darkness prevailed in the room.

In the midsts of the silence, the girls in the room looked towards the main corridor. They couldn't even see anything beyond the deep blackness because of the lack of light, but they knew something or someone was coming.

"Wendy," Bella's tone was emotionless, but even in the dark the small girl could see her gaze narrowing. "Go to the back exit. Keep running and when you're safe, call the others."

"M-Ms. Solaris?"

"I said go!" Bella walked forward towards the main entrance, standing guard and facing an invisible enemy.

"Come on, Wendy!" Carla grabbed the girl's hand and ran through the back doors. Wendy Marvel could only stare back with horror and hope that Ms. Solaris would make it.

As soon as the two left through the door, something came in and slammed Bella into the floor.

"Huh, you're definitely not her." Racer spoke as he pushed his palm down on the head of Bella. "But guessing with how the Rune Knights recruited everyone, you must know where she is."

"Racer, go check the other rooms." Another voice came from the darkness before a green, pale light was seen.

"Brain!" Bella harshly gasped as Racer got off her and ran towards the back room. The Rune Knight got back up and a golden color accumulated in her hands. However, she soon realized something: why was he alone?

"Too late." A voice came from beside her before her world was sent reeling.

To her credit, rolled into a kneel and fired a blast at her attacker. Cobra of Ocracion Seis jinked to the side with his snake. "You're pretty sturdy. I heard some of the Rune Knights had special magic-resitant items."

Bella felt the air turn dry and jumped back to see a strike of sand where she once was. As she looked up, the rest of Oracion Seis were coming in.

"Seeing all this technology… it makes me feel nostalgic." Brain began as he walked towards the cracked table.

Bella knew the situation was getting worse with each second, but she had to hope that—

A girlish scream was heard behind the doors, and Bella's heart sank.

Before a blink, Racer came in, holding an unconscious girl hanging on his arms. "I found her, Brain." The speedster called out.

A smile appeared on the face of Brain as he saw the little girl. "Perfect. Now we can begin."

"I won't let you!" Bella screamed out loud as she gathered energy.

A flash of light was seen then Bella's energy died instantly. The woman looked down and saw a hole where her heart used to be.

Brain, whose hand was smoking, slowly put it down and scoffed. "I am very aware that some Rune Knights have special anti-magical clothes, but I know which energies they aren't immune to. Goodbye, Ms. Solaris, know that others will follow you."

The woman's eyes fell to Wendy before the light of her eyes faded and she fell to the ground, soon into a pool of her own blood.

Brain turned to everyone else. "Now then, let's show our attackers who exactly we're dealing with."

* * *

Kain was getting sick and tired of these guys. Their magic power might have risen, but what was really annoying was that they weren't staying down no matter how hard they were beaten down.

If that wasn't worse, Natsu's stamina was draining fast. Every fight with Erigor was draining him despite all the time he beat him. Now? The dragon slayer was gasping for breath as he looked up towards the wind reaper who smiled with all the intensity of Lucifer.

"This time, it'll be you who loses your life, fly!" Erigor cried out as a burst of wind exploded from him. Natsu made a move—but his aching muscles caused him to stop and kneel to the ground.

The attack hit—a golden orb before exploding. As the dust settled, Kain removed Horus' transforming weapon as it turned from a wall back into a normal shield.

"You alright, Natsu?" Kain tried to hide the growing fear in his voice, but at the last second his voice might have cracked and stammered.

"I can totally take him!" The Dragon Slayer stood up before noticing the mages Kain was fighting slowly encircling the two Fairy Tail members. The two stood back to back once more as the thugs slowly surrounded them.

Kain really, really wanted to run away, but he also knew Natsu would rather not do that. A conflict between him and once of his new best friends wouldn't help them at all. Luckily, years of studying have taught him there are always more than a few options. "Well what you're doing isn't working, so we need to try a different approach."

Even through the armor, Kain could feel Natsu's body relax in a good way. "Well, buddy, what kinda cool plan do you have to get out of this situation?"

"You two flies aren't going anywhere!" Erigor yelled as he flew over them. "We're going to kill you and make you feel every single ounce of pain and agony that makes mine look absolutely minuscule!"

And then Kain's eyes widened. "Wait! Say that again!'

That seemed to confuse everyone around them, including Natsu. Erigor only laughed—which got old far too fast—in response. "What? Are you too gripped with fear?"

Better fear than instantly like you. It took a lot for Kain not to accidentally blurt that. "You said you'd make us feel pain?"

"Of course! I want you both to suffer for ruining my life!" The wind mage cried out.

Anyone would have been afraid of Erigor after making that threat, and unleashing a powerful burst of magic, showing that he would not only be true to it, but even his words couldn't capture what he was about to do.

However, Kain was smiling behind his helm. Natsu could tell this as he tilted his visor to him.

"Natsu, I have a plan."

The Dragon Slayer gave a huge, grin. The sound of those words were like music to his heightened senses, and he wasn't usually into that. "About time!"

Kain turned back and sighed. "Really? You have no idea how stressful it is to always be the plan guy-dammit!" The crimson rider screamed as he put away his blade and reached for inside his cape.

Erigor screamed as he saw that, he rushed in but Kain raised up several spheres in his hand and threw them hard into the ground, causing a bright flash of light that blinded the attackers. As the light faded, the two Fairy Tail mages were gone.

"Did those flies, run!?" One of them cried out.

"Right here, punks!" They all looked over to see Natsu and Kain a few feet away from them. "There's no way we're running from you guys! We were just reposting!"

"Natsu, the word you're looking for is repositioning, reposting is basically you writing another flier and putting it up on the board again." The weapon of Horus turned into a staff that Kain twirled into a fighting stance. "But that's for later, you know the plan this time, right?"

Flames lit up in Natsu's fist. "Oh yeah. Definitely."

Erigor snarled when he saw the confident look on Natsu's face again. "Haven't you learned anything?! We can't feel pain and our magic is doubled!"

"Thank you for that, Captain Obvious, would you like a gold star for being such a good boy?" Now Kain had no reason to reign in his sarcasm.

Erigor screamed with anger as he rushed right for the two. The two young men rushed in as well with Kain throwing something that exploded and caused a pink, gooey substance to get caught into Erigor's face.

Due to his lack of sight, he failed to see the foot using his face as a jumping off point with Kain reaching the climax of his jump and throwing a sword beam blast that exploded and threw a dust cloud right in front of the other criminals.

Natsu rushed in, knowing where everyone else was with his senses.

Natsu, listen to me because their senses will come back soon, aim for their joints. They may not feel pain, but breaking these will stop them from moving.

That was all Kain said before they moved away to get a better position to attack. Natsu rushed in for the first guy and kicked the guy's knee with enough force for it to break. The guy didn't feel the blow, but he instantly dropped to the ground due to his lack of balance.

Natsu then worked on the others while the cloud was still up.

Erigor finally removed the goo off his face and blew away the dust, to his surprise, there was only one of his allies left—that both Natsu and Kain closed in and punched/smashed his kneecaps, causing the sound of bones breaking to be heard in stereo and the man to fall into the ground like a worm dropped into dry land.

Erigor looked at his back up, all who while not groaning in pain, were struggling to move as some of their limbs were bent and broken in ways that should not have been broken and all were doing their best impressions of turtles that fell on their shell.

Natsu and Kain looked over to Erigor. As the flames soon came up to them, Natsu inhaled, gathering all the flames into his mouth and unleashing a heavy breath after eating. "Alright then, round three, mascara man!"

A vein could be popping beneath the skin of Erigor, not that he noticed as he was consumed with thoughts of leaving both young men in a pile of liquid as red as the boy's armor.

He exploded—something else exploded in the distance. It wasn't like the blasts and fighting like before, this was a massive explosion that created a mushroom cloud in the distance.

As the remaining people looked on, Kain seemed to remember that direction. "That's where the base was!"

"Our friends!" Natsu yelled out as he ran back. Kain was surprised but followed after him as well, speeding after his dragon slayer friend once more.

Erigor could only stare as the two ran off. "What?"

The air suddenly got worse and those still struggling to move suddenly found it hard to breathe as the winds around Ergior started to escalate.

"My time for revenge, my time to win… and you two get so EASILY DISTRACTED!?" In a blast of wind that scattered everything around Erigor, ally and trees alike, leaving an empty field with Erigor breathing erratically with his eyes looking bloodshot.

"Fairy Tail," His tone sounded different, not a single octave sounded unstrained and he could have been confused as a demon. "I will crush you with my own hands!"

* * *

Natsu and Kain reached the HQ, which by now was just a smoldering pile of ash and debris.

"Natsu, eat the flames!" The dragon slayer heard the wyvern rider's voice and made a move to inhale the fire among the debris.

"Can you smell anyone?"

Natsu sniffed the air and then jumped some distance before starting to dig. Kain did so as well, and after a bit, they had spotted a familiar white cat under some stones.

"Hey, it's that white Happy!" Kain said nothing at how racist that sounded.

"Natsu, anyone else?"

He pointed towards beneath an ashen debris that Kain removed, no sooner than he did through, his eyes widened. "It's one of the rune knights, the lady one. ... She's dead." The boy felt for a pulse on the neck, but as he suspected there wasn't any.

The sound of a snarl caused Kain to look at his friend who was clenching his fist tightly. "Who did this?!"

The two young men heard the sound of laughter and looked up, seeing Cobra, Racer and Hot Eye. Three of the Oracion Seis were right in front of them!

"That would be us!" Racer taunted as he folded his arms and looked down on us. "Brain was right on the money: there would be some mages to check on their debris."

Cobra cackled while petting his pet snake. "I'm kinda disappointed, only the Salamander is here? Not even one of the S-class mages came here yet." He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, I wanna see how a Dragon Slayer fights anyway."

"You." Kain blinked as he was handed the cat and saw steam coming out of Natsu's mouth. "Which one of you killed her?"

"Brain, but it's not like it mattered, she was too weak anyway! But I do wonder how much Rune Knights are paid." The blocky-faced Hot Eye declared. However, Kain didn't know why but that member of the Oracion Seis looked familiar.

"Bastards!" Natsu blasted off before Kain could warn him not to. Natsu, with a flaming fist akin to wild fire tried to punch Cobra, only for the snake and his mage to easily avoid the attack.

"I can hear everything!" Cobra cockily declared as he sidestepped another punch and Sparta kicked Natsu the instant he dodged. The force of the attack

Kain noticed something off: that dodge looked almost—he didn't get to finish as he jumped back from Racer who came in faster than he expected and tried to kick his face.

"Huh, not bad kid!" The speedster almost sounded impressed. "But I'm the fastest man alive!"

"By any chance are you named Barry Allen?" Said the fastest and dumbest mouth alive, but the rest of Kain's mind was at least smart enough to start avoiding the speedster as he started to attack. However, Kain noticed right away that he was far faster than him or anyone he met. The wyvern rider raised one of his arms from protecting the white, injured, and talking cat and Horus' Weapon transformed into a shield to block a kick that had the weight of a monster truck that sent him flying back.

Kain looked back up, only to feel the ground beneath turned liquid. The young man fell until his legs were buried before the ground re-solidified. While still protecting the cat, he looked towards his right to spot Hot Eye pointing at him. "Oh ho! Yes! Killing you and taking that armor would sell for a king's ransom!"

The red rider didn't have time as he noticed Racer heading right for him. Using Horus' weapon he changed the form into that off a bubble surrounding him and the cat of the girl—Kain's eyes widened when that thought finally came to him and as Racer started pounding on the bubble. "Where's Wendy!?"

The girl from Caitshelter was with the other two in the tower! Kain had forgotten due to the memory of Erigor coming back to him, but he forgot about the little girl that was originally here! They saw the cat, the rune knight, but not her!

"Huh? Wendy?" Racer stopped for a second and looked down on Kain. Then his cocky smile returned. "Oh? You mean the little girl? Brain has special plans for her."

Natsu, hearing this as he got back up from Cobra knocking him back down for like the third time heard this and looked towards Kain.

Cobra himself stopped and turned towards the red rider. His eyes widened as his ears twitched. "Hey, Racer! Look out!"

The speedster was confused at his ally's tone, but that proved to be a bad mistake. Out of the ground Kain's cape busted out like the undead with all of it's unholy presence. Racer was caught off guard for half a moment, which was fatal in a battle of speedsters as Kain slammed into him, pinned him down with his free hand clamping like a vice grip around Racer's neck. "WHERE DID YOU TAKE HER!?" For an instant, with the power of his volume, the rage, and his read armor, Racer swore he saw a demon straight out of hell in Kain.

Natsu actually froze and stared at his best friend from another world. Kain never showed this side of himself before, what had caused him to be so… the Dragon Slayer realized something. When Wendy first appeared, Kain was also focusing so much on her, but it felt different as to why he felt a familiar connection to her.

"Racer!" Hot Eye and Cobra cried out. Hot Eye began gathering magic, only to use it to defend himself as a fast, sword beam came his way.

Cobra rushed for his ally and used his ears. However, like a hundred words overlapping each other, all of them thinking solely on the safety of the girl that they had captured.

However, Racer managed to slam his fist into the side. This caused a motor bike to rush in and slam right into the red rider. However, while it got him off, with one swipe of Horus' weapon turned into a blade, the red motor bike was cut in half with both pieces flying off and exploding behind the rider who only had eyes on rider.

"WHERE IS SHE!?" Kain gave inhuman scream.

"Damn, what the hell? There was nothing to suggest he was like this!" Racer cried out.

Kain felt a shadow cast over him and saw a large wave of Earth swallow him whole. Racer looked toward Hot Eye. "Thanks, I wasn't expecting him to make me use my bikes."

"Kain!" Natsu shouted while trying to attack Cobra. But the snake wizard sighed and avoided the blow and tried to kick—Cobra's eyes widened with alarm as he stopped his attack and jumped back, avoiding a sudden punch with a burst of speed and white flame encased around the Dragon Slayer's fist. Natsu was on the offensive this time, Cobra was barely dodging the attacks even though he knew where they were coming.

Cobra was once on the defensive, but his snake, Cubellios, saw an opening and tried to bite on the Dragon Slayer. However, this move proved to be bad as Natsu moved faster and kicked the snake away.

"Cubellios!" Cobra yelled before glaring at Natsu. A second later, Racer slammed his fist into Natsu's cheek and sent him flying.

"Cobra, these two are stronger than we thought!" Both Racer and Cobra felt the earth rumble before Kain punched out of the ground, imitating his unholy rise like before.

"TELL ME WHERE SHE IS YOU BASTARDS!" Kain screamed before the ground behind him rose and slammed him back down.

The two looked to Hot Eye. "If any of the others are this strong, we're going to need to regroup. The plan to close them all in isn't going to work now without reinforcements!"

"How long until reinforcements do come in our end?" Racer turned to Cobra as Natsu got back up again, angrier than before.

Cobra's ears twitched. "They're coming, but here comes some of their side! Hot Eye, 65 degrees to your right!"

The blocky member acted fast and summoned a pillar of softened earth. Two smaller objects flew and hit the tidal wave of earth, the instant it did, specialized symbols appeared and made the wave harmlessly appear.

Cobra and Racer felt shadows descend over them. If it was anyone else, if it was anyone else but a mind reader and a speedster, the attackers from above would have been successful, but Cobra jumped to the side as Racer sped away from bullets hitting the ground they were and runes appearing where they hit the ground.

The two attackers landed, revealing Doranbolt and Lahar. "Fairy Tail, where is Bella Solaris?" Lahar was now wielding two pistols, but each pistol had multiple glowing symbols across it.

Natsu wasn't expecting those two to be the ones to save them.

"Hey, wait..." Doranbolt looked past the fire dragon slayer, towards a corpse not to far from him that had a hole in her chest. "D-Damn it! She's dead?!"

"Doranbolt," Lahar raised his hand with one of his guns in front of his ally. "Casualties are part of the mission, take down the Oracion Seis!"

"What!? How could you say that about your own friend!?" Natsu yelled out towards Lahar, who glared in response.

"She died because **you** couldn't wait and listen to orders! I should have kicked you out of this mission if I knew you would be such a maverick!" Lahar stepped towards Natsu, meeting up his gaze.

The broke out again, revealing Kain cradling the white cat in his arms. "Okay! As cool as it is to be strong enough to do that three times straight, I'm getting sick and tired of being treated like buried treasure!" He looked over towards the others and flew towards them.

"Lahar, Doranbolt, you need to help us! The Oracion Seis captured Wendy!" The armored person began.

"And you!" Lahar screamed and pointed towards the rider. "If it wasn't for you, none of the others would have left!"

Doranbolt could only step back as Natsu butted in and started screaming at Lahar, who screamed back at him, and then Kain came in to defend his friend, causing a three way argument between them. Doranbolt paled as he realized that this wasn't looking good at all.

"Great more of them. At least they seem to be arguing with each other." Racer regrouped with Cobra and Hot Eye. "Just two of them proved to be annoying."

"It seems we underestimated them. Using even half of our power at the start wouldn't have put us in this state." Hot Eye spoke out.

Cobra turned behind them and sighed. "Don't worry, our back up is just about to arrive."

Doranbolt looked towards the Oracion Seis and his eyes widened in alarm. "Guys!?"

The three who were argue stopped and turned to see a massive amount of reinforcements race behind the three Oracion Seis members.

Doranbolt and Lahar had their ear devices start to glow. The one who with a crew cut seemed to be talking on the other end. "Retreat? The enemies are having reinforcements?! Darn, the base is destroyed… and Bella is..."

"Yes sir." The Doranbolt looked towards the other two. "Hold on to my hand, we're retreating."

"What!?" Natsu and Kain both yelled out.

"Stop them!" Cobra's voice shouted and Lahar shot the ground between the four of them and the now over 100 group of mages. The runes on the ground beneath started to glow and soon a barrier was erected that rose in time to even stop Racer from reaching them. However, it didn't stop the others from using multiple magical blasts on the barrier and it soon started to crack easily as the many attacks piled on.

"That won't hold them for long! This time, listen to us, and retreat!" Lahar yelled as Kain and Natsu finally shut up and grabbed on to Doranbolt's hand. The mage concentrated and teleported the four of them out of the area before the barrier could break under the barrage of attacks.

Racer placed his hands in his pockets and turned towards Cobra. "Hey, where'd they go?"

"… I hear a cracking in the air because of that gunman's runes. It's interfering with my ability to hear the area properly. I can't find them anymore but that should change when things quiet down." The snake mage spoke out while petting his snake.

Racer sighed. "Well, Brain did warn us not to underestimate them. I'm not going to be the one to tell him we screwed up though."

"Not it!" Cobra spoke after Racer.

"Huh?" Hot Eye blinked and pointed to himself. "Wait, you want me to tell him we failed!?"

"You were the slow one!" Cobra chuckled before he seemed to get distracted by something. He looked behind him, towards the criminals they freed. "You all, get back to searching for Nirvana!"

With his order, the criminals all did as they were told. Cobra looked back to Hot Eye and his cocky smile returned. "Hey, don't feel bad, I'll give you twenty Jewels for it."

Hot Eye let loose a sigh and buried his hand into his face. "The things I do for money."

* * *

"… Char-Carla?" Wendy opened her eyes only to find a darkly lit room. She found herself in the middle of a magic circle and slowly rose up, clutching her hands near her chest.

"Ahh, you're awake." The blue haired girl gasped and turned behind her, seeing Brain with a glowing staff, Angel on his right and a hooded figure on his left that refused to look in her direction.

"W-Who—"

"Unfortunately, my dear, time is of the essence, and I am a very busy man. You're going to help me find Nirvana."

The small girl from Cait Shelter started to shiver. "Ni-Nirvana?"

"Your guild doesn't call it that. I believe it's other name is called," He made a flourish with his free hand. "Lakuya?"

The young girl's eyes widened and even in the darkness, everyone could feel Brain's smile grow.

"Now then, I would like to hear you sing, Wendy Marvel." Brain didn't even give Wendy a chance to move as he slammed his staff on the edge of the circle. As the magical symbol glowed with power, the hooded figure of Jellal turned away from the sight.

Unfortunately for him, he could still hear the shrieks of pain coming form the innocent girl.

* * *

 _ **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**_

 _ **Where shall we play?**_

 _ **On the field of sky flowers not seen by the day?**_

 _ **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**_

 _ **Let us dance with the snake of the pond,**_

 _ **and listen to her story of young.**_

 _ **Follow her path to the mouth of winds,**_

 _ **And rest on the lap of the Guardian King.**_

 _ **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**_

 _ **Do not wake him up,**_

 _ **Sleep with him, Lakuya, down below not above.**_

* * *

 **{Author Notes?}**

 _Ye who stand at the maw, turn back now. This place is not for thine eyes. Change is coming, it is not one of hope and glory, but of tragedy and forgotten secrets._

 _Soon, a grand awakening shall encompass the land,_ _and not even the Black Wizard or the False Dragon God_ _s_ _can stop it with all their superficial might._

 _Does thou hear it? The blanket of stars shudder for a glimpse of what is to come has appeared._

 _Blood has been spilt and no longer shall it cease._


	37. Chapter 37

The fires of battle have caused the sky to be filled with smoke and clouds, blocking the sun and giving the impression of night despite it still being before noon. However, the darkness did help the Alliance, allowing them an easier time to hide from the flow of reinforcements meant to overwhelm them.

If there was still one advantage they had, it was the fact that they still had the com link devices. "Where will we go? The base is destroyed." As William Tovar said this, he panted for air desperately in the comlink while he hid up a tree and tried stop the bleeding of his leg from his fight from a while ago.

He wasn't the only one who was worse for ware, many of the others suffered some trauma that they couldn't shake off.

"Not to worry kid, we're in luck." Goldmine seemed to be the only one not bothered by the recent attack, and in all honesty, his voice was a relief to everyone at the dark hour. "Blue Pegasus, I recall Bob telling me he had a second home here, right?"

Ichiya responded, but for many they were wondering why they could smell him over the comlink. "Cool as always, Master Goldmine~! Indeed, we were about to suggest Master bob's second home. It's not a proper base, but it should serve as an excellent staging point. Men~! Hibiki, send the information to everyone through the link!"

There was a heavy sigh coming from Tarsus. "Alright, everyone make your way and do not alert our enemies find or follow you. Doranbolt, I'm going to need you to start teleporting everyone you can. The faster we get there, the better."

When everyone converged to the house of Master Bob, their moral was at an all time low. They had all originally assumed that this would be an easy mission. Many of the guilds, even the Rune Knights thought they would be able to handle their opponents. However, the use of the Rhodonite drugs, along with the increasing stream of reinforcements, not to mention everyone was split up doing their own thing, this left retreat to be the only option otherwise they would be overwhelmed by numbers if they weren't Master Goldmine.

Everyone did end up into the house of Master Bob which was like a mansion decorated with more hearts and bright colors. The theme of the house did little to soothe anyone's emotions.

BAM!

William Tovar's voice reverberated through the entire lobby more than the impact of him punching Natsu in the face and causing the Dragon Slayer to fall down from the sucker punch.

"You bastard!" He cried out before reaching for his half shirt and pulling by it. "If it wasn't for you, Bella would still be alive right now!"

"Watch it!" To the surprise of many, Gray was the one who got between them and pushed William away. "Natsu may be a screwball, but you were the guys who claimed that your base would be safe while we went out! Whose fault was that!?"

Lahar was quick to shout back, "It wouldn't have been found in the first place if Fairy Tail didn't disobey direct orders and act like the impulsive idiots you all are! I should have denied you all from coming if I knew you would be this bad! I'll see your guild disbanded for that!"

"I didn't see you trying to stop us at all! All you did was just keep running that damn mouth of yours!" Gray returned a glare back at Lahar.

"Why are we all still here!?" Kain stepped towards the center of that fight before pointing towards the door. "We have to save Wendy! She was taken by the Oracion Seis!

Lahar snapped his head towards the brunette. "That is none of our concern—"

He was interrupted when Kain unleashed a voice that was like that of jaguar roar, even his friends and Ignis weren't expecting it's sudden ferocity. "She's a _little_ girl! She _should_ be our priority!"

Now that looked to be the tipping point and made those with cooler heads move in to stop before this could break into a fight. However, the one to act first was someone no one expected.

"Kain," The being from another world was distracted from his anger when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to Natsu looking at him worryingly. "You alright?"

When Natsu of all people was trying to calm someone else down, it was clue to the lawyer that even he was going too far. Kain saw many looking around him and he just sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I need a moment."

He then left, climbing up the stairs and rubbing his eyes as he did so, refusing to acknowledge anyone else.

Tarsus Steelsoul, the older Rune Knight, stepped up at that moment. "We are all tired, hurt, demoralized, and have suffered great losses. We will take a ten minute break to cool off and we'll meet again here. Lahar, I need you to set up a barrier around the place, anything you can muster."

And with that, the Alliance returned to silence.

* * *

It was sobering to see a place once filled with so much green, now have a noticeable black area filled with dead trees and grass suffocated by ash. The sun that was once bright only hours ago was gone, making even night seem brighter in comparison.

Kain was at a balcony, seeing all this in front of him, but was far too engrossed with how his foot was tapping with all the rhythm of a jackhammer.

"Kain?"

The young man turned around, seeing Gray of all people coming up to him.

The brunette blinked before he saw Gray walk beside him and look out in the distance. "Damn, it almost feels like we're in a different area altogether."

Kain could hear the other conversation under the half-naked ice mage's simple statement. "I'm surprised everyone else isn't here."

"Erza said that everyone leaving after you would further drive a wedge between the Magic Council and Fairy Tail. One of us had to go and check on you while a majority stayed in the same area as the Council jerks. At least Erza and that Steelsoul fella seem to be keeping each other from just straight out attacking each other."

Kain deeply sighed, feeling a headache and placed his hand on his forehead. "Gray, I screwed up."

"Funny, they say it was Natsu and I'm kinda inclined to agree with them."

The ice mage wasn't expecting Kain to suddenly turn to him with anger that was obviously pointed to himself. "But that's the thing, I knew he was about to do that the moment we watched the criminals kill off innocent animals. I could have stopped him! I could have explained the best I could, and he does listen to me more than others!" As the anger faded, Kain just gasped for air. Gray could have sworn he was looking at himself the hour after he let his teacher, Ur, sacrifice herself for both him and Lyon. "If I did that… If I did that… shit. I can't believe I got someone else killed and even that Wendy girl caught..."

Gray looked out towards the burnt and charred part of the forrest that was clearly seen form where they were. "You said it before you chased after Natsu, didn't you? He cares, even for some stupid animals. Natsu was trying to protect those that couldn't do it for themselves, and you… were protecting Natsu's honor." The Ice mage looked towards the plain looking adolescent. "It's not your fault with what happened to that Rune Knight Lady, or Wendy. If anything, It's Oracion Seis for doing this in the first place."

"I don't care about blame, Gray, even though my job as a lawyer. I just want to make sure that little girl is safe."

The ice mage couldn't help but feel curious about that. "We all care about Wendy, but why are you so passionate about it?"

The brunette looked back up before showing a smile on his face that just seemed more sad than happy. "She reminds me of my younger half sisters."

Memory came in like an executioner's axe. Gray recalled in the world of memory back some time ago, Kain's history showed them he had at least two younger half sisters.

Gray found himself interested in that: being a brother. From what little he remembered before Deliora destroyed his life, he was an only child. There was also the fact Kain was actually one of the youngest members in the guild, so him being seen as a big brother—wait. Nevermind, he was also the most level headed person in the guild, and pretty much 80 percent of it's self restraint.

"I'm the oldest in both families, and the second oldest is my younger brother who's only 14 years old." Kain gave a laugh that was as full as hollow dead tree. "I'm the oldest, so I have to take care of all of them..."

"Seeing Wendy gone and taken," Gray began after he noticed that his friend no longer wanted to keep speaking from fear of his own thoughts. "is like seeing your younger siblings being taken." He never had siblings, the closest thing to a brother he had was Lyon and that was a can of worms he didn't want to open again, but he knew what it was like to lose his family. It's beyond painful.

Gray was actually startled when Kain slammed both of his hands on the rails, causing them to crack, not that the brunette noticed or cared to. "Damn it! I should have done more than just try to attack the Oracion Seis! I let my emotions get the better of me, and instead of trying to make most of a horrible situation, I just—god! I'm an idiot!" The brunette screamed before burying his face into his hands.

Gray didn't really know what to say to that. The last time he tried to come up with something, it was basically akin to suicide in the form of Iced Shell. Let's hope his heart had something much better to say, "I guess that means you belong with us after all."

Kain looked up from his self pity and towards the ice mage. That seemed to be working, so Gray continued to trust his emotions. "Erza with the Tower of Hell, Lucy with her being an Heiress, Ash-brain being… himself." Gray squinted his eyes to a glare when thinking of his elemental opposite. Then he pointed a thumb to himself. "And me with Lyon back in Galuna. Seeing as how all of us do pretty stupid things, maybe we should change our name from Team Valiant to Stupid."

A single scoff and laugh escaped from Kain's lips along with a smile. "Come to think of it, Happy or Ignis haven't done anything stupid."

At that, the two broke out into more boisterous laughter.

"W-We really are a sorry bunch, aren't we?" The wyvern rider managed to gasp after a much needed laugh.

"It's one of the reasons why I love Fairy Tail: a place where losers can be less like losers." Gray sighed and looked towards the door. "Now come on, I doubt we can come up with a good plan to save Wendy without you."

Gray then said nothing more and walked down. Kain found himself smiling before deeply breathing in and steeling himself for what he knew was about to happen next. It wouldn't be pretty, and he could feel the chance of failure being larger than all other times before.

* * *

"We have lost many things in so little time," Tarsus began to brief everyone as he stood on the stairs for everyone to see him. "We lost our base, and two other members, one of them captured by the enemy for some unknown reason, unless, Ms. Carla, you can tell us why Oracion Seis would want Ms. Marvel?"

The female white cat, who had a bandage over hear head huffed. "It doesn't matter, what does matter is when we will save Wendy!"

"No." Firmer than the oldest of trees, Tarsus' one word stopped Carla's emotions. "We are not repeating the same mistake."

"We?" Everyone looked over towards William Tovar, the Rune Knight, as he not so subtly glared towards Natsu. "It's that utter fool's fault for flying out of the gates all because he couldn't stomach animals dying."

"What did you say?!" Natsu stood up too fast, his fist starting to flame on, ready to get into a fight once more.

However, the sound of one of the stair rails breaking caught everyone's attention towards Tarsus where he removed his hand from the broken wood. "No screaming."

Tarsus stared for a few seconds, watching for anyone else to start something. Wisely, no one did. Once more, without raising his volume, Tarsus continued on. "Natsu Dragneel. Let this be a lesson: never underestimate your opponents. This isn't some duel between two people, this is a mission that dictates the lives of many inside and outside this war—a very different mission that you are used to."

Natsu grunted and sat back down into one of the seas, folding his arms and looking back on the ground.

"But to put all the blame on him would be wrong and unjust," The older Rune Knight spoke out, capturing everyone's attention once more. "In fact, we are all to blame just as much as Natsu Dragneel in this."

Voices of dissent were quick to rise from anyone else, but Tarsus raised his hand and glared, causing him to kill the noise just as fast. "We all treated this as just another mission to get rid of thugs or monsters. Instead of trying to convince the others to stop and work together, we all raced out, treating this as a game of who could take the most glory. We didn't respect the opponents, people who the Magic Council deemed as too dangerous to keep nearby any public area and had to be isolated far out of Fiore's borders to keep the country safe, nor the six mages who broke them out and employed them. Look at our result for such an arrogant action: we were beaten, shamed, and forced to run like mice from cats."

His words were like salt poured into an open wound, but they were also necessary to hear.

"In order for us to make up for our mistakes, we need to throw away our pride and work together as a true group. As of this moment, there is no 'better guild', we are an alliance to stop an evil and possibly crazed man from getting hands on weapons hidden away by the ancients who believed it was far too dangerous. Until we do that, we all deserve to be punished for our previous hubris." Tarsus removed his owl helmet, revealing a man with black, crew-cut hair and blood colored eyes. "I asked Master Goldmine about this, and he told me that I could do this."

He lifted his palm as it glowed gray. As it glowed, every guild members sticker started to glow from under their clothes. Tarsus made a crushing motion, causing all stamps to disappear.

"What!?" "Hey!" "What's going on!?" People screamed out, only to stop when they saw Tarsus throw way his rune knight symbols, leaving only his blue armor. Soon, even the symbols of the Rune Knights faded away, causing the remaining Rune Knights to cry out as well.

"Channel all you anger towards Oracion Seis." Tarsus stated. "Right here—right now: I need each and every one of us to come together what we're here for, as a group, not a bunch of kids claiming to be the best."

Goldmine walked to the center of the lobby with an amused smile. "You certainly have a way with words. I admit planning was never my forte, but trust me when I say, kiddos, it's never too late to man up for mistakes." The master of Quarto Cerberus removed his own symbol. "I got too excited too quickly. So I'll suspend my guild master rights, and just be a plain old man in this alliance." He gave a small laugh, which was a reminder to everyone that they could get their stamps back after this debacle. "Before we all come together, we're going to need someone, a leader. Once who can rein us all in and properly point us in a good direction. And it ain't going to be me."

The older man laughed when he saw some people look at him in astonishment. "Even in my hay day, I wasn't leader material, and now? Even though I'm a guild master, I'm more of a teacher than a leader. One of you young ones has to choose a leader unanimously among yourselves."

Jura stood up at that moment. "Mr. Steelsoul has demonstrated the ability to keep everyone together even though he has pointed out our flaws. I nominate him to be the leader."

"If Jura says it, I vote for it." Lyon stood up with Sherry not far from him.

There was another supporter, "I agree. I mean, he always had this leader vibe about him when he first introduced himself anyway, so it's not all that different now." Kain of Fairy Tail stood up. This prompted the rest of Fairy Tail was behind him and would support Tarsus being leader.

It wasn't long after as Phantom Lord, Blue Pegasus, Goldmine, and the other Rune Knights agreed to the only nominee.

Seeing no one against, Tarsus inhaled before addressing everyone. "Thank you for this vote of confidence. Our first order of business is figuring out where Oracion Seis is."

From Blue Pegasus, Hibiki activated his archive magic, opened up a screen to be seen by everyone in the alliance in the center of the lobby. "This is just guess work, but I traced where the reinforcements of the Oracions Seis was compared to where we all scattered. They all seem to have flooded in from the south east section of the Worthwood Sea, and according to the maps, there's supposed to be a preserved sight where the ruins of the ancients used to live. That seems to be the only practical place where they could set up base."

"Now that you mention it," William Tovar pointed towards the map. "I noticed while fighting that some of the criminals I was fighting had mud on their shoes, recently dried mud."

"I noticed that as well," Jura added in and saw what William was pointing at. "According to the map that same area is surrounded by water falls."

That was practically confirmation that this was indeed at least the area where their opponents were setting base in.

"Now what do we do?" Doranbolt looked around. "Do we perform recon?"

"Are you all forgetting Wendy is still in there!?" Carla spoke out with a huff and a cut stomp of her paw. "We need to rescue her posthaste, and I refuse to wait any longer!"

"Ms. Charlie is correct," Tarsus began as he walked down some of the stairs. It was a slight surprise since he silenced the cat not too long ago. "The longer Ms. Marvel is with Oracion Seis only promotes their success. We're on a time table."

At that moment, an unlikely voice spoke up. "Hey," Everyone looked to Jason Dracoheart of Phantom Lord. "Why don't we launch a full assault on them?"

"Launch a full assault on them after they soundly routed us and when we don't know the exact area of their location?" Lahar was quick to ask.

However, it seemed like Jason actually took that into account as he answered just as fast, "Well, yeah! Think about it, they don't think they'll expect us to counter attack so soon. We might be able to catch them off guard."

As soon as Jason said this, Kara, came in and hugged her blue, but lighter tone, haired companion much to the knight's dismay and horror, if his rather girlish scream was to go by. "Way to go fearless leader! A plan worthy of Valhalla!"

Putting aside the fact his world knew about Valhalla, Kain stepped forward. "We can do both at the same time. What if we split into two groups? One does the assault, filled with our best front line fighters, while a second, smaller, and more mobile group sneaks in during the chaos and attempts a rescue mission of Wendy in their base."

"One attack to hide another? How cloak-and-dagger." Tarsus held a hand to his chin, but there was impressed smile on his lips, showing how much he liked the idea. He turned towards everyone else, and saw no signs of anyone refuting the new plan. "There. This is far more like it. Now let's decide the groups."

* * *

There was a small campfire where a group of criminals were roasting a rabbit with a horn on it's forehead over an open flame.

"What does fried Unibit taste like anyway?"

"I hear it's like Arctic Hen."

"You think everything tastes like Arctic Hen."

"It does."

"Huh?"

"What is it?"

"Did you hear something?"

"You're gunna have to be more specific than that."

"No no, it sounds like—"

Thunder.

Thunder came with a boom and blew off around a dozen men. This forced other camps to look and see past the smoke, two people were stepping out of the smoke.

"I like your style, Kara!" Natsu Dragneel swaggered forward and punched his fists together, setting them ablaze with a proud smile pointed towards their soon to be punching bags.

To his right, a pink themed Valkyrie wielding a halberd that was laced with electricity dancing all over it gave a proud huff. "I've always wanted to fight along side a dragon! It's been one of my bucket lists along with riding one! Say, do you know where I can find a dragon?"

Natsu thought about his 'uncle' in Atlas Flame, but before he could even figure out what to say the even before the two moved faster.

"We're under attack!" "Get them!" "There's only two of them!" Some of the other criminals began to charge their attacks towards the two. However, out of the smoke, attack came down like hail and further disposed of the camp set up near the ruins below.

Erza, Alexandra, Lahar, Gray, Lucy, Lyon, Jura, Sherry, Ichiya, Ren, Eve, William, Genji all walked out and the rest of the clouds were blown away with the wing beat of Ignis, who roared at the criminals daring anyone to attack them.

"There you are!" Erigor flew in, his eyes blood shot and drool falling off the corner of his mouth. "This time, I won't let you escape!"

"Escape? I was handing your ass all over the place even with your drugs!"

While Natsu said this, some other criminals started to group up behind Erigor.

"Everyone," Tarsus unleashed his blade and pointed it towards the group of criminals. "Send them the same curtsy they showed us!"

The explosions that followed after that declaration were akin to a night on America during the Fourth Of July, just far more deadly.

* * *

Minutes before the alliance made their comeback, Brain continued his search, looking at a large bubble, showing a girl in a humble village dancing along with many older people.

Jellal stepped towards him, glancing at an unconscious and tired girl at the center of a magic circle for a second before choosing to focus on something that wasn't eating at his heart. "Why focus on this song?"

Brain, while still staring at the memory, answered him. "I've been going over her memory of all things Cait Shelter. She wasn't born to them, and was found early in her life by them."

"Who was she before then?"

"I never bothered to check because of our time limit, nor am I interested in it. Nirvana is the main goal." He paused the memory of Wendy starting to sing. "Out of all the things she was taught, this song was the only direct reference to Nirvana I found. But when she asked about it, the guild master changed the subject each time and the girl didn't seem interested in pursing it at all."

 **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**

 **Where shall we play?**

 **On the field of sky flowers not seen by the day?**

 **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**

 **Let us dance with the snake of the pond,**

 **and listen to her story of young.**

 **Follow her path to the mouth of winds,**

 **And rest on the lap of the Guardian King.**

 **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**

 **Do not wake him up,**

 **Sleep with him, Lakuya, down below not above.**

The memory activated again, showing a dressed up girl dancing and singing her heart out, surrounded by genuine smiles and laughs along with a white cat. Jellal, while staring at the smiling girl, saw instead of a festival dressed blue haired girl, a dirty, rag wearing girl with an eye patch and vibrant red hair. However what haunted him the most was the two had the same happy smiles that made him feel so unbearably wrong.

"You said Nirvana was also known as Lakuya, right?" Jellal found himself looking away from the memory, like a demon repulsed by holy water. "Doesn't this mean it's a major clue?"

"That's just it though, it's far too vague. I'm surprised the clue is in the form of a child's lullaby, but the point still stands. I have no idea how to translate this song, and there's nothing in her memories that help in realizing what it means."

He took any chance to distract himself from the memories of his and the girl's mixing. "Sky flowers not seen by day? Since most flowers need sunlight with few exceptions, they could be referencing stars?"

Brain's eyes widened as he looked back at the ex wizard saint. "Stars?"

Then the alarms of the room went off.

Brain stood up from a desk and summoned another bubble, this time it showed up above the ruins, the Alliance was unleashing a full strike force against them. The criminals were like dust in the winds with very select few being able to hold off the advance of the alliance.

Brain put a hand to his head, sending a message to the link that all of the Oracion Seis were to engage and put down the Alliance.

Jellal and Midnight remained. However, Jellal looked towards Brain.

"I see, you must have noticed something off as well." That was not at all what he was thinking, but Brain continued on. "That's a majority of them, but there are a few among them that aren't in that attack, including Goldmine. What are they up to?"

There was another ground shaking from the battle above and a rock from the ceiling fell above Midnight, only for it to slide to the side and crash into the ground as if it hit a barrier.

This prompted the sleeping mage to finally wake up, only to have an annoyed look on his face. "Why is it so hard to get a good night's rest?"

"It's already almost lunch, Midnight."

"Whatever, all I know is whatever's up there is disturbing my sleep." The man stepped off his flying carpet. "And I really hate that."

Midnight left, obviously to handle the attackers up above.

Jellal stayed behind, more of him doing anything he can to not go up and face _her_. While coming up with something, he recalled the briefing which in turn meant that he noticed a distinct lack of someone among the attackers. "I seem to recall you saying you had fail safes against Goldmine?"

"I'm not bringing the important one out yet. At least until Goldmine shows himself. Otherwise, I do need you to pick up something in the other room. I'll give you a key and you can use that to finally finish off the alliance."

* * *

The alliance had a plan, it was basically what Kain suggested; a cloak-and-dagger mission. One was to attack and gain all attention on them, while the rest, consisting of Doranbolt, Raina, Hibiki, Jason, Kain, Happy, Carla, and Goldmine snuck around the fight and teleported near the entrance of the ruins while their teammates bought as much time as possible.

"Huh, it's actually really pretty here." Kain mentioned before putting up his armor and looking towards Hibiki. "Has this place been mapped before?"

The handsome man from Blue Pegasus summoned a screen and started to type. It was surreal to see something computer like from Kain's world in Earthland. "Yes, but here's the thing: this small isle isn't even the tip of the ice burg. There's an underground city down below where the ancients used to live and was preserved. No doubt Brain laced the area with traps and guards."

"Do the maps show any promising place where Brain or Wendy could be?" Jason asked, unsheathing his blade and his scabbard turned into a shield.

"There is a temple like ten levels below us."

"Ten levels huh?" Kain looked towards the entrance to the cave then turned back towards everyone. "If I were to say, Abandon all hope ye who enter here, would anyone recognize that reference?" Kain would stop using that reference when things stopped looking too perfect to use them.

"Donte's Inferno, yes, quite the literary taste you have," Hibiki closed his screen, not noticing Kain's actual surprise that there was a similar version of that famous story in this world. "Come on, we shouldn't waste any more time for the Dagger group." The Cloak Group went down into the unknown.

* * *

Back above, the fighting looked to be in favor of the Dagger Group. Even with the numbers and the Rhodonite drugs, Everyone was actually covering each other and all their blind spots.

Natsu and Kara shouted before punching back Butcher, the actual Orc some distance away. The green, large humanoid creature with fangs coming out of his mouth growled before standing back up, ready to fight again.

Erigor was frozen solid and thrown away by a giant earth hand with the combined effort of both Lyon, Gray, and Jura.

Alexandra and Erza, despite fighting against each other, weirdly worked like a clockwork in taking down many of the criminals, including that of Brown Beard's crew.

Prisca was punched into the air by Tarsus, who then landed back down like one of the trees he knocked down.

"Can't you clowns do something as simple as watch over us?" A new voice chimed in, causing everyone to pause their fight and look over towards where the ruins where.

Five of the Oracion Seis had arrived with Cobra smirking as he looked at everyone on the side of the Alliance.

"They're all here," Lucy swallowed her spit as she sensed the magic all of them were emitting that was far more noticable than anyone they had faced so far.

"All except Brain." Genji commented near her.

"Well then, I'm glad you're all here." Cobra smiled as he removed his hands out of his pockets, his hands seemingly being covered in a strange substance. "This time for sure you're all going down!"

* * *

This was the second time dark mages were related to actual darkness, or so Kain liked to think. Perhaps he could ask Kageyama if there really was a scientific reason why evil mages liked the dark, but now was not the time for that. All he could hear, besides how fast his heart was beating, was the echoing footsteps on rugged stone of the cloak group. None of it was helping in the least calm his nerves.

The next words only made it worse. "Something isn't right."

Kain sighed before stopping with the rest of them. "You know, I was really, really hoping someone wouldn't point that out and tempt the universe."

"Raina is right though." Doranbolt pointed around the path. "We've been running for a while, but there's no sign of traps or guards, isn't that just a little suspicious?"

"I don't detect anything nearby with my magic, and it's usually very accurate," Hibiki added in as he showed a scanner screen with nothing around them. "But the leader of the White Tiger division has a point in this being too easy."

Everyone looked towards Goldmine as he took a step forward and looked out in the distance. The cave itself was a great sight on any other time it wasn't occupied with potentially a hundred dark mages. As once they entered, they could see—as far as the dim fire torches could let them—a city shaped entirely of stone and cave.

Houses were more like holes etched into the massive, hollow cave with unknown symbols of creatures that even among the many fantastic creatures Kain saw, he never saw any of the one depicted in the cave painting. What did catch his attention more than the spectacular and exotic sights were the many blue cat paintings though. It reminded him a lot about Cait Shelter.

But once more, Goldmine with sunglasses seemed to be usually tense.

"Draw your weapons." He whispered, but to all of them he might as well have been shouting. Raina drew her sword, Droan bolt looked around, Hibiki summoned more screens, Jason unsheathed his blade and his sheath became a shield, Kain summoned a copy blade and had Horus' weapon turn into a shield, and Happy tried to be brave and shield Charlie, but the cat just flew to the center of everyone.

Yet, nothing came. This only grew worse as some could only feel their allies sweat.

A wind with an unearthly howl came through and snuffed the torches below. Row after row, the ruins of yesterday were swallowed up by the darkness, always that endless darkness.

The wind swallowed up the lights below until stopping right in front of Goldmine.

Something was there, Kain didn't need magic to know something was there, making his hair stand on end and his goosebumps threaten to burst out his skin.

There was a whisper—or the wind itself seemed to form words as a figure fully cloaked stepped out of the shadow.

"Ýĕćøêóṁǻǹȁȃțȟ?" "Ýĕćøêóṁǻǹȁȃțȟ?" "Ýĕćøêóṁǻǹȁȃțȟ?" "Ýĕćøêóṁǻǹȁȃțȟ?" "Ýĕćøêóṁǻǹȁȃțȟ?" "Ýĕćøêóṁǻǹȁȃțȟ?" "Ýĕćøêóṁǻǹȁȃțȟ?"

That didn't even sound like it belonged to something alive.

"Umbral Thyphoon. Be careful, they're a bunch of fanatics with magic I'm not even sure can be called dark."

Raina was about to strike the being down, until Goldmine raised his hand out. "They also ain't alone."

Out of the darkness, more cloaked figures almost willed themselves into the corners of the light.

"Don't let those numbers fool you, there's like fifty of them hiding in the darkness." Goldmine's stance shifted lightly, but many could tell it was looking like a fighting stance.

"S-So, what are they waiting for?"

As soon as Jason asked this, along the darkness, runes started to be traced. No one liked how a dome with eye like symbols were drawn over them.

Raina acted first, moving in, only to be pushed back by an invisible wall. Doranbolt channeled magic, but a strike of green thunder smite him and forced him to his knees. Hibiki fired several blasts, but all of them dissipated on contact of the green lines.

Soon, the fires started to flicker and the runes began to close in, shrinking with all intents to crush them like crumpled paper.

"Damn!" Goldmine motioned everyone to the center. "Kids, hold on! We're heading down the old fashioned way!"

"What!?" Jason and Kain both shouted out but it wasn't fast enough as Goldmine lifted his hand and _punched_ the ground.

Just a quick reminder, Goldmine is believed to be on the level of a Wizard Saint.

So when his fist made contact, it pushed through the earth, shattering it like glass, and causing the floor beneath cloak group to collapse and cause them all to fall down. Happy and Charlie quickly flew after them as they fell.

Kain activated his wings and caught Jason as Happy went for Hibiki and Carla went for Raina. Goldmine landed on a rock and Doranbolt teleported nearby him.

Hibiki quickly thanked the cat but as he looked up, his eyes widened. "Incoming!"

The cult mages were dropping in, glowing like fire flies without an inclination that they would be harmless.

"It's not just above!" Everyone looked to Jason pointing down. "Look below!"

If there was a good time for the phrase, stuck between a rock and a hard place, now was that time. The ground was oh so conveniently lined with really, really sharp looking stalagmites. Granted, it technically was the lesser evil compared to what was gunning for them above, but at the rate things were going, they were going to be hard pressed when gravity eventually won this battle.

"Everyone dive!" Raina screamed out before pointing to the ground where a vortex of shadow appeared above some stalagmites. "There!"

Carla took that moment to fly for that shadowy vortex, Cloak Group followed Raina and Charlie's lead and all sped into the rabbit hole with Goldmine pausing to knock away some charging in cultists before jumping into a closing portal before it all came crashing together.

The other side of the shadow vortex opened and everyone fell out and landed on the ground of a dark room lit with… green… light?

"Woah! That was a close one!" Jason stood up before turning to Kain. "Thanks for the-what are you staring at?" Jason asked the wyvern rider who only pointed behind him.

The young man from Phantom Lord swallowed his spit and slowly turned around, it didn't help that as he turned slowly, everyone else was priming themselves into battle position.

When Jason finally turned around fully, behind him was Brain, the leader of the Oracions Seis, smiling smugly with Wendy's body fallen behind him.

"Wendy!" Kain and Carla yelled out, it seemed like both had the shared the same mind along with words as they moved towards the girl, only for Goldmine to slide in between and signal them both not to move any further away from the group.

The air became tense as both Goldmine and Brain stared at each other. Brain moved first, smiling as he raised an open palm to the guild master.

"Mr. Hadis 'Goldmine' Styx. You're looking good for a man your age."

"Dr. Bryan Ockado. since when did you get those weird tattoos?" Goldmine returned the small talk.

"You two met?" Doranbolt seemed surprised at what their interaction was implying.

Brain couldn't help but laugh, yet Goldmine's emotions seemed different form before, it was no longer nonchalant and there was a tension everyone could sense from the older man.

The leader of Oracion Seis spoke out, "Fairy Tail has greatly shaped the mage guild community of Fiore the past century. Among Fairy Tail's second generation under Master Precht, there was a group of unruly but amazingly talented mages that formed the name, Team Ace. A talented team of mages that even I grew up hearing amazing tales of their exploits, it was hard not to be a fan of their works."

"Team… Ace?" Kain had never heard of that team when he had entered into the guild at all, and he thought he was the one who handled some of their heavy paper work.

Jason looked over to him. "What? How do you not know Team Ace? They're from Fairy Tail and even my parents talk about them!"

"There were many recordings of the team active during their younger days that made me a fan as well." Brain's voice pointed, as if adding to Jason's comment. "And they were five of the most amazing mages I ever witnessed. Makarov, Bob, Rob, Goldmine, and their medic, Porlyusica. In fact I do believe I owe half of my previous success for showing me some amazing magic over the course of their adventures."

"So you're a fan of us? Yeesh, kid, where'd you get the idea to start a dark guild and wage war on the council from?" Everyone from Cloak Group could tell that despite his easy tone, Goldmine had a strangely serious undertone to his voice.

Brain's smile died down at the question. "… From you and Team Ace, I learned how amazing magic can be. From the magic council… I realized how small we all truly were." His hand holding his staff shivered, and he stared at the ground, as if there was something he could not look away from no matter how far or how much time passed.

Everyone say Brain clutch his heart much like someone having a heart attack. The leader flinched and used his skull staff to support himself back up and gasp for breath. Soon he started coughing violently, which surprised all of the cloak group. Not only that, they spotted blood spilling from his coughs and blood trailing from the corners of his mouth after he was done. "F-Forgive me. That was unbecoming."

"You're sick?" Hibiki narrowed his eyes as he readied himself. "Surrender, Brain, there's no way you can beat all of us by yourself, especially if you're in that bad of a condition in the first place."

The vitality in his laugh after that ultimatum was betraying the image his coughing fit showed mere seconds ago. "What makes you think I didn't have fail safes on the off chance that the council sent the Number One Wizard Saint or any of the Gods of Ishgar against me?"

There was a blinding flash of light that exploded form above, causing cloak group except Goldmine to shield their eyes.

"W-What how—?!"

As the light ended, the rest of the cloak group witnessed the birth of an angel of death. Kain, Goldmine, and Happy, when seeing what was in front of them, could only ask a million questions without ever finding an answer.

In front of everyone's fear, disbelief, and a combination of both yet scaled beyond their comprehension, was Makarov Dreyar, a Wizard Saint defending Brain.

"Master is here!?" "Why is the third master of Fairy Tail here!?" "Why is he helping Brain!?"

Goldmine seemed to look towards brain's staff where the skull had it's eyes glowing orange which was the same color of the light over Makarov's eyes.

"Wait, I know that color!" Whatever else Goldmine was about to say was cut off as Makarov closed the distance between them with a punch that the Quarto Cerberus guild master had to counter.

The shockwave that came form the contact blew nearly everyone away. However, the second it ended, a large spike of magic filled the air, followed by Goldmine's rushed voice. "GET HER!"

Goldmine threw away his glasses, and his chocker as a golden bear started to appear behind him while Makarov's hands filled with light, fire, electricity, wind, and ice.

Kain, hearing the previous two words, made a bee line for the unconscious girl before—

* * *

Up above, the battle between the Dagger Group and Oracion Seis had only gone down hill. Just minutes ago, you could see a lush, green forrest.

Now though? Scarred earth, spikes of earth, mud, left over broken blades, destroyed trees, puddles of poison, scattered and broken arrows, bullets, left over seals, dead bodies of criminals, thunder storms, howling winds, blood, dirt, and anything in between.

As soon as five of the Oracion Seis appeared, the fight that was previously in favor of the Dagger Group, now became a battle where each side fought for inch by bloody inch.

One upside for the Dagger group was that their numbers stayed relatively the same, while the numbers of the Oracion Seis were declining, though they would admit all of those soldiers were fodder, even the ones that were able to put up some fight.

However, while some like Prisca, the creepy puppet girl died, some were still fighting. Erigor was still kicking about some how, driven by anger and the plague doctor lady seemed to be avoiding any attempts to either be killed or knocked out.

Midnight, was also seen as untouched as no form of magic seemed to hit him. But it seemed like both Erza and Alexandra noticed something off with his magic and were about to counter attack.

However, their bloody battle came to a stop with a burst of golden magic struck the field in front of them.

"Tch! Why the hell did you take so long?!" Racer cried out as he backed away from fighting the two ice students of Ur.

As the dust settled, all of Fairy Tail could only stare with levels of horror as the one who entered the fray was none other than…

"Jellal!" As the name escaped Erza's lips, so did a multitude of emotions, the presence of this one person was enough to make the leader of Team Valiant start to tremble as she pointed her sword towards him, shouting words she had no real control over. "What are you doing here?!"

"Jellal was here the whole time?!" William readied his bow towards the highly wanted criminal. "Shit! He's a higher ranked Wizard Saint than Jura!"

Yet with the appearance of this new wild card, everyone noticed that beside Jellal was an elaborate coffin laced with pipes on the top of the coffin, and the symbol of a cracked skull with four blades stabbed into it in the form of a cross.

Jellal stared back at Erza before motioning his hand to slam on to the coffin.

"Wait, Brain's launching _that_ out?!" Angel cried out before backing off far from the elaborate coffin as steam started of blast off the pipes and the symbols on the center started to move.

Even Midnight stepped back behind the coffin as the swords started to spin and then with a click, the latch opened and fog escaped from the opening coffin.

"What the heck is in that coffin?" Gray managed to ask while the Alliance slowly regrouped together.

The door moved slightly—then exploded outward with all the force from being launched from a catapult.

After avoiding the thrown door, they al looked towards the coffin as they all heard the sounds of metal grinding, springs being suppressed, and the smell of very, very old oil covering the charred and destroyed battlefield, even over that of the poisons and other attacks.

It was large, and definitely not a living organism. It was almost ten feet tall, making even the giants of the group look positively small, it's legs were like the color of Onyx, capable of shinning even among the smoke clouds and thunder and were curved like long scimitars. A humming sound was heard and vivd red eyes glowed from what looked to be a metal skull of a helm.

A guttural gasp escaped the machine, signaling that despite it's powerful metallic look, it sounded like some monster was behind the onyx shell.

Two cybernetic arms pulled on the edge of the open coffin, and it towered over the entire battlefield.

With it's skull like head, glowing red eyes and ripped up, bloody cloak swaying in the wind, it was like the reaper had just entered into the fight.

"No… no..." The Alliance turned to Tarsus, usually so cool headed now staring at the metalic being in utter horror. "Brain stole **that**!?"

"Commander, what is that!?" Even Lahar seemed surprised as he aimed his two pistols at the large metallic creature.

The towering, sleek, metallic creature raised his arm into the coffin and out shot, a broad sword that was half the size of a person the sheath fell and this black sword glowed with orange heat like lava as it was caught by the spider like hand of the beast.

"Deus Bellator Rex," Jellal's soft voice was heard by everyone as he stood beside the coffin still. "The Warrior King and supposed god of the ancient Machina Race, The Griever."

"Wait, he's real!?" Ren stepped back as he recognized the name. "I thought he was just a myth!"

"And in those myths, they say he died!" Lucy added in as she also slowly backed away from the towering legend.

"He is dead!" Racer then laughed before pointing to the machine. "But Brain told us he was able to steal this from the deep weapons Vault of the Magic Council! Even though the being known as the Griever is dead, his body could be used in mint perfect condition as an unstoppable war machine and lucky you guys, you get to test it!"

"Oh yeah?!" Natsu stomped his foot forward, fist flaming. "I can take it down in one—"

Erza stepped in front of him, hand preventing him form moving forward, Natsu was about to ask what was wrong, but then he noticed something: Erza's hand was shaking. The dragon slayer turned back to the machine and realized something: he could sense that thing at all. Not a single ounce of magic, but there was this oppressive pressure that he didn't feel right away.

There was a whistle coming from Cobra from where all the way where he was. "You guys should follow Titania over there, this thing really does deserve it's name."

However, Kara from Phantom Lord charged right for the metallic corpse, jumping to the sky with electricity dancing around her and her halberd as she tried to bring it down on the onyx machinas.

Yet faster than they could even imagine, it's leg struck out and it's three claws for toes grabbed onto Kara's hand, stopping her momentum and seemingly being unbothered by the energy.

Then, after the boom of thunder was the crunching of bones like sticks.

"Kara!" The normally stoic monk, Genji raced for his companion, only for her body to be thrown at him with enough force to send them flying right through a boulder.

Eve, from Blue Pegasus saw this and fired a blast of snow that reached a massive wave to flood the creature. However, the corpse of the Warrior King held back his blade and with one mighty slash, parted the sea of snow in half. At the end, Eve stood frozen with his hands out, until a red line trailed between his eyes.

Then blood exploded from that red line as his whole person split in two.

"EVE!?" His teammate, Ren, shouted with every air of his lungs and gathered a large amount of magic with his hands before roaring, sending a massive air tornado towards the one considered god amongst machines.

Yet as everyone shielded themselves from the gales, the machine king just stood there and stepped towards the tornado, his claws clamping down on the ground with each step he made.

"Ren, stand back!" Ichiya's voice reached the tallest member of the Blue Pegasus.

But the mage didn't stop, "He killed Eve, master! I won't stop until he's dead—" Ren felt off balance a second later. His mind snapped out of his anger as he realized Ichiya was tackling him, another moment passed before Ren realized there was blood and it wasn't his.

The Machina King threw his blade that pierced through the tornado. It was meant to fly right through Ren's heart, but because of Ichiya's move, it stabbed into the pudgy man's ribs.

"Teacher!" Ren cried as he ran to his mentor.

"Don't attack it one by one!" Lyon cried out as he summoned an Ice Tiger and then, seeing Gray from earlier, added cannons on the back of the Ice tiger as it rushed for the Machine King.

"Doll Magic!" Sherry added in as a dozen mud golems surrounded The Griever and all rushed for the black Machina giant.

Faster than a blink, another black sword, one that seemed to unleash fog of cold appeared in the other hand of The Griever and after a storm of slashes, the mud golems fell like cut fruits. The Ice Tiger pounced, firing blasts at the onyx titan, only for the beast to jump off, knee the construct with enough impact to shatter it in one blow, and bee line it for Lyon all in one graceful movement.

The others fired multiple blasts: fire, ground, arrows, bullets, other ice, and blades. They all would have deterred even someone of the Oracion Seis.

They did nothing to slow down the creature moving, zig-zagging, jumping, flipping over attacks. Even the Magnetism Mage, Alexandra found it odd that none of her spells were working on the metallic beast.

Lyon stood his ground and summoned an Ice Dragon—that had it's head lopped off the second it formed and the Machine King jumped for Lyon, only for the ground beneath the ice mage to give away and make him fall into a hole.

Jura motioned his hand beside him as Lyon came falling upward next to him. "Thanks."

"This truly is a fearsome opponent, just like the stories describe him as." Jura gasped in reaction to what happened next. They had all looked away for a second, but the hard to miss, metal, sword master titan had blasted a hole out of the ground and somehow disappeared from the sight of everyone around in the explosion of dust.

That was until a shriek made everyone turn.

"S-Sherry!?" Lyon cried out as their female teammate had a sword plunged through her back, her body freezing over… then with one swipe if it's black arms, turning her body into crystal dust that was scattered into the wind.

The Griever looked over towards Ren and Ichiya. His empty hand stretched out, and soon the flame blade flew through the air back into his free arm.

"We can't win like this anymore! He's taking us out one by one!" William screamed out, firing an arrow that seemed to be glowing with light and as The Griever swatted the arrow, as soon as the black blade made contact with it, there was a large explosion that covered it.

Yet, out of the smoke, the Griever walked without a scratch.

"Damn!" Racer whistled and folded his arms. "Why don't we send this guy to do our fighting for us in the first place? It's way more effective than the criminals."

"I wanted to be the one to impress father by beating them myself." Midnight scoffed. "But seeing this thing in action does catch my interest."

Cobra was smiling as well, until his ears started to twitch. "Hey wait a second, I just heard some of their thoughts just now. Shit! They sent another group to sneak to Brain while we were all fighting here!"

Angel turned to Cobra with obvious surprise. "You scaly, poison eating idiot! Why didn't you hear that plan sooner?!"

"They were all focused on attacking us! If it was just one on one, that would be easy to read their hidden thoughts, but all of them were thinking about attacking us and I was focused on that!" He then pointed back at her. "Now that I think about it, why din't any of you guys notice that the one we were warned about wasn't even here?!"

"You mean they're after father?" Cobra and his snake flinched when they felt the poisonous tone coming from Midnight who was now glaring at them.

"Brain already knew something was wrong," The Poison Dragon Slayer released a breathe of relief as Jellal spoke out without turning away form the fight. "He said he prepared something."

At that moment, the ground started to shake uncontrollably.

"Please tell me that's you." Tarsus turned to Jura who only shook his head.

A crack appeared across the ground, splitting up the Dagger Group from the killing machine. The crack filled up with light before it exploded like a geyser. Instead of water, it was people that flew up, screaming all kinds of panic.

It was Cloak Group, minus Goldmine, flying in the air before landing towards Dagger Group.

Kain, who was holding an unconscious Wendy in his arms, turned and cried out to Doranbolt. "We're out, get us all out of here!"

The Rune Knight looked to everyone aghast coming over his face as he realized the sheer numbers in front of him, "I don't have enough magic for this many people!"

Lahar started walking up to them, "Doranbolt, what's going—"

His shouts were stopped short as the ground continued shaking, something shot up before back flipping and sliding on the ground towards The Alliance, revealing Goldmine without his hat choker, and sunglasses, showing glowing golden eyes and a golden phantom of a giant wolf standing right behind him.

Goldmine rose, turned back to everyone with his eyes still glowing gold. "We have Wendy, get ready to run!" The Guild Master cried out with urgency that no one heard of him before.

"Oh and miss out on this _wonderful_ sight?" A voice echoed around the area that seemed to come from all directions.

A hand the same size of a giant grabbed on to the crack and pulled itself up.

The rest of Dagger Group could only pale in horror, Fairy Tail in particular, the bravest of the group, now had fear and disbelief grip their hearts as they saw what was in front of them.

"Gramps?!" Natsu couldn't help it. The same face of a man who gave him a home, who was like a second father after Igneel, who gave him a family and taught him the value of others, was standing against them as if he was their enemy, with Brain ridding on his shoulder.

A laughter boomed around the Alliance, as their fear only grew. "Surprised Fairy Tail? I bet you're wondering how I came across this ancient fossil?"

"Master!" "Gramps!" "Master Makarov!" "What did you do to him, you bastard!?" The Rest of Team Valiant demanded.

Brain waved his skull staff which was glowing orange—much like how Makarov's eyes were glowing. "Oh you would not believe what the Magic Council hides from the public." He pointed his hand up, signaling the rest of the criminals and Oracion Seis to follow behind him. Along with them, The Griever and his two high and low temperature blades. "But this is the end for all of you. I would say something snappy, but hearing your bones crushed by the Wizard Saint Makarov would probably be just as well."

Oracion Seis with all of it's resources started to move towards the weakened Alliance. The sight of the overwhelming forces snapped Kain out of his stupor as he turned towards everyone. "Guys, make a barrier! The best combined one you all can muster!"

There was no time to question, no time to think, just do. Those who were left, created a barrier comprised of Lahar's Bullet marked Justsu Shiki, Jura's Earth moving magic, Gray and Lyon's Ice, Hibiki's Archive magic, and anything else that could be used.

An impressive dome was made, but then instantly attacked by Oracion Seis' full power and it was obvious to everyone involved it wouldn't last for long.

Jason turned to everyone. "We need to leave! Get everyone injured and let's go!"

When he said this, the dome around them shook violently.

"We can't move away fast enough! As soon as the dome fails, their speedster mage will just catch up with us and they'll be able to find us in our second base, which isn't as defended as the last one!" William pointed behind the walls of magic that cracked and shook again.

Kain then looked over towards a bloody corpse of one of the Criminals and his eyes widened. He quickly looted it and turned to Doranbolt. "Doranbolt, you need to get us out of here!"

The raven haired rune knight was about to protest once more until something was tossed at him. As he caught it in his hand, he realized it was a Rhodonite drug, the same ones the criminals were using to boost their magic.

Another heavy shake and light started to appear in the cracks, and everyone knew it wasn't sunlight.

"Do it!" Kain shouted.

Doranbolt didn't hesitate and swallowed the drug. "Everyone get close!" He yelled as everyone crowded in, gathering those still injured and even…

With one final shake, the magical walls shattered and all of Oracion Seis found nothing inside the dome.

Racer speed in, but saw no signs of them making an escape.

Brain could feel the lingering magic in the air and licked his tongue. He suddenly felt a pain in his chest. This signaled to him that there was no more time for this. "Everyone! Get moving! I know where Nirvana is now!"

Angel looked up towards Brain, not as stupefied as the rest at seeing a puppeteered Makarov. "But what about the Alliance?"

"We have the fire power to repel them all back. Nirvana is still top priority! And as of right now, I think I finally realized what that song meant."

Brain gripped his staff before pointing forward, making Makarov move along in the direction he pointed. It didn't take long for the others to follow, even if some were still injured from the fight, it looked like Brain and the Oracion Seis cared little for them. Damned if they do damned if they don't.

While ahead, Brain did his best not move. His heart was aching once more and in his mind, the leader of the Oracion Seis knew his time was running out fast.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **To address the Elephant in the room, yes, I basically brought in Grievous from Star Wars in this world and made him like an undead Robot/Machinas. When I saw the species of Machina I thought about something interesting and saw an opportunity to add Grievous. I fell in love with his first introduction to the 2003 Clone Wars cartoons, he was like a truly unstoppable force.**

 **Also, since no one pointed it out, Rhodonite drugs are actually in the Fairy Tail Cannon. Yes, this magic increasing drugs that nullify pain are found in Gajeel's Side story and I thought it would be cool to added them here since there's a lot of stuff I can get from the spinoffs.**

 **Makarov finally makes his brainwashed appearance, and there wasn't much timing to fit how he was controlled but I'll explain that later. I also will further explain my take on Goldmine's magic a little later since I didn't know how to make it flow well during this part of the story without dropping interruptive exposition.**

 **So by now, you guys are starting to get that this Oracion Seis may be the longest of my arcs to date. There's a lot to cover here beside the changes from cannon.**

 **One of those things are the character deaths. I wanted to up the stakes of this arc in particular. So I decided to actually kill off some characters so that I can have less trouble managing all of them.**

 **So far, I've killed off three: Eve, Sherry—Yes, I know what killing her means, and one of the OCs given to my by Warmachine375—you guys should read his works, he's a cool guy.**

 **Anyway, happy holidays guys, I might not be able to post anything. I'll keep my eyes open for free time though.**

 **Thanks for reading.**

* * *

Deleted Scene: Teleporters.

Believe it or not, Claustrophobia is not the fear of Santa Claus. It is the fear of tight spaces, which really puts things in perspective with how the underground paths and buildings were created, you could barely lift and stretch out your hands to half their lengths just walking down one of the paths.

"Alright," Hibiki whispered as he led the group with a map. "If my detection pinging is working..."

Finally there was a breeze coming up ahead, when the Cloak group entered, they saw a room with a glowing platform.

"That's a teleporter?" Kain heard Doranbolt speak up.

"Yes," Hibiki explained. "I detected it earlier when we went in this cave. This one has the most magic, so I'm guessing it'll put us straight into the bottom floor."

"Guess?" Jason repeated.

"It's more of an educated one, but yes. It may lead to somewhere else completely."

"Well, only one way to find out." Goldmine led the group and jumped into the teleport platform first before vanishing in a flash of light.

The rest of the cloak group followed after him, figuring that the guild master would still know what he was doing.

Goldmine turned around as he saw the other follow him. "There you all are—hey, where's Maky's lawyer?"

The dagger group looked back among themselves, and noticed the distinct lack of wyvern rider among them.

Elsewhere, said lawyer was currently recalling that his armor also liked to amplify his horrible luck on random usages, so of course it would make his teleport destination different than everyone else's—wait. Didn't that happen in the Isle of the dead where his armor messed with a mass teleport, scattering many people across the isle? Huh.

The point for this reason was because he found himself in front of Brain's staff, which was glowing with deathly energy right in front of him.

"For somehow almost getting the jump on me," Brain began in a voice like beast born of nightmares. "I'll allow you some last words, worm."

Kain only found himself sighing and staring at something that was not at all important. "Why is it that I meet a surprising amount of mages with exposed midriffs?"

The attack was unleashed no sooner that last syllable left his mouth. Thankfully, Kain had the mind to move just as fast to avoid the point blank attack with his super speed...


	38. Chapter 38

**{Author Notes}**

 **I have many mistakes with this story that I try to correct. Amazingly, I went almost four chapters calling Carla into Charlie.**

 **I was wondering why the name didn't feel quite right, and I never checked until now.**

 **Ughh. Welp.**

 **I'd ask for a beta reader, but my luck with them has been utterly abysmal because the ones I ask are almost always busy and respond way too slow. So, yeah. #Foreverinconvinienced**

 **Anyway, this one was kinda hard to crank out, because like I said, I'm super busy this season, and welllllll…**

 ***SUPER SMASH BROTHERS ULTIMATE calls in the distance.***

 **Erhm! Let's just say I feel my uploads may not be as fast as I hope it is.**

 **Now then, how does one master this 'parry' mechanic?**

* * *

Laughter, laughter filled the giant glass dome that was currently under repair.

"Igneel did what!?" Fighting through the laughs, and slight pains that were still healing from the Tower of Hell, the surrogate son of the Fire Dragon King managed to ask the hellfire dragon.

"Igneel was gifted for many things, subtlety, common sense, and restraint were not any of them." Atlas Flame added with nostalgic tone. "Many of our brood called him, Hazy Breath until his Rite of Monarchy."

Natsu Dragneel and Happy looked up to the dragon composed of special flames. "Right of Mona Lisa?"

"Ah yes. I do recall Igneel being bad with words with more than three or four syllables. He definitely raised you." Atlas Flame noted while rolling his eyes before sighing and leaning his head closer towards the two visitors. "Did you really think that Igneel simply called himself the King of Fire Dragons because he wanted to?"

"Well, yeah. He was that strong." "Aye!"

Natsu continued eating his sandwich while Happy easily added in.

"Fair point. But Fire Dragons are very prideful creatures, stubborn too. If someone declared themselves the strongest and best among us, our first thoughts would be to challenge that. For Fire Dragons in particular, we were very battle hardened, the first among us was wise enough to realize our stubborn nature would cause a lot of infighting amongst us. So the earliest dragons created the Rite of Monarchy. A test of power, skill, defense, and etcetera, and etcetera to determine who was the greatest among all the dragons, and who would be their king."

Atlas Flame paused in such a way that the cat and the human noticed that it wasn't like the flame dragon to interrupter himself for no reason.

"Hmm, I'm having slight trouble figuring out how to explain this to a human. … An easier way to explain what Igneel had to do to be recognized as King of the Fire Dragons was to travel all of Earthland. Even for a dragon, it was no easy feat. What was more amazing was that I, and a Magma Dragon named Volcanis were Igneel's only companions in that adventure. It took us—I believe a thousand mortal years to complete?"

"You know," Natsu started to recall. "I think Igneel once boasted about traveling the world. Was it through that?"

"That bastard would have been dead without me and Volcanis—in fact it's a damn miracle we even got out of that alive." Atlas was quick to exclaim, his fires heating up and becoming more intense. "He almost killed us on the first day! He surprised tackled us into the sea!"

Natsu raised his brow. "How's that bad?"

"Don't you start too! I'm a _fire_ dragon comprised of flames! Volcanis was a dragon comprised of _Magma_! We weren't born with a physical body like Igneel!"

That exclamation made Natsu suddenly burst in laughter and point towards his pseudo uncle. "That means you can be killed by a bath!"

"Brat! I can dry up an entire ocean if I want to!" Atlas shook his head and sighed. "It amazes me how much you're like Igneel. You even have another trait similar to him that shouldn't have been hereditary or passed down."

Natsu and Happy seemed to look up back to the flame dragon.

Seeing as they were waiting to here that specific trait, Atlas Flame spoke,

"You both seem to have great luck with good friends."

* * *

 _Is being in a guild fun?_

A scream snapped Natsu out of his thoughts as he looked back towards the Mansion and saw through a window Jason using his magic to heal Kara's broken—well there wasn't really a better word to describe how the King of Machines almost turned her arm bones into dust, turned her muscles into mush, and made her lose a lot of blood.

Luckily for them, Jason was apparently a healer. Unfortunately for them, the guy that reminded the Dragon Slayer of a Phantom Lord version of Kain, was over worked, going through everyone injured and using his own magic to heal everyone as best as he could spare, and not everyone was healed yet.

They used to have three healers. Besides Jason, Charlie—the girl Happy—explained that Wendy was a healer, and had better healing spells than what Jason had. William mentioned with as much subtlety as rabid dog that Bella was a healer mage as well.

Natsu didn't do a lot of hard thinking. It wasn't his thing; to be honest it was somewhat of a miracle for Natsu to find and befriend someone who made thinking look so easy to do.

Still, even he had too many thoughts with the fact that Oracion Seis had mind controlled Gramps somehow and he was super strong. How did Kain make ideas look so easy?

"A Jewel for your thoughts?"

The voice sounded exhausted. For a second, Natsu instantly thought of Lucy, but the lack of bouncy things made him realize that it was Ren from Blue Pegasus. Now that he thought about it, this guy pretty much talked with everyone in his team except, Him, Happy, and Ignis.

But something was obviously different, Ren looked… less handsome than a while ago. He also smelled like Cana. With how he was holding on to a full drink and chugged it down even messier than their friend back in Fairy Tail, and with how he sat near Natsu on the grass with not a single ounce of care, there was obviously something wrong with the leader of the Tri-Men from Blue Pegasus.

"I'm getting sick and tired of not beating up those bastards." Natsu folded his arms and looked out towards the forests, not really sensing anything wrong in the immediate area.

"They all deserve much worse than that." His tone was far more venomous than the tsundere, seductive voice he usually used. "I want them al six feet under!"

Natsu finally remembered. The powerful Gre—Grievous? That robot guy killed two people so easily. What was more impossible was that it didn't have a scent, nor could he sense an ounce of magic. But the atmosphere was unmistakeable and oppressive. He hated how a small part of his mind, that was starting to sound more and more like Kain's voice, was glad that Erza stopped him from doing something rash.

"Eve, the guy that smelled like snow." Natsu blurted out with his usual tact and grace. "I'm sorry about that."

"Sorry!?" Ren snapped and pointed at Natsu. "Were you sorry when you first disobeyed the coun—" His eyes snapped open and he seemed to physically bite his tongue. "No, no. Blaming you does nothing—damn it!" He slammed his palm into his face, he ground his teeth, and sniffles started to come against the man's wishes. He let loose a bunch of curses that betrayed his image of being the handsomest mage in Sorcerer Weekly, yet Natsu oddly found him more likable at that moment. "I want him back. I just—I just want him back."

Flashes of a pink haired boy crying out for Igneel without a clue to where he went came into Natsu's mind. The Dragon Slayer just put a hand on his Ren's shoulder, and let the man cry.

* * *

They deserve better.

Gray Fullbuster didn't know her, but he knew Lyon.

There was no grave for her. At least that Eve fellow had his—and this felt hard to even think—parts brought back and would be fixed. That Sherry person was scattered into the wind, almost like how Ur was lost in sea.

"Is there any news about our next move?"

Gray closed his eyes before deciding to answer. "It's still the same, Tarsus says to heal the wounded, rest, and then we'll be briefed as soon as Wendy wakes up, which her cats says it won't be long for some reason."

"Then why are you here, Gray?"

Gray said nothing.

Lyon, with his back still turned on Gray, looked up to the clouds. "She always talked about love. I never got why though, she talked about it none stop."

The memory of a water mage popped in to Gray's head, but he did his best to focus.

"When we were planning to revive Deliora, she was one of my most faithful followers." Lyon continued, his fist gripping. "She was like a sycophant, hanging on my every word and almost worshiping the ground I worked on." There was a strange pause coming from him. "Yet her praise always sounded so honest."

Lyon turned with haste, passing by Gray on his way back towards the mansion. "I have not defeated Deliora, but the idea of defeating an acclaimed warrior king of another species will do just fine."

Gray gave a silent promise to himself: he would fight along side Lyon when the time came.

* * *

 _Master Roubaul?_

 _Wendy, have you ever thought about traveling the world?_

 _Hmm, I have, but not to worry, Master! Carla and I will definitely come back to Cait Shelter every time!_

 _Ohoho, you really are a sweet girl, caring for a fool like me._

 _Huh? Did you say something, master?_

 _I did. We have received a request from the Magic Council. I would like you and Carla to represent us._

 _M-Me!? But master, there are so many more people stronger and more capable than me!_

 _That is true. At the same time, I believe it is a mission only you can do. You are…_

 _Master?_

 _Wendy, may I hear you sing one more time dear?_

The first thing she saw was light. It took a few more moments for her eyes to focus.

"Hey! She's awake!" A familiar voice cried out, which was the signal for the little girl's mind to start looking around as she sat back up from a—bed?

"Wendy, are you alright child!?" The blue haired girl had her hands motion automatically to hug a very distressed Charlie that was already in her hands.

"Carla?" The girl from Cait Shelter finally realized she was in an extravagant room with one of the most luxurious queen sized bed she had ever seen.

"Are you alright? Jason said you had light injuries, but we don't know what Oracion Seis did to you." Wendy saw this beautiful blonde girl before. She was with Natsu, wasn't she? Along with that gorgeous red haired woman and the rather calming young man in brown hair, they were nearby Wendy when she woke up.

"Aren't you," The thoughts came back to her. "Fairy Tail?"

"We are," Erza began. "Don't worry Wendy, you're safe now."

"W-What happened?"

Wendy may have been young, but she recognized the look on all three older people's faces. Even Charlie's face seemed apprehensive.

Lucy tried to comfort the girl. "You should rest a little longer, sweetie. We'll talk about it in a bit."

"W-Where's Ms. Solaris?" Now more than ever, Wendy wanted to see that nice woman again, she really wanted to hear about how she became a Rune Knight. If she could, this bad feeling in her stomach might go away.

The brunette young man gave a deep sigh and kneeled towards the bed. "Wendy, there is no easy way to say this. But I want you to know that it was not and never will be your fault."

It was at that moment Wendy Marvel realized that she was never going to hear that story Bella promised to tell her.

* * *

After a rather hard talk, Kain left a now safe Wendy with Erza, Lucy, and Charla.

But the talk only reminded the displaced young man of another duty he had to uphold. Which meant Kain kept looking and looking for the object of his self-given mission. For such a small mansion, it was easier to get lost than he expected.

"Looking for someone, kid?" Kain turned over to see Goldmine folding his arms.

"How'd you know I was looking for someone?"

"Let's just say you reminded me of someone in my old team—ugh. I am not letting Maky live this one down when we get him back. I'll make him owe me drinks for the rest of his geezer life."

The light joke made Kain crack a smile. "I wish we could all share your optimism, Master Goldmine."

"It's just Goldmine. We temporarily stopped our ranks and such, remember? Anyway, I know Ichiya longer, so I'll go to him, you can find Hibiki in the kitchen."

The brunette blinked. "How'd you know—"

"When you live to be this age, you can read some people more than others. Good luck kid, and a tip if it helps: he already lost a lover before this."

With that, Goldmine was gone, and Kain found himself standing in front of the kitchen. With a deep inhale, he walked right in and the aroma smacked his face.

Food and ingredients were all over the kitchen. Hibiki was moving as if possessed, cutting up lettuce while multitasking on grills, ovens, and leaving vegetables scattered on over several tables.

"Ah, Kain," Hibiki looked out with a casual look on his face. "I need to concentrate a bit to prepare a meal for the Alliance, so could you come back again?"

Before Kain could respond, there was a whistling noise coming from a kettle that was shooting out steam like a train. Hibiki made a motion to go to it, but then there was a ding coming from the magic oven form the other side but the heat temperature was still up. If that wasn't enough some soups started to boil and the lids started to clack up if their temperature wasn't going to go down soon.

Hibiki was caught off guard at all these things happening at once, but a red flash soon fixed the already set things. After blinking, the handsome man saw a familiar red armor peeling a potato with a knife.

"What's the use of having powers if you're only going to use them in fights?" Kain's filtered voice gave a light laugh as he started peeling the skin of that one potato before stopping and holding it up. "Where do you want this?"

Hibiki looked like he was about to say he could handle it, but with all the food he brought out, that would have been another stupid mistake. "It goes over there, I'm making a special type of soup."

"Got it. Just tell me what to do."

And that's what they did, the two worked together in preparing a feast for a small village. Though, Kain gave small jokes here and there that Natsu would probably eat it all before anyone could ask for seconds.

Eventually, the two of them finished and it was a sight to behold.

"Good job. This should lift everyone's spirits some what." Hibiki began to say as he turned and walked towards the doors.

However, he stopped just before reaching the handle. "Aren't you going to ask?"

Kain powered down his armor but seemed to tilt his head in confusion towards Hibiki. "Ask what?"

Hibiki was caught off guard, but by the calmness of Kain's face, the leader of the now former tri-men assumed, something was hidden among his words. "Why are you here then?"

The brunette reached for a fried clover and ate it for a few seconds. "To check on the food—you know from my experience, the best cooks are the ones that give their all in whatever they make." He took it and easily finished it before turning around with a smile. "You're a good cook, Hibiki. So good in fact that say if you were ever feeling troubled, I would do whatever I humanly can to make sure you're feeling well."

Ah there it was. "Really? Just because I'm a good cook, you'll help me?"

"Is there a reason for me not to help you?"

"Maybe I want to be alone?"

There was so much more being implied than said, yet neither of the two seemed to directly speak about it. Kain just responded with, "That is an interesting point, but as a currently mind controlled man once told me in a drunken stupor that men may prefer being alone, but they can't stand it." He paused as the circumstances that made him spew out that sentence were one that even fiction had a hard time capturing. "The words have a nice ring even if the smell of his breath lowered their meaning somewhat. Now we have him to worry about since he was somehow captured by Oracion Seis without our knowing."

Kain started to walk towards the door. "I'll call everyone to the dinning hall. Some good news should help us."

As the brunette passed by the far more handsome brunette, the displaced man whispered, "When you're ready, we'll help you avenge your friend."

Hibiki turned around as Kain opened the door and called everyone to the dining room. Hibiki stared at the boy, before shaking his head. "That is the most roundabout about way to help someone I've ever seen."

Still though, his heart felt lighter after that.

* * *

The meal was good, but it was now time to get back to business.

"Oracion Seis are armed with some of the most dangerous weaponry the Magic Council has to offer, I'm sure all of you are aware of what attacked us in our assault, but allow me to further explain what it is." Tarsus began as he looked around the entire group. "Now then, I'm sure everyone here at least knows about Horus Anhur?"

Fairy Tail in particular where very surprised to hear that name. It was the name of the Wizard Saint Zombie they had met some time ago and he was a truly fierce opponent that all of them together couldn't beat.

Tarsus took everyone's silent confusion as a yes. "As well all know, he was a Hero General of the Yldarian Kingdom, a smaller kingdom that changed, expanded, and evolved into present day Fiore. History books basically say that because of Horus, the Yldarian Kingdom, our ancestor Kingdom, survived the Gathering War in Ishgar." Trasus seemed to notice that everyone was confused as to why he was brining this up but continued. "Proper historians claim that as an understatement of the highest degree, but believe it necessary because studying the hero's legacy is a rigorous class in itself. Horus was christened the First Wizard Saint, and considered it's progenitor for the Wizard Saint system because of the feats he performed when alive, each feat almost like a miracle and each feat he was seen almost divine, thus coining the term, Wizard Saint. Among the many threats that Horus defended his kingdom from,"

Tarsus took a breath before placing a cylinder Lacrima on the table that lit up and showed an Egyptian styled mural of Horus fighting against the Griever.

"Was the Machina Warrior King, The Griever, or in their tongue: Kaleev. Not much is known about the Machina Race, but the recorders of Horus' time have stressed over and over how fearsome The Warrior King was and how if not for our Hero General, the kingdom might have been a stain on the map."

The idea of something that powerful being their enemy didn't sit well with most sane of the alliance, while a certain dragon slayer and Valkyrie wanted payback along with a student of Ur and the rest of Blue Pegasus.

"I'm more surprised that something like that was even found by the council! You would think that something like the corpse of a Machina King would be _with_ the Machina." Jason noted out loud.

"I didn't know about it either," Tarsus began. "But the council has existed for a long time, and the details of the battle between Horus and Kaleev are lost save for it being a battle barely won. Somehow, Brain must have stolen it before he left the council, and now puppeteers that mechanical puppet to do his bidding."

Fairy Tail tensed. They barely could keep up with the weakened and revived Wizard Saint and now they have to deal with something that almost killed him at his best?

"Speaking of puppets," Everyone turned to Goldmine as he put down his drink of water. "There's poor, old Makky to talk about."

Many eyes went to Fairy Tail, who uncharacteristically were silent at the attention.

Kain spoke up. "After Master Makarov was dismissed from being the guild master, he went off on a vacation. We didn't know he was kidnapped and brainwashed." All of that was true, they had all learned of him being missing, moments before this mission was thrusted on them.

"I couldn't even fathom someone who is more powerful than I can be captured by the likes of them without some special ambush." Jura noted out loud, but everyone could feel the fear in his voice.

"Aren't you a wizard saint too?" Ren pointed out towards the giant of a man.

"Alas, I am the lowest ranked Wizard Saint. To be even part of the legacy of Horus Anhur, is an honor I don't believe I'm worthy. Even Jellal Fernandes, who now sides with our current enemy, is in a league above me despite being one of the lower numbers as well." Jura closed his eyes before looking to Goldmine. "In fact, I've heard stories of how Master Bob is Makarov's equal while Master Goldmine here is at the very least within their level, yet both of them have declined being part of the Wizard Saints."

"Don't sell yourself short, kid, you're way stronger than any of us when we were your age. Give it time." Goldmine leaned on the table with his hands. "But back to the topic, I recognize the magic brainwash over Makky, and I never thought I'd see it again: Jumanda Hagu."

That name made Kain's eyes go wide. Memories of the post-Phantom Lord Vs Fairy Tail war entered into his mind about Makarov confessing what had caused that destruction all those years ago.

"Seeing as how even some of the young ones in the Rune Knights don't know," Goldmine saw the looks on Doranbolt, Raina, William, and even Lahar's confusion and went on, "He was a telepathic mage who had developed a very powerful form of mind control magic, to the point where it was like he could suppress your free will even if you had much more magical power than him."

There was a rare scorn that flashed on Goldmine's face. "We saw him die, but Master Precht once told me that the Council might have been impressed with how Jumanda gained such potent magic, and he was right on the money. Dr. Ockado was using Jumanda's brain as a conduit to mind control Makky—I recognize his staff glowing the same color Jumanda's aura was all those years ago, and seeing how Brain's staff was in the shape of a skull, I can assume that Brain had access to the leftovers of that bastard and weaponized it himself."

Genji of Phantom Lord spotted something what the guild master said. "Is there some kind of limit? If he had a power like that, why didn't he use it on you or any of the cloak group in your encounter?"

"Because as powerful Jumanda's magic was, he had to focus hard on those stronger than him. Even with the physical brain, Dr. Byan has to use all the magic in his staff to have Makky do whatever he wants."

Finally, some good news. "Well then all we have to do is break the staff and we can free Makarov!" Lucy added in excitedly.

However, at the mention of that, Jason of Phantom Lord groaned and the other members of the Cloak group looked away in disappointment and frustration.

It didn't take long to piece together that the Cloak Group also had their best mobile mages: Doranbolt could teleport, Raina had shadow based magic, Kain could move at great speeds, but since Makarov still was under Brain's control...

"Even with Goldmine distracting Makarov, getting close to Brain proved to be a total pain." Doranbolt sighed before he explained. "When the red guy over there made a dive for Wendy, during the clash, I tried to get a jump on Brain, but he was paying attention and stopped me before I could."

"I attempted to follow up with sir Doranbolt," Raina from the White Tiger division began. "But I was met with similar results when he countered my magic with green light, slowing my ability to travel in shadows."

The fact two mobile mages couldn't even surprise the Leader of Oracion Seis seemed to dim the already low spirits of the alliance.

"Actually, there is one advantage we do have." Everyone turned to Hibiki as he looked solemnly towards nothing in particular. "When we confronted Brain, we all noticed he was coughing blood. I think he was terminally ill."

"The leader of the Oracion Seis is dying?" Erza seemed surprised as the rest of the Dagger Group heard this fact.

"Then that's a good thing, isn't it?" Ren from Blue Pegasus seemed to relax into his seat. "That technically means one less of the Oracion Seis to deal with, and it's their leader no less!"

"It's actually a doubled edged-sword," Tarsus walked forward from where he was standing. "Even while sick, he fended off two skilled mages with ease, and worse still, if he really is close to dying it means he is that more desperate to get to Nirvana before whatever illness takes him."

Gray grunted in frustration. "You're telling me the only real advantage we have just ups the danger factor of their leader? When are we gonna catch a break?!"

His complaint was what everyone was thinking as silence filled the area.

However, while everyone was feeling despondent, young Wendy Marvel noticed all of them, people who she saw as great and amazing were all mopping—just like how Ms. Solaris saw her as.

At that moment, the few minutes of Ms. Solaris played in the head of Wendy.

 _You're going to prove yourself in the future._

Wendy Marvel raised her hand, like the child she was. "I-I know," She squeaked out before she inhaled deeply, remembering the story of Ms. Solaris and trying to gather the same courage she gave to her when she needed it.

That moment, the girl from Cait Shelter continued what she was trying to say, "I know where the Oracion Seis are going."

Needless to say that caught everyone's attention. Wendy was allowed to explain that her Guild were the descendants of the Nirvana Makers. She briefly said that both herself and Carla were outsiders, but the guild took them in, but they taught them both a lot about their culture. But what Brain revealed to her was that Nirvana had another name that Cait Shelter used more often, Lakuya.

From that, Wendy explained that there was a song about it and Brain had captured her to learn about the song.

 **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**

 **Where shall we play?**

 **On the field of sky flowers not seen by the day?**

 **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**

 **Let us dance with the snake of the pond,**

 **and listen to her story of young.**

 **Follow her path to the mouth of winds,**

 **And rest on the lap of the Guardian King.**

 **~Lakuya, Lakuya~**

 **Do not wake him up,**

 **Sleep with him, Lakuya, down below not above.**

After she finished, she looked around the room. "From what I could remember, Brain played that song memory over and over. I don't know why though?"

Kain stood up with urgency that no one was expecting before turning to his blonde, Celestial mage friend. "Lucy, that magic pen and pad you keep with you for story ideas! I need to borrow it!"

The Heartifillia Heiress panicked but did as she was told as her brunette friend started to scribble furiously on to the note pad, with everyone looking towards him.

"Hibiki!" Kain looked up and looked towards the handsome brunette. "Open up an archive of a map and a star chart of this area if you have one!"

"Kain, what's going on?!" Natsu asked while Hibiki had a look of realization and activated his Archive magic to show a map of the Worthwood Sea and the star chart of that area.

"The song, Natsu! That's why Brain was so fixated on it. It's telling us where Nirvana is!"

"It is!?" A lot of the slower members of the group cried out in realization.

"Master Kain, have you already deciphered the song from it's first hearing?" Jura's eyes widened as he looked towards the boy who seemed to be now staring at the chicken scratch of his own handwriting.

"No, but I loved to read mythology," Natsu recalled Kain saying something like that when the two had first met. "And considering that human behavior is mostly the same here and there, I'm willing to bet that the song over states simple facts since back in my world, old writers from many countries loved to sound more extravagant than they really are."

The brunette from another world looked up towards the map and pointed. "Stop! Right there, on the map of the Worth Wood Sea, there's over several fields north of where we rescued Wendy. Can someone match the star chart with it?"

"That's a bit complicated, but," Hibiki stood up and focused more on his magic. He made his archive magic match the two side by side.

At that moment, Kain walked up and circled six open fields at the map. "We need to go to these open areas and find a flower field. But even if we find a flower field, we need to know what type of flowers they are."

Genji of Phantom Lord made a movement to lift his brow. "Why are we looking for flower fields?"

* * *

"Because, Angel," Brain spoke out before pointing towards the fields. "That is where the first part describes where we should begin our search."

"Well in that case, why can't I just go to these places ahead?" Racer pointed a thumb out."

Brain turned to the speedster of the group. "That's also the same reason why I can't send you alone to all areas, Racer, you go fast, I have a feeling you'll miss something. And the second more important reason, do you know what the second part means?"

The sunglasses wearing magician folded his arms and asked,

* * *

"What is the second part then?" Happy raised his paw.

Kain was quick to explain. "I don't know. I thought that it meant river when the song mentions a pond snake, but the map shows no signs of a river nearby the area at all." Kain looked at the map. "But then I remembered, when I was a kid, and visiting the mountains, one of my uncles told me there was a creek I could play in while the adults did their thing."

"So you think it's a creek?"

* * *

"That maybe there is a possibility of a small creek, but I don't know." Brain finished. "Still, Racer, you have a habit of doing things too fast, and this requires a bit of patience."

The Leader of Oracion Seis looked to rest of the members in this meeting. "I'm splitting all of you up with some remaining members we have. You are to—"

* * *

"—head to these fields and look for flowers and search for a creek anywhere nearby them." Those were the words of Tarsus after hearing about Kain's educated guess.

There were, funny enough, six potential fields. As of their remaining members, excluding animals, they consisted of 21 members.

"I still think you should have stayed in the house, Wendy." Kain's voice had a firm, but caring voice in his tone as he, Lucy, Wendy, Carla, and walked towards one of the designated areas with Goldmine carefully trailing behind.

"I too agree with the young man, Wendy, this mission is dangerous." Carla spoke with obvious intent of getting Wendy out of trouble as they had just saved her from danger, only for her to willing want to go back to it.

"I-I know! I-I promise to run at the first sign of trouble, but I can help! I promise!" The girl huffed up.

"She's also the only one who knows the song," Goldmine spoke out as he looked around. "But at this point, we're getting a little desperate. So we're all going to have to work hard together, right kid?"

Kain sighed, obviously wanting the circumstances to be better. "Just, stay close to us until a fight breaks out, okay?"

Wendy seemed to flinch at the request and then look down cast. "I-I'm sorry. I just wanted to help."

Before anything was said, Kain turned around, he kneeled on one foot and de-powered to show he was meeting Wendy on the same level. "I'm not mad at you," he sad calmly. "I'm worried about you Wendy. What you did was brave, but I don't want you to get hurt."

Wendy seemed to relax at the softer tone of the brunette. "I don't want you to get hurt either."

At that, the corner of Kain's mouth traced upward as he got back up on his feet. "Thanks, kiddo, but Lucy and I are part of the strongest team in Fairy Tail. We can handle some pain here and there."

"We kinda are the weakest in that team—"

"No one needed to know that, especially us, Lucy." The brunette deadpanned before looking over towards the Celestial mage, who laughed with all the effort of a child caught red handed in the cookie jar before dinner.

Lucy supposed not stating out an unhelpful fact would help.

"You kids, are doing alright. I definitely sense all of you have grown since we last met." Goldmine looked over towards the two.

Having the strongest of member of the alliance did little to ease the two sharpest members—granted Fairy Tail was never known for it's quick wit outside of a fight, but that's neither here nor there—because they both knew the moment one of the teams encountered Makarov, Goldmine would leave them to ensure that they wouldn't be destroyed.

Worse, could they even bring to attack the old man who had given them both a home when they didn't have any? Worse still, could they even touch him in a fight?

Damned if they do damned if they don't.

Lucy sighed. "I really wish the odds weren't always so against us."

"Hmm?" Carla activated her wings, flying up ahead then pointing. "I spot a flower field up ahead."

The idea of something peaceful like a flower field brought nothing but anxiety to the group as it meant this was potentially one of the areas where the race for Nirvana would begin.

The brunette powered up his armor and stepped forward with caution. "Don't stray too far, and be sure to peek safely, who knows if any of the Oracion Seis and their men are near by."

Heeding his words, Carla looked back at the field and flew a little lower. As the cat stared at the upcoming flower field, her eyes snapped open and she froze abruptly.

"Carla?" Wendy became worried for her friend at her reaction. "Are you alright?"

"Well fudge pops, I just sensed who's up ahead." A sigh escaped his lips as Goldmine walked ahead with his hands buried in his pockets. "Come on kids, there's someone we gotta meet again."

Past the trees, the small group saw the most beautiful meadow of star shaped flowers. This surely indicated that this was the area the song foretold. However, everyone in that group only knew dread. The reason for such a thing was because in the center of that field, crushing the beautiful flowers under his massive weight was Makarov in his giant form, looking down on two of his own foster children with Brain standing on his shoulder like a twisted version of a certain famous talking, cartoon, cricket.

Yet Goldmine walked forward, his eyes looking towards the glowing and hypnotized eyes of his old friend.

"Fate must be obsessed with these special coincidences," Brain shouted as he threw his hands out to motion something grand. "How else can these events happen that that mere hapenstance cannot hope to capture?"

"Funny, I recall our team facing a mage who claimed he could control fate." Goldmine slowly raised his right hand stretched out. He used his left hand to remove his sunglasses again, revealing his eyes turning gold and a see through, golden snake appeared and started to coil around his hand. Everyone of the younger members of the group were wise enough to start backing off even though there wasn't really a spike of magic in the air. "Turns out, he was a hack with really skillful, luck manipulation magic. It took Porsy to finally beat him for us."

"I never saw well during our first encounter," Brain ignored the implied message of hacks and fate as he pointed towards the golden, see-through snake coiled around Goldmine's right arm. "It's very interesting to see the unique, Gilded Aura, magic. A magic that is said to weaponize one's very soul into powerful physical constructs of their own design."

Goldmine took a stance after scoffing. "Unique? Rob had the way cooler magic."

This finally snapped Kain out of his stupor and motioned everyone else not at the level of a Wizard Saint to pick a place to hide.

It was a good thing he did this too, Makarov had his fist raised as the snake around Goldmine's arm hissed and bared it's fangs. This prefaced the spike of energy that everyone in a good ten miles felt, and made everyone realize who was starting their battle. At the same time, it also sparked fighting all across once more, with the separated groups of both the Alliance and the Oracion Seis meeting each other not long after Makarov and Goldmine started fighting once more.

Speaking of the clash of titans, gales blew like storms as the clash of different energies became like music. Words couldn't keep up with the intensity of magic flowing like a river.

However, a certain group of people were not appreciative of this.

"This is crazy!" Lucy held tightly to Wendy as the rest of that group was hiding behind a rock. "Was master and Jose like this?"

"Honestly," Kain began before a loud clang vibrated through the air, causing him to pause for a second. "It's actually less than what he did!"

The moment he finished a tree flew above the rock they were taking cover and knocked through several other large trees similar to bowling pins. However, when looking at the destruction, Lucy noticed something.

"Kain, look!" The celestial mage pointed as Kain turned towards where she was suggesting. Onward, there was a small creek hidden by the trees.

"Let's move! You two go ahead, I'll watch for debris heading our way!" Kain said as he stood up and readied his blade.

Brain was also standing by, watching the two former teammates duke it out with ferocity that betrayed the image of their old bodies. The leader of the Oracion Seis watched Goldmine expertly swat away a thunder spell with a kick that flew right towards the one wearing red armor who then cut it half with one stoke before spreading his cape into wings and flying off. This made the Oracions Seis leader question himself before his eyes darted to beyond where the boy ran off to.

Brain quickly put a hand on his head. "Racer!"

"Are we even going the right way!?" Lucy cried out as Kain caught up with them. "What if we had to follow the creek up stream?"

"That is a very good point!" Kain glanced back to see if anyone was chasing after them.

"Guys, look!" Wendy cried out, making the two spot a large, protruding root over the creek with a green cat that looked painted on the root long ago. "That cat, it's a different color, but it's like my guild symbol!"

Kain recalled back when they had tried to rescue Wendy, there were cat symbols everywhere. "The cat dances—" His words died as he suddenly moved and threw something on the ground—there was a loud flash followed by the sound of something tripping up and crashing into a large tree.

As the dust settled and Kain stood in between the girls and the dust cloud, Racer came out, creaking his neck. "You're a really cheap bastard, you know that?"

"If I wasn't cheap, I'd be dead."

"Wrong, you're going to be dead!" Racer screamed before The armored rider looked towards Wendy and Carla. "You two, go ahead and follow the path, Lucy and I will take him on."

"What!?"

"Dammint, Lucy, I can't beat him without you!" The rider screamed after the former heiress' scream, but he was distracted as Racer made his move, shouting how none of them would make it out of here and heading fast towards their direction. "GO!" Kain screamed before running up to meet with Racer before in an instant, Racer's foot met with Kain's face and the two flew into the opposite side of the small creek.

"Wendy, we need to go!" Carla cried out as she grabbed onto Wendy's hand before making a dash for it.

The blue haired girl had a sense of déjà vu but this time, there was hope. "Carla, fly!"

However, there was someone else watching the battle now commencing between the two members of Fairy Tail and Racer, and he spotted Wendy Marvel leave the ensuing battle.

* * *

As Wendy flew, she noticed something up ahead. The creek was heading towards the north, but there a symbol of a cat going in a different direction.

"Which way do we go?" Carla looked in between following the thin creek that was still running or the following the symbol of the cat.

"Follow the cat," Wendy answered. "That was what the song said."

The two did so, following pictures of cats deeper into the forrest until they reached a dead end with a high cliff looming over them.

Wendy didn't know what to do with pressure to find Nirvana, she started to panic until Carla seemed to get distracted by something. The young girl noticed Carla run over behind a bush where she moved it away to reveal a cat with two tails and colored blue, just like her guild symbol. Wendy felt a gust of air blowing her hair but she was confused as she felt it come right from the rocks in front of her. Looking at the symbol, she touched it. To her and Carla's surprise, the cave art of the cat jumped—as if it was animated and landed on the floor. The cat looked towards Wendy before the girl's guild symbol started to glow. The cliff started to shake and soon, the wall of stone in front of her split open like a door. The cave art cat looked at Wendy and Carla before running into the cave by still sticking to the stone walls.

Wendy and Carla were dumbfounded but soon they followed after the cave cat.

The winds were rather strong as the two ran into the cave, but to the surprise of the two they had came across a large hole in the center of an empty cave and the cave art cat was seen on the floor, just below of a giant hole that was blowing strong winds. The cat looked at the two before jumping into the hole above it. When it did, the strong winds started to die down from the maw.

"Carla." Wendy looked to her friend who went up to fly her down the hole.

Darkness surrounded them but the cat painting started to glow and lead their path. While the winds died down, their howling did not. It came to the point where the cat on the wall started to glow brighter and brighter until it stopped, showing that they had reached the bottom. At that point, the light of the cat was shinning bright enough to show some kind of hidden temple.

"I-Is this where Nirvana is located?" Wendy asked as she looked around before noticing something at the very center of the temple. She thought it was a tabernacle but… "Carla, over there!"

The cat brought the little girl closer and what they saw surprised the two of them, it was some kind of large, metallic, rusty, humanoid shaped being with moss growing atop it's shoulders and some of it's upper areas. "Is this, Nirvana?"

"No," A voice decidedly not Carla's spoke out from behind them and as the two girls turned around, two dark green hand constructs grabbed the two girls and hung them up in the air. From the back, Brain started walking up to them. "The song described a Guardian, in other words a gate keeper and key to unlocking Nirvana. You have my thanks Wendy Marvel, the seal wouldn't have opened without validation of someone from the Cait Shelter Guild."

Brain looked to that machine and rubbed his chin with a smile. "Considering how much the doors needed you to open up," He trailed off and activated his staff. Wendy screamed as her hand was raised out. Carla tried to shout, but Brain muffled her with his construct and made sure that the little girl would touch the head of the metallic man.

Wendy herself felt pain, but at the same time, she refused to let her be used like a tool once more. She inhaled— " **Sky Dragon's Roar!** "

Brain wasn't expecting the blast of wind coming his way and was sent flying, dropping his hold on the two girls. Yet it was too late, Wendy's hand was already near the one dubbed as the Guardian of Nirvana. When Brain's spell dropped, so did her hand onto the head of the rusting robot.

A green glow came from beneath the thick torso and two white lights activated from the eyes of it's oval like head. The arms twisted and turned and the sound of gears grinding was hear in tandem with that of a low of magic.

Carla and Wendy backed away as the iron robot stood up and slowly turned it's search light eyes towards her then focused those search lights into her guild symbol.

"Fine!" A shout from the back made Wendy remember that Brain was still there, and looking at his expression, Wendy realized she never saw the leader angry until that moment. "I don't need you any longer!"

He blasted an impressive burst of dark green magic towards Carla and Wendy that encompassed a wide area. Wendy panicked as she saw the blast coming her way and her instincts could only make her cover herself and wait for the inevitable.

But it never came.

Wendy heard the sound of a different magic and as she opened her eyes, she witnessed the moldy bot had his arm raised and was protecting both her and Carla.

"You saved me?" Wendy gasped as she looked up at the robot that looked back at her.

Brain cursed under his breath, he threw out his hands in several quick motions before pointing two fingers at the Guardian. "ȜǼψ!"

The moment he cried out a red and green tornado shot out of his fingers and the end of the winds started to form into small bats that all swarmed towards the metal, eight foot creature. The guardian stepped forward and the white of his eyes shined brightly-before firing a laser that lashed through a few of the energy bats. However, those that were cut started to glow before they exploded, catching the entire flock in an explosion.

Out of the explosion, Brain jumped over it, staff raised with energy and attempted to bring it down on the robot of rust. His attack went as well as someone expecting they could count every single grain of sand in their beach.

The rusted and moss bot jumped in an impressive bound and punched Brain with enough force to send him into the roof and make him splatter like a water balloon. Wendy was at first surprised, but then saw that the liquid was actually mud, not blood. That only meant that it was a fake, but where was—

Wendy and Carla felt a presence behind them. "Enough!" And then another magical power overcame the two.

Brain saw the metallic ancient heading towards him. He had an idea form in his head and he put more pressure into his staff.

"Stop!"

Wendy's voice came out of her mouth without her will. But with the sound of her voice, the Guardian indeed obeyed her command. The Cait Shelter mage realized that Brain was using his capture over her to command the Guardian.

"Good, that actually worked," Brain began. "Now then, to undo centuries of work," He pushed magic into his staff and it glowed brighter.

Wendy did her best, she struggled all she could. However, her tongue was moving, her lungs were inhaling, and try as she could, her voice was coming out.

"I-I or-order you-you to-to re-eveal an-d open," Wendy tried harder, preventing that last word from forming.

"Nirvana!"

The robot's eyes dimmed, it motioned its hands towards it's torso where a magic circle was revealed at top the surface. The robotic hands crushed the magic circle, and as soon as it did the earth started to shake.

Up on the surface, everyone fighting could only look up in shock as they saw a burst of white and black magic shooting to the air.

Brain could only look up and laugh, feeling the magic in the air. "Yes! At last! Nirvana is finally awake!"

The black light parted the clouds above and everyone watched as the light started to take form in the sky. As the forming finally stopped, they all knew what they were looking at was Nirvana itself.

It's just none of them expected it to be a floating fortress in the sky.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **So by my last sentence, I did make another change to Canon. Nirvana is now a flying fortress, much like a certain Studio Ghibli film that also involves a rusted robot with mold growing off it.**

 **Heheh.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed this small change in how Nirvana was awakened. Jellal just somehow knowing where it is was kinda, well it was alright since that wasn't really the focus of it. But I thought I would give more context to finding Nirvana, making a sort of race to find it.**

 **But now it's finally found, and just another warning, I'm not done borrowing ideas from that specific Ghibli film.**

 **Also, now that Nirvana's out, I can go back with focusing on the actual fights. There area an awful lot to cover, so it's why I've been mostly just skipping over fights throughout this arc. Hopefully, that'll change by now, but what do you guys think of it so far?**

 **I hope you all have great holidays. Now I'm off to play Smash Ultimate again.**


	39. Chapter 39

***Furious tapping noises* Huh? I-I did it! I finally got into Elite Smash! Whooooo! And it only took me like…**

 ***looks at calendar* ...Three wee—fudge.**

 ***notices he hasn't typed anything in the past month* Oh that's going to be a problem.**

 ***looks at story notes and sees this is going to be one of his longer chapters* And that's just adding salt into the wound.**

* * *

Before Nirvana was revived, before he called them all to a meeting, Brain, the powerful and masterful leader of Oracion Seis, was leaning on a tree hidden from all, barely able to stand and coughing spit and blood.

After his coughing fit, he could only look at his hands in disdain. "It's never gotten," He gasped and wiped his mouth. "This bad before."

It was then that he felt a presence and he turned around to see, "Jellal, I thought I put barriers even Cobra and Midnight couldn't sense."

"I did sense them, but I didn't know they were yours." Brain wasn't expecting a look of surprise and… was that concern on the Wizard Saint's face? "I wasn't aware you were ill."

"I intend to keep it that way." Brain stepped away from the tree, the second he did, he started to cough with enough force to cough blood along with spit. He lost his balance, but was momentarily surprised to feel something supporting him.

"You really are different ever since Fairy Tail defeated you." Brain managed to comment as he opened his eyes to see the blue haired man preventing him from falling.

"The same can be said for you." Jellal returned with a soft voice.

Brain's reaction to that was to only laugh that sounded more like one of acceptance than joy. "Look at us, two men who once had everything, but lost it all. I suppose defeat is one of life's greatest teachers." The leader Of Oracion Seis sat down on a nearby root and tried to clean himself with magic.

Jellal was curious at the mention of that. "You were defeated? From what I recall," Some of his memory still blurred here and there, "There was a gap between when I sent you Hot Eye, and when you found me some time ago, but I don't remember you ever getting into a magic battle. What defeat are you talking about?"

Brain's body language showed him stopping in such a way as if he had just seen the reaper. "What do you remember about the Magic Council?"

Jellal thought about it. "What specifically do you mean?"

Brain's face looked dead serious. "The weapons' vault."

The ex councilman tried to think back. It was still blurry, but he could make out the memories because there was a feeling that came with them. That feeling was a sense of how small he was in the universe.

"All I know was that there were ten levels. Even as both a Wizard Saint and a member of the Magic Council member, I could only get access to the Eight level." And even then, it took a lot of effort to steal that elvish blade from level 8.

"Huh, of course they upped the security, I'm the reason why it's almost impossible to reach even the fifth level." Brain scoffed before sighing. "Before I quit, while I was still building Oracion Seis, I was approached by Crawford Seam, the now retired Magic Council Chairman." There was a smirk that escaped Brain's solemn state with that last sentence.

Jellal may not have recalled that man, but his emotions seemed to be revealing a large amount of disgust towards the name.

Brain continued on, "He was an idiot, but just like you and I, he was ambitious, but he was and is utterly incompetent. It took him a while, but he finally had access to Level 0 of the Weapons Vault."

The former magic council member could only widen his eyes. "Level 0? By the numbers, I assumed level 1 was the highest area to reach."

"The number themselves hide that fact well. A secret that the fat, hairy bastard found on pure luck. He wanted me to see if it was possible to harness the one item in sealed in that level."

Brain suddenly stopped talking, his hands started to tremble, and he was sweating profusely. After a few coughs, Brain stood back up from the root. "Not only him, but I underestimated what was in there. This illness you see is one of the side effects of trying to tamper with it."

They say curiosity killed the cat, but Jellal couldn't stop wondering. Brain was true to his name and spotted the wonder on his face. "If you want to ask what I saw, I physically am unable to do so." Jellal looked at Brain as he explained. "Level 0 clearance Memory Proofs you the moment you enter. The memories you make in that hidden room, stay in that hidden room. All I recall is stepping in that room… and the next moment face away from the entrance, on the ground, coughing blood with Crawford confused as to why he was sweating to the point that his paid-by-tax-payer-money clothes looked like they were drenched from being in the rain too long. I found out that there's some kind of foreign magic in me that's… impressively, eating my soul. I've tried everything, but nothing is stoping it. I was able to find a special loophole to slow it down, but at this rate, I'm not going to see the end of next year."

All of this information caused Jellal to be confused, a hundred question roamed in his mind, but one rose above to his voice first. "Why are you telling me all this?"

Brain looked at Jellal in the eye. He smirked to brake eye contact. "I have my reasons for telling you this. Now come, we must hurry. I believe our head start against the Alliance has ended."

Jellal could only stare at the man called Brain. He was different than what his supposed memories told him. Compared to the man in his memories, there was something new in Brain's eyes that he didn't see before: compassion.

* * *

Brain could only laugh with all the force of a madman as he could feel the energies of ancient magic overwhelm and make everyone in radius' skin crawl.

His distraction weakened the hold over Wendy and Carla, the latter of whom activated her wings and flew Wendy out of there as the cave started to collapse in on itself. As the two left, the robotic Guardian followed after them, flying by some unknown means as Brain continued to laugh.

As the three got out, Wendy and Carla looked up to the sky in horror. The infamous Nirvana was floating high up in the sky: fog slowly fell of the isle as buildings long locked in darkness were exposed to the sunset of the day. Most noticeable was this massive, tower-castle super structure with some dim, green glow that could be seen even from below. A long forgotten city on a floating ruin with a giant ring of magic, it would have been beautiful if everyone didn't know how dangerous it was.

The small girl remembered something during the skirmish and looked towards the Guardian. "C-Can you reseal it!?"

In response, the robot only stared emptily back at Wendy, its inaction speaking more than any possible form of communication.

At that moment, the ground burst and an orb of dark flame shot up towards the flying ruins, signaling that Brain was on his way towards the floating ruins.

Wendy recalled her communication link and activated it. "H-Help! Nirvana's been awakened I-I couldn't stop Brain from re-opening it! I'm sorry!"

Her voice was heard, yet by then, battles were once more raging across WorthWood Sea, each one as vicious as the last.

* * *

There was a scream that filled the air as Ren of Blue Pegasus clutched his head when the burst of murky black light exploded towards the sky.

"Ren!" Natsu screamed before he was distracted towards his right where he avoided the ground rising up and attempted to swallow him whole. The Dragon Slayer jumped away to the air, only to get blasted by a familiar and very annoying blast of wind magic.

"You're not going to escape this time, Salamander!" Erigor then made a mad cackle, his eyes were bloodshot, almost like one would have from a drug overdose.

Even Natsu could tell Erigor must have taken even more of those Rhodonite drugs, he was actually starting to overpower him. Though his moves were become far easier to predict, Hot Eye made it hard for him to move.

Hot Eye shouted something about money, before earth behind him shot up to form into a hammer the size of a house with full intent to turn Natsu into a pink headed nail. The hammer was brought down, but mid flight, there was a blur that ran right through the muddy construct, revealing it to be Genji from Phantom Lord, kicking right through it with impressive force. Genji landed near Hot Eye, who pointed his hand out at the same time as Genji pushed out a glowing white palm.

"Pig-skin stop screaming!" The Orc known as the Butcher lariat Ren while he was still clutching his head in pain. Natsu enflamed his fist, and launched himself towards the green humanoid. The punch flew, but the Orc had much longer arms as his fist raced past Natsu and hit him in the cheek first. The pink haired Dragon Slayer flew before landing on his feet and skidding to a stop.

"Natsu!" Happy, who was hiding behind some trees, cried out with worry. But didn't see any chance to swoop in to help his friend.

It was at that moment that the burst of light turned into an Isle, making everyone still conscious in that battlefield witness Nirvana in all it's former glory.

"Amazing! Nirvana looks more amazing than I ever imagined!" Hot Eye gave a booming laughter witnessing the ancient spectacle. The man with square like features turned towards the remaining members of that Alliance group. "How unfortunate for you that we will gain all the money we could ever need! Yes yes!"

Wind blew hard on Natsu's face, forcing him to look up at the blood shot face of Erigor,"Who c-cares about money!? I-I want revenge!" With that cry, he flew right for Natsu with a devastating burst of wind magic that blasted around in an impressive radius, a radius that also included Hot Eye and Butcher, the Orc.

Hot Eye raised a barrier around him before letting it down and looking towards his ally. "Watch what you're doing, convict!" He was visibly upset from being pulled out of his good mood, but then, he—and everyone else noticed something off: why did it feel like there were two storm winds?

There was a spike of magic as the fighters all looked over towards Ren from Blue Pegasus who had gotten up and a tornado of wind was surrounding him in counter clock spin to that of Erigor. However, his gales were ebony black like that of a raven's feathers.

"You bastards," Ren gasped as the gales grew like wild fire. "You killed Eve!" His eyes, bloodshot and his aura becoming as black as the gales. "YOU'LL ALL PAY!" With that battle roar, he unleashed a powerful burst of wind that everyone but The Butcher avoided. The orc was slammed into a some distance away while everyone else seemed surprised at the show of power.

"Hey, watch it Ren, you almost hit us!" Natsu shouted towards his ally.

Ren's gaze, and anger turned towards Natsu. "YOU! IT'S YOUR FAULT EVE IS DEAD!" The cry of anger was followed by a blast of wind much like that of Erigor's level. However, Natsu was caught off guard by the cry in a moment, which was enough for the blast to close the distance between them.

It was to the Dragonslayer's favor that Genji slid over to Natsu with a battle stance between him and the incoming black wind with his fist reclined and glowing. With a step forward that had enough force to crack the ground, Genji punched forward, nullifying the impact of the dark wind meant for the Salamander.

"I don't believe the comlinks were as effective as we thought. Ren seems to be affected by Nirvana's passive magic." Genji of Phantom Lord spoke as Natsu stood back up.

"Hey! He's my prey!" Erigor shouted before attacking Ren with his own empowered wind. Ren shouted another angry threat of murder before engaging in the opposing wind mage.

Memories of before came to Natsu's mind. Ren was suffering beforehand—he didn't need this! "We gotta stop him somehow! Is there a way to get him back to normal?"

Seeing Ren and Erigor battle allowed Genji some time to plan with Hot Eye and their other opponent slightly incapacitated. "Nirvana is the source of this problem. We may be too far, but at the same time, I do know a spell that could knock Ren out until we stop Nirvana." The monk themed mage looked over to the dragon slayer. "I need you to take on Erigor and whatever interference for it to work though."

A smile appeared on Natsu's face. "Wait, all I gotta do is fight those guys except Ren? Well why didn't you say that first!" With a speedy jump, Natsu flew in and decked Erigor in the cheek, shouting that it was time for round two.

Ren seemed to get pissed after seeing Natsu one more time, but Genji acted quick, making both of his fists glow and got behind him—no a blast of wind warded the Phantom Lord mage back before he could get sliced like paper.

"You! I don't know how, but you're also at fault for killing Eve!"

Genji slowly lifted his fists into open, glowing palms as his stance shifted. "This brainwashing magic isn't refined. Perhaps that means we have some hope to stop it yet." He spoke out before Ren tried to attack him a second time.

Natsu himself avoided an annoying blast of wind meant to throw him like dust in the wind. "Yeesh, Emma, you're really starting to get on my nerves!"

"It's Erigor, you pink-cactus-haired, punk!" The crazed man yelled.

At that moment, now Natsu was getting tired of battling this punk. However, as he tried to end him, his sense of touch felt a shift on the earth and he backflipped before muddy spikes shot out of the ground where he was from.

"Yes yes! Soon, the alliance will fall, then the magic Council, and we will gain all the money in the country!" Hot Eye cried out before continuing his attack. Natsu made an effort to avoid the ground by jumping, only for him to get hit head on by an air attack from Erigor.

Earth and wind were now being used in tandem against the dragon slayer. Natsu couldn't make a move on one without the other attacking his blind side. In one instant, when the pink haired mage was knocked down, the two opposing mages both attacked with the intent to crush and slice up the Fairy Tail mage.

Their attacks hit nothing but each other as something flew at the last second and got him out of the fight.

"Thanks, buddy!" Natsu shook himself before he looked up to Happy. "Great timing."

Happy didn't have a chance to respond as he noticed Erigor flying after them. The spike of magical power coming out from him was skyrocketing at that moment.

"This is for ruining my life, fly!" Erigor cried out as the winds around him started to form. The turbulence twisted that into a large scythe made of fast rotating wind that Ergior motioned to wing behind him.

"Aah!" Happy cried out as Natsu felt the air around them shift. "That Scythe is manipulating the wind around us, I can't fly forward!"

Natsu looked back, "Then don't fly forward, get me back to him!"

" _Does thou hear the whispers of the wind_ _s_ _?_ " Erigor started to chant, as his pupils started to dilate, his hands started to shiver, but his mind was still focused on one thing: revenge against Fairy Tail. No one, not even him could tell if he really knew a lost spell, or the magic itself seemed to react to him at his induced state. " _They are not soft nothingness, but muted wails of darker whims!"_

"Happy, let me go! I'm gonna need to be free for this one!" Natsu heard the chanting as he primed his fist. His friend let go and launched Natsu towards Erigor who started to swing his wind scythe.

" **Hell** **Fire Art...** " Natsu started as he lit up his fist with white fire. At the same time, Erigor was unleashing a large amount of magical energy.

" _Beholden that which chained in blight, Beholden you_ _r_ _last—_ "

" **HELL SPEAR!** " " _WIND SYTCHE!_ "

White flames and wind clashed with unstable force in the air. As the force of the two clashing powers made contact, the impact force of that clash caused the ground bound fighters to be knocked off their feet.

Hot Eye, Genji, Ren, and a slowly recovering Butcher, all got blasted away into the air from the clash. Genji, noticed Happy was also caught in the clash and saw the small cat falling down unconscious. The Phantom Lord mage with pink hair flipped mid air, used his magic to propel his trajectory towards Ren, who was previously blasted parallel to him. In a grand movement, Genji slammed a golden palm into Ren's face, then used his magic to touch the air—kick off, and capture Happy, then finished by landing on the ground with a slid, carrying both of his teammates and looking back up to the sky.

"Natsu! I have both of them!" Genji screamed out loud.

With his dragon hearing, Natsu could hear Genji's scream over the clashing magic. "Thanks, Genji! Now to finally put this annoyance down!" Natsu put in more force into his attack, powering through Erigor's spell and the flame around his fist started to shape like that of a spearhead. With one great cry, Natsu broke through the massive scythe of winds, fell, and struck like a meteor onto Erigor, crashing into the ground with a deafening boom much like any falling space rock.

Out of the dirt and smoke, Natsu jumped out and held his right fist with a grunt of pain. "Ow! Man, Atlas Flame's spells are way more complicated than Igneel's! And they use way too much energy!" He could still use his fist, but it was unreasonably sore trying to use a different type of fire dragon spell.

As the smoke died down, Erigor was seen out cold. Rohdonite drugs may have the ability to nullify pain, but the body sends out messages of pain naturally because it means that the body can't handle damage. Getting rid of pain didn't mean their bodies were immune to breaking.

However, the ground beneath Natsu moved when he let his guard down and a muddy coffin entrapped the dragon slayer on his entire body except his head. Natsu struggled to get out, but found it very hard to do so.

"You are indeed very powerful, Dragon slayer! Yes yes!" Hot Eye proclaimed as he walked up to Natsu with a hand pointed out. For a moment there, Natsu forgot this guy—huh?

"And you there!" Hot eye pointed over to Genji who was still carrying his two allies. "Make any move and I'll crush your ally in an instant! Same goes for you, pinky, I can crush you faster than you can activate your magic at this rate! In the end, Money is everything!"

The situation looked pretty dire for this group of the alliance, but Natsu seemed more confused as he sniffed the air several times. "Hey, Hot Potato!"

Hot Eye didn't seem very bothered at the wrong name as he gave a hearty laugh. "It's Hot Eye, truly a powerful name for the rich and wealthy! Yes yes!"

"You smell really familiar. Have we met before?" Natsu was distracted by this smell coming off from Hot Eye now that this mud mage was up close.

"I'm starting to see why that man was so angry at you beforehand if your memory span is the size of a goldfish." Hot Eye seemed more empathetic than haughty with that comment. "We met a while today when you and that armored monster fought, remember?"

But the Oracion Seis member misunderstood. Natsu swore he had the same feeling like he got from Wendy—wait no. Wendy's felt familiar in a way that he thought he knew her before. Hot Eye's scent was _similar_ to another scent he felt. But which one could that blocky bastard—wait, block?

"That's not what I'm talking about. By any chance do you know Wally Buchanan?" The pink haired dragon slayer asked as he finally recalled why this scent felt familiar but different.

Hot Eye's happy go luck facade instantly faded and a look of utter shock was written on his face after hearing that name.

"H-How do you know that name? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT NAME!?" Hot Eye first started soft, as if he himself couldn't believe it. However, the second time he repeated it, there was far more desperation and urgency in his voice.

Natsu was wondering why his instincts pointed him to this smell. It seemed like there was a reason for them after all. So he followed his instincts again when it told him to be honest about that name. "He's a friend of mine. I wanted to ask because you have a really similar smell to that guy. How do you know him?"

After hearing those words, something happened that no one could have expected: Hot Eye, a man who only cared about money and talked about nothing but that, fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face like waterfalls, and crying out with the purest forms of relief and hope.

Natsu was freed, the spell holding him no longer had any power to it. This was the prefect chance to counter attack, if he wasn't so confused as to why Hot Eye was reacting like that.

"You said," It was honestly an impressive feat that Hot Eye was able to string coherent words despite sobbing so much in between pauses. "You said all of that in present tense! W-Wally's alive! He's alive after all! Oh thank god! Thank all the gods!" Hot Eye cried out more after managing to squeak out that sentence.

Natsu just stared in confusion before seeing Genji walk up to him with an obvious confused look on his face.

The dragon slayer shrugged his shoulders. If Kain or Lucy where here, they could probably explain what's going on. Unknown to the dragon slayer, Kain and Lucy were, at the moment, attempting to out run a speedster, so all things considered, he was in one of the good situations.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm just," Hot Eye gasped. "I'm so glad that I've finally found a proper clue to where my brother is, and that he's alive!"

Memories of the Vacation in Sun Village came back to Natsu, Wally had mentioned a few times that before Erza, he had—

The Dragon Slayer pointed to Hot Eye in disbelief then, with his usual tact and grace, said, "No way! You're Richard!?"

Hot Eye got up and, faster than anyone could expect, put his hands on Natsu' shoulders with wide eyes and—a smile of hope? "You know my name?! It **is** Wallace! Please, I will give you any amount of money if you tell me where you last saw him!"

"As nice as it is not being under attack," Genji's voice made Hot Eye and Natsu look over to him. "May I please have some context as to what is happening?" The magenta haired monk from Phantom Lord was surprisingly mild mannered about all of this.

Happy soon woke up, but Ren didn't. After a brief note from Genji that he used a sleeping spell on Ren that would last eight hours, and a further note that he uses it on himself when his bunkmate and dear friend, Kara snores (every night), Natsu briefly caught up that apparently Hot Eye is actually Richard Buchanan, the long lost older brother of a friend he met not too long ago.

"Yes yes!" Hot Eye, or Richard agreed before turning to Natsu. "I was so desperate for money because I needed it to find my brother! I was raised in the underworld, and so I imagined that with all the money, which equates to power there, I would be finally able to find and reunite with my brother!" The Oracion Seis member turned back to Natsu. "You simply must tell me where he is!"

"He went out traveling looking for you, dummy!" Natsu folded his arms. "The last time I saw him was in Sun Village like two months back."

"He-He's also looking for me?" Hot Eye was obviously struggling to break down crying a second time. "But Sun Village, that's all the way south from here..."

Natsu blinked before two gears in his head started to crank together. "Hey wait a second, if you're Wally's real brother, why are you teaming up with Jellal?"

Hot Eye seemed obviously confused at the question, so Natsu continued. "Jellal crippled Wally! Heck, he's probably the reason why you couldn't find him before two months!"

The Oracion Seis member's eyes narrowed dangerously at that. "He did what!? I'll kill him!"

Happy tilted his head and raised his paw. "Isn't he your teammate?"

"He hurt my brother!" Hot Eye hissed. "I don't care if we're on the same team, no one hurts my little brother and gets away with it! I'm not even letting Brain tell me to stop!"

Anger soon passed but Hot Eye now looked more frustrated. "Damn, I want to beat him up, but I know he's stronger than me."

"No he isn't." Natsu's voice was low and calm. Happy knew instantly that his friend was dead serious. "Jellal only beat me because he was using a cheap weapon, but now that it's gone, I can beat him up for sure!"

"Can you really?" Hot Eye looked on with disbelief.

"I still owe that jerk a knuckle sandwich for making Erza cry and almost killing Kain! And even now," Natsu was gripping his fist. Happy knew that ever since they had learned Jellal was with Oracion Sies, Erza had been more distracted than usual. She thought she was hiding it, but all her friends noticed it, but were too focused with planning their next move. "That jerk is still haunting her. I want a piece of him too!"

Hot Eye stared at Natsu with an unreadable look on his face before he gave one noticeable nod. "Alright, with Nirvana now revealed, Brain was expecting us to beat all of you and head to Nirvana to rendezvous. I have an idea that'll allow me to bring you all up there without being blasted."

"Are you really going to betray your team for us?" It was all sounding far too good for them. Genji had to ask that question now or else they might fall for an elaborate trap.

The Oracion Seis member stilled. There was tension in the air as whatever happened next came down to the choice of Hot Eye, or Richard Buchanan. He closed his eyes and then, "My brother was my world before Oracion Sies and still is. I-I have some reservations, I admit. But if you help me find my brother, I will betray my guild—just don't kill any of them."

The two pink haired mages shared a look. "Do we tell the others about this?" Genji inquired.

"No," Natsu responded fast, his mind replaying Erza crying back in the tower of Hell. "We can do it on our own. Besides, I trust the others, they can beat anyone who comes their way!"

* * *

"There's no way we can beat that thing!" Doranbolt screamed as he teleported away seconds before the area exploded in flames.

He reappeared behind a boulder near a dirty Hibiki who was frantically using his archive magic on images of the undead, robotic, sword master. "Of all our rotten luck, we had to face both Jellal and the Machina King!"

Farther away from the boulder magic humming was heard as bolts of light and solid boulders rose up to clash. Hibiki spoke out while still typing. "It's not completely bad. Jura is taking on Jellal as we speak, but that still leaves us with that monster." There was a dark growl coming from Hibiki before he shook his head. "I can feel Nirvana already messing with my emotions. These comlinks aren't doing very well."

"They're working well for me," Doranbolt then realized that their side of the battle was strangely silent. "You should hurry up with finding a potential weakness—Hey, where's Ichiya?"

As soon as the man from the Rune Knights asked this, a pillar of ice shot out not to far from behind the boulder.

The two peeked back from the boulder to see Ichiya staring down the imposing metal titan. Doranbolt was about to move to get him out of there, but something stopped him just as fast. The air around Ichiya felt amazingly different, like the air had somehow got thicker.

"Deus Bellator Rex," Ichiya gave a signature finger point poise, but this time there were no sparkles behind him, there was no sense of flirtation to him but rather like a gunman to a criminal. "History dictates you as an unstoppable warrior rivaled only by the first Wizard Saint. However, you have murdered one of my dear, precious wards,"

With that, the small man took out a tube and removed the cork, it's fragrance flowing into the nose of the Blue Pegasus Ace. "And you're going to wish you stayed dead."

If Kain was there, he would have used the phrase, 'Hulking out', because that is what Ichiya did, forcing his body to grow around the same size as the onyx titan with muscles that exuded with power by how his shirt exploded in pieces.

"This is for my cute student, Eve!" Ichiya never had the best of first impressions, but one could almost forget all his faults as he stepped forward with enough force to cracked the ground beneath his feet and threw a punch so powerful that it made the steel titan fly like a bullet, forcing it to flip mid air and used it's powered blades to slow the momentum after a dozen feet of skidding and torn earth.

With a mighty flex and a menacing aura, Ichiya motioned the fearsome robotic corpse to come at him. "I'm not done with you yet."

"Leader is amazing, isn't he?" Hibiki commented while Doranbolt was in awe witnessing a far more powerful side to the silly man.

Despite that, the Griever rose back, standing just as tall as a while ago.

"Since you're made of metal," Ichiya flexed before reaching for his pocket to bring out another vial for him to sniff. "I'm about to show you something shocking!" As he emphasized that last word, his fists started to cackle with electricity.

" **Spark Parfume~!** " Ichiya yelled as he blasted off with the intent to turn the king of machines into the king of broken toasters.

Yet the Bellator stabbed his black ice blade in the ground in front of him, creating a wall of ice for Ichiya's empowered fist to strike and shatter. Only, the second it shattered, there was no sign of the massive black titan of steel behind the ice.

In that instant, Doranbolt teleported right above and behind Ichiya with a look of desperation on his face as he slammed his palm into Ichiya's left shoulder and an instant later, the two vanished before the area Ichiya was in turned into a blast zone of the Griever crashing into the ground with the weight of a skyscraper.

Not too far, Doranbolt and Ichiya slid away from the wind, but mostly unscathed from the impact.

"Thank you for your stylish help," The enhanced mage proclaimed before taking another perfume bottle. "It seems like I need to stop holding back." As soon as he sniffed this second vial, Doranbolt blinked and no longer saw the massive man beside him. His brain then registered the sound of a clash and looked back towards the fight where Ichiya punched with so much force, a shockwave was seen past his extended arm where the ground and some trees where toppled over. However, the Griever was nowhere near the brunt of that attack.

Doranbolt watched and watched. His impression of Ichiya changed, he was indeed an honorable person who deeply cared for those around him.

However, his opponent was _**not**_.

Ichiya's strength was not to be denied, yet The Griever took on the hits with little trouble. The speed in which Ichiya moved would have made any man swear it was trying to see wind, yet The Griever tagged movements that shouldn't have been possible. When looking at Ichiya, it could almost inspire confidence, hope—yet as the Griever towered over the enhanced man, human concepts were as empty as it's eyes.

Ichiya was a true man; however, he was fighting a legend.

"Master!"

And Legends sometimes need things beyond mankind.

Doranbolt panicked when he saw The Griever bend his body in a way he never expected a humanoid to do so to dodge another punch and launched his claw like leg to vice grip right into Ichiya's neck. Just like that, the ace of Blue Pegasus had his assault stopped like a crushed rat—was even lifted up by one leg as if he was a rat.

Doranbolt shouted, "Hibiki, find the weakness you said you'd find!" Not even half a second after that last word, The Rune Knight vanished. He blinked right behind the Griever's back with his right hand tagging his back. However, Doranbolt panicked as he saw the arms of the black titan turn towards him and tried to skewer him, but fighting his fear, the black haired rune knight vanished along with the steel king, but without the blades that flew threw the air where Doranbolt's head was.

Doranbolt and the Griever reappeared. The metallic creature moved like lightning to grab Doranbolt, who at the last second blinked away from the metallic claw hands of the Machina king. When the machine king's grab missed, bright lights from its left and right side caught his attention before he was caught in between avalanche of boulders and a stream of light based spears that exploded on contact.

Hibiki, while still frantically looking over all history facts for some kind of clue as to how the first Wizard Saint beat the monster, looked up and gripped his fist. "Good move! Sending it between Jura and Jellal's attacks!"

As the dust cloud encompassed the area, Jura jumped out and regrouped with the other two, looking worse for wear, but still and focused. Doranbolt appeared next to him as the four members of the alliance looked towards the cloud.

A figure from the clouds put the four of them back in to defensive positions soon, Jellal stepped out, his clothes looking singed, but looking less injured than Jura. And, to their great misfortune, a larger figure was appearing behind Jellal, showing the Machine King was only made dusty from the attack of two clashing wizard Saints.

"A fearsome pair indeed." Jura spoke as he slowly raised his hand. "We may need another strategy, especially since Nirvana has been reawakened."

"Guys!" Hibiki popped out of his cover. "I finally found something! Some experts believe the First Wizard Saint defeated the Machina King by shattering his torso and crushing his mech-heart!" He pointed over towards the torso of the machine warrior. "The color tones around his torso seem off in one area—it's not properly fixed!"

Jellal instantly heard that and shot a hand out to fire out a blast of light towards Hibiki. However, he was too late with this reaction as a stone boulder rose up to take the blast of light.

"So the monstrous machine has a weak spot?" Doranbolt loosened up as his eyes set towards a rather paler black spot in the Machina King's torso.

"Thank you, Hibiki, your hard work will pay off this instant!" Ichiya himself seemed to grow even more muscular hear such a fact.

Jura's stance strengthened as well. "At last, we have a chance to turn this around."

They could do this, with a weakness exposed, they could take out the Machina King and even Jellal couldn't take on all four of—

"You looked so desperately for a weakness," The Former Wizard's Saint's calm voice raised goosebumps on the group's skin. "Were you paying attention to the strength the Machina King used to battle evenly with the First Wizard Saint's magic?"

Hibiki's stunned silence seemed to be an answer to everyone.

Jellal raised his hands and with a simple snap of his fingers… The Machina King gave off a sound that was nothing like a machine, but of steel roaring like that of an unknown creature.

They all watched as the two blades of ice and flame flew back to the hand claws of the Griever. However, his claws hand separated into that of four more extra limbs, and with each limb, a new sword appeared. Four black blades with a different colored tint: Purple, Green, Yellow, and Gray.

"Aranea Mode." Jellal whispered before the Griever made his attack on the four members of the Alliance.

Jura was the first to act, shooting boulders off the ground to attack the incoming steel king. However, the attack did little to slow down their attacker as the six swords were used in tandem to make incoming boulders that would thrice crush houses, feel like nothing but rain on a tree. The Machina King Closed the distance between him and Jura—the latter who made a motion—only to freeze as he felt a strong force strike him from the back of ribcage. Jellal had used Meteor and during the offensive of the Machine king, circled behind the group and kicked Jura with enough force to stagger the Wizard Saint before backing off. The instant he did, the yellow-black blade of the Griever glowed—thunder struck down on Jura, who screamed as the volts entered into his nervous system and was kneed in the same spot Jellal struck by the Griever.

Everyone in the Alliance heard the sound of bone being crushed as Jura was sent flying right through another rock. The Wizard Saint gasped, twitched, and then he fell unconscious.

"Jura!" Hibiki yelled as horror now gripped his heart, a far cry from the hope he was feeling just moments ago.

The Griever gave them no time of mercy as he stabbed his green-black blade into the ground. Wild Vines exploded from the ground and attempted to ensnare the remaining three. Doranbolt teleported out while Ichiya powered through his bounds.

Hibiki was unlucky as he struggled to escape his bounds that were slowly tightening around him with the intent to crush him like a twig. He saw a light before Jellal's blast hit him head on, freeing him of the binds and letting his body lay there, unmoving.

"NO!" Ichiya screamed before Doranbolt made his move. He was going to use another teleport move, but his mind caught something looking at the Machina King: why did he only have five of his swords? Where was the green one?

The sound of wind behind him made Doranbolt's heart stop. He looked back, only to see a massive whirlwind form behind that threw him off balance and prevented him from being able to aim his teleports.

Something had stopped his wild flailing by a vice grip around his neck. Doranbolt noticed that Jellal had him by the neck and before he could attempt to escape, Jellal used his speed of Meteor to slam Doranbolt into the ground, knocking him unconscious as well.

Which only left...

"Villains! You will not win! Eve shall be avenged by my hand!" Ichiya cried out as he reached for another vial, only to find it hard to move his hand above his waist.

The Blue Pegasus Ace looked up to see the Griever raising his purple-black sword into the air. As it glowed, his arms, his entire body grew heavier and heavier.

"A-A Gravity Blade?!" Ichiya gasped before the force of pressure increased, forcing him to fall face first into the floor and dropping the vial.

"N-No! I must avenge—" And then The Griever increased the power of his gravity blade, causing a massive crater to appear before him with Ichiya in the dead center.

The pressure ceased and all was quiet. This group containing Jura of the Wizard Saints and Blue Pegasus' Ace was defeated by Jellal and The Griever.

The Griever raised his gray sword and the stones around the area gathered above each individual member until they formed massive spears ready to end their lives then and there.

"Stop!" Jellal barked, at his voice the machine stopped and undid his blade magic. "That's enough. If Nirvana works, these will be allies, not enem..." Jellal trailed off from his explanation and sighed. "Right, Brain gave me compete control over you. I don't need to explain anything to a dead corpse, even if you aren't human."

Jellal couldn't figure out what Brain was up to. Why did Brain put a strange amount of trust in him? Granted, he was the only one who seemed to 'welcome' him in after the white and red dragon, but he couldn't help but feel that he was part of a secret plan Brain had in store beneath the obvious one.

Worse still, he was still distracted by _her_. So many thoughts ran through his head, but he barely could even look at her direction for more than two seconds. So many conflicted feelings, how could he express them?

Deep down, he knew something was wrong about all of this. But what could he do? Betray those that welcomed him in and potentially be put to the death penalty? He was damned if he succeeded with Oracion Seis, damned if he failed with them. At that, Jellal gave a small laugh. Perhaps this was punishment of some kind, of the 'person' he was when he saw—when he thought he saw Zeref. His memory could look back on his worst moment, when something came up to him in his weakest, and… twist his mind against his will. Back then, he thought he was seeing the truth, but in reality, he could now feel the influence over his mind when compared to that of when he had his free will as a child.

The white and red dragon had seemed to steal a piece of his soul, the one tainted with that dark influence, and with that gone, nothing but shame and guilt overcame Jellal as he realized what he had just done to his friends—to _her—_ for the past decade.

"No," Jellal whispered, his hands gripping his fist. "Cowardice and weakness was what made my heart tainted in the first place. I must right my wrongs."

He turned back, looking up towards Nirvana with a look of a man who knew his mission. However, a small frown came back to his lips. "I'm sorry, Brain. You also seemed to be a changed man."

* * *

"I feel all kinds of conflicted right now." Jason Dracoblood commented as he looked between that of Lyon and Gray, who were now half naked, facing down Angel of Oracion Seis, who was wearing one of the most impractical feathered half dress he had ever seen.

Beside her, where some of the other high level Criminals to watch out for such as Prisca Dorance, the mage who can enhance his strength at will and Brown Beard, the feared pirate mage of the southern isles who was immune to scurvy. They too were wearing clothes that exposed their muscular midriffs.

Jason felt insecure for some reason. At least Lahar was normally dressed.

"Aww, isn't that cute?" Angel purred while the Alliance tensed. "You think two ice mages, a nerd, and some scraggly haired knight can stop me?"

Gray smirked at that. "You're forgetting we have someone else in our group." At that mention something landed behind the four Alliance Mages, revealing it to be Ignis the crimson Wyvern who unleashed a powerful roar towards his opponents. The followers of Brown beard seemed to flinch at the voice of the massive creature.

Jason was very glad that Kain had allowed Ignis to follow them instead.

"Well, Wyvern Scales are quite the rarity to sell off!" Brown Beard unhooked his flint pistol and pointed it towards the pseudo dragon. "We skin that beast and we all live like kings!"

Those words were all it took for the fear that Ignis inspired on their enemies to be turned into lust and greed for money, and the willingness to do anything to get it.

Lyon stepped forward, "Where is the Machina King? I have no time for small fry like you."

"Aww what? Sad that you lost your girlfriend? I mean, I've killed a bunch of girlfriends, wives, husbands, and whatever before, so don't feel too bad." Her tone was mocking as she placed a finger on her cheek and tilted her head lightly.

The temperature around the area dropped significantly. It didn't take much to figure out why. "I have no time for this!" Lyon went into a stance and then fired out a large ice Manticore with the intent to maul the Oracion Seis member while the others got out of the way to engage in other fights.

There was a blur before the ground shot out and this large mud golem caught the manticore by the jaw and wrestled it closed.

The other student of Ur recognized that magic, but logic—a fresh grave—told him that magic was impossible!

"Oh! Lyon!" For the first time in a very long time, the Ice mage felt a shiver down his spine, but not because of the temperature. "You're so great! … So why didn't you protect me?"

'Sherry Blendy' stood behind the earth golem, just as she was before—

"Lyon! That's not her, she's gotta be a shift shaper!" Gray's voice from fighting against Prisca snapped Lyon out of his stupor before rage came across Lyon's face.

" **Ice make: Claymore!** " Lyon shouted out as a large sword appeared above the Ice Manticore, who then used it's scorpion tail to grab onto the handle and stab the tool right into the head of the mud golem.

"You bitch!" The temperature around Lyon dropped drastically as his eyes tunneled towards the one looking like his now dead ally.

"Oooh? Was that a sore spot?" 'Shelly' made a mocking tone before she twirled, now turning into Lyon himself. "How about this? I am Lyon, the Cold Emperor, the greatest _f_ _ailure_ in this side of Fiore." Soon, Fake Lyon had this horrid and mocking laugh. "Oh my god, you asked your Teacher to see you as her dead daughter?! And here I thought I had issues!"

"I will throw your frozen blood into the sewers!" Lyon forced the Ice Manticore to rush for the one who was making a complete mockery of him. However, the fake Lyon raised his arm and the incoming Manticore stopped.

"Lovely isn't it?" The fake Lyon made a flourish with his hand, only to remember that she currently didn't have any long hair and hit nothing but empty air. "Oops. But I do love this special form of Shift Stealing, I can copy someone's memories and magic with this handy power. I can even use it on people I've seen only once."

With another twirl and a puff of smoke, Angel turned into Eve. "It's one of the reasons why I'm the best infiltrator in Oracion Seis. I didn't really have a chance to use this magic earlier simply because I thought the others would beat you easy, and then Jellal came in with the Griever before I could back stab you all, so in a sense, you should be thanking him."

"I'll kill you and him!" Lyon shouted as he slammed his palms into the ground. The area around him froze into the shape of a magical circle. Behind him, a giant hand burst out and grabbed into the floor, revealing a large ice golem similar a previous rock golem that Sherry once used. It made a powerful roar before stepping forward with the intent to pummel her into nothingness.

"Don't you learn?" Angel turned from Eve of Blue Pegasus into Lyon of Lamia Scale and raised the transformed hand out, to freeze the Ice Golem. "I have your magic as well, which means I can control your constructs!"

"Are you sure about that?" Angel snapped her eyes towards her opponent, who seemed much calmer than a second ago. "You just told me you can copy people's magic and memories by just looking at them. If you had such a great power: why haven't you copied any the four strongest Wizards here?" Lyon pointed and for the first time between their back and forth, Angel lost her cool at that question. "Makarov, Goldmine, Jellal, and Jura. All of them are Wizard Saints, or at the very least have enough power of one, yet you made no sign of even changing into them, nor do you give off the air that you're the strongest of the Oracion Seis." Lyon gave a smirk, glad to have a word advantage over her. "That's your caveat, it takes energy to transform, and doubly so when using your target's magic. Copying Jura's magic would drain your stamina too fast because of how much out put he naturally gives off, even more so the others."

Lyon pointed his hand out and the Golem started to tremble. Angel panicked as she pushed forward, but slowly the Golem was moving once more. "Which means, You can copy my magic, but you have no stamina to keep it up!"

Angel struggled as the Ice Golem moved faster and faster before it roared, free of the Fake Lyon's hold and forcing Angel to go back into her real form. The Oracion Seis member looked up in fear when a large shadow was cast over her, meaning that Lyon's Ice Golem was now over her.

"This is for making a mockery of Sherry!" Lyon cried as he raised his fist back, with the golem doing the same. However, a stray bullet hit that reclined arm, forcing Lyon to stop his attack and step backward, which made the golem copy his movements.

Lyon glanced at the direction of the bullet, only to have his eyes widen in alarm to see Lahar of the Rune Knights pointing one of his two specialized long pistols at him.

Gray, after slamming Prisca into several trees with an Ice Hammer, saw the event and cried out, "What the Hell is your problem!?"

"That's not me!" A different shout caused both Ice Mages to see another Lahar hiding behind a rock and barrier. As soon as he shouted that cry, Brown Beard and his men turned all their guns towards Lahar and fired, forcing the Rune Knight to run for cover further away from the fight.

"W-What's going on!?" Some distance away, while kicking away one of the pirates of Brown Beard, Jason was just as confused as everyone else to see two Lahars.

There was a hum of magic that made Lyon look back towards Angel, only to be blasted by a sand storm. Angel was in a different armor dress with steel plating over her limbs and... a steel scorpion tail?

"Thank you, Gemi and Mini."

The new Lahar vanished in a puff of smoke and two small, humanoid creatures were seen dancing in the air.

"Yay! We helped, Mini!" "That we did, Gemi!"

"Celestial Spirits?" Lyon gasped as he slowly got back up and grasped his arm. Gray was shocked to hear and see Celestial Spirits outside of Lucy's.

"Their powers are quite helpful." Angel answered him as she raised a hand and a dust storm formed and condensed into that of a sandstorm in the shape of a spear. "And with the Spirit Armor ability, it's like I can use two spirits and two magics at the same time!" She threw the spear shaped sand storm at the down Ice mage, only for an ice wolf of a different color to swoop in and tackle Lyon out of the spear that was meant for his face.

Angel turned and scowled as she looked over to Gray with his hands stretched out. "Another ice user?"

"I don't like Lyon, but what you did was low!" The half naked Ice mage spoke out as he prepared for—

"Gray, my beloved!"

Like Lyon before, Gray felt a chill down his spine as he heard that voice. He looked past Angel and behind her was—

"Juvia!? What are you doing here!?" The only response Gray received was a blast of water that slammed him into a tree. After being washed up, Gray also shook his head. "How the hell?! Juvia never appeared here, so how do you have her form!?"

The Fake Juvia walked forward. "Gemi and Mini have stronger magic, we can see memories of other people we copy and copy them based on their memories." To prove their point, the two shifted again, this time taking on a form that both Lyon and Gray knew far too well.

"You two brats are a hundred years too early to call yourselves ice mages." Gray instantly knew how Natsu felt when he saw the Phantom Version of his father back in the Isle of the dead. His emotions clashed with his mind, no matter how much he wanted to be happy, facts and logic tried to explain that the form in front of him was not Ur, no matter how much of his emotions were recognizing that confident smile.

"You bitch!" Lyon forced himself up, the anger returning from awhile ago. "You're going to pay for messing with us!" Gray found himself in agreement, this chick was playing dirty.

"Oh ho?" It was then that the two ice mages realized that Angel was back towards Lyon's frozen golem in his form, touching the massive leg of the creature. "Since Gemi and Mini are out, my shift stealing abilities are much easier to use. It's easier to use another person's magic and I also can copy things from people's memories without directly meeting them. And boy did I find something very interesting in _both_ of your memories."

As she said this Lyon's ice golem started to change, it grew in size and it's form started to become more demonic. Lyon and Gray could only pause in fear as the golem in honor of Sherry was twisted and malformed into an ice version of Deliora, the demon that changed both of their lives forever.

"How poetic! Deliora will destroy both of you once more!" Angel in Lyon's voice cried out as the massive ice golem roared—wait a second. Why did Deliora's roar sound like Ignis?

"AAAHHH!?" A Wyvern Roar and a somewhat scared scream flew through the air. Jason Dracoblood of Phantom Lord, ridding on top of Ignis had flown right into the head of Deliora with enough force to topple it over.

"What!?" Angel cried out as the construct she stole was turned into pieces.

"Whoo! That was awesome! I can see why Fairy Tail likes you so much!" Jason cried out from an Adrenaline rush before his smile turned into a frown of realization when he saw an angry looking shape shifter that was looking directly towards him.

Angel, while still taking Lyon's form, slammed her hands down. And soon the shattered ice formed a sphere that soon trapped both Jason and Ignis. The Giant Sphere seemed to wobble, but had no signs of breaking soon.

Gray and Lyon saw this chance and attacked those who were closest to them. Gray with the Ur Fake and Lyon with Angel disguised as himself. However, despite not using magic, the two shift shapers weaved around their magical attacks and pummeled both ice mages with little trouble.

"It's true I can't copy more powerful wizards, like that girl teacher of yours even with Gemini's help," Angel with Lyon's voice said as she held Lyon in a choke hold. "But I have enough surface memories of both of your fighting styles, and the ticks you both needed to work on." She kicked Lyon off, sending him to the ground and stomping hard on the hand that was shot. "It's not quite like mind reading, or hearing thoughts, but it does a wonderful job."

"Lyon!" Gray cried out before he was punched by the fake Ur for losing focus in his fight. As he tried to get back up Gemini's Foot was quickly planted on Gray's neck, forcing the half naked ice mage to choke and struggle to get out of her grip.

Angel's form also turned to that of Ur, but with a dark smile on her face that both students knew their teacher would never give. "Now then, it's time to reunite a teacher with her students!" She and Gemini raised their hands as spikes of ice levitated above the two downed students with the intent to turn them both into pincushions.

However, at that instant, all of the ice shards were destroyed by a rain of bullets. Angel and her spirit looked to see Lahar, his glasses cracked on one side, his Rune Knight uniform torn, shot through, torn, and with some blood on it, and some of his pistols looking grimy.

As the Rune Knight viewed the sight before him, he sighed and pointed his guns froward. "Are you, guild mages that inept? Brown Beard, his men, and a reawakened Prisca all went after me and I defeated them all. Yet none of you could defeat a single mage?"

"Huh, big talk coming from you Rune Knight," Angel spat darkly before returning to her original form. "Nowadays, you guys are mostly there for clean up. The people we liberated were obviously bigger pushovers than we thought if a pencil pusher like you could take them on."

There was a sudden scream as both Gemi and Mini separated and returned to their original form. The writhed in pain while specialized symbols were formed around them.

Angel was surprised by this as she made a move, bronze caught her eyes and she noticed out of all the shattered ice spikes, bullets were lodged in and started to glow out symbols in them. Soon a massive barrier field surrounded the area that instantly made Angel unable to access her magic and a large amount of pain preventing her from moving.

"Justsu Shiki is a very tedious form of magic that requires hours—even months of preparation." Lahar began walking towards Angel. While doing so, the ice sphere shattered, revealing Ignis was able to break through and Jason was alright. As the Rune Knight reached the now weakened and pained Angel, he continued. "But the results are always satisfactory even if they are temporary." He raised his hand with a pistol, flipped it and pistol whipped Angel hard in the face, the blow was strong enough to knock the woman out unconscious due to her battle with the others and her spent magic stamina.

As soon as Angel was knocked out, the Celestial Spirit Twins vanished, obviously returning from where they came from. Lahar took something from underneath his robe, revealing handcuffs and put them on Angel.

"And with that, we finally have captured one of the Oracion Seis." Lahar spoke out as he pushed up his glasses.

However, there was a spike of magic as several ice vultures were summoned near a furious Lyon, walking over to an unconscious Angel. "Time for payback!"

To the surprise of many, Lahar moved first in between him and his new captive. "Desist! We're keeping this member of the Oracion Seis alive.

Lyon seemed to be fuming. However, a hand on his shoulder made Lyon snap back to a serious looking Gray. They both stared at each other with tension as thick as an iceberg, then after the longest two seconds, Lyon moved his shoulder out of Gray's grasp and glared towards Lahar. "I'm surprised you aren't killing her like some of the other criminals before."

Lahar relaxed as Lyon would at least stop if he couldn't reign his anger. "I received orders that while Lethal force was allowed for the escapees, The Oracion Seis were ordered to be captured alive, Brain especially."

"Why the heck do you guys need Brain specifically?" Gray repeated.

"I do not question my orders." Lahar stated before looking up towards the sky. "Besides, we have more pressing matters at hand."

Everyone looked up to Nirvana, floating in the sky where it looked like the magic around it was starting to distort the air. No sooner than they looked at it, they received another call from a certain mage from Cait Shelter.

* * *

"It doesn't matter what you do," Cobra of Oracion Seis laughed as he stood atop a cliff over looking Riana, Alexandra, and Erza. "I can hear your voices!"

"I wasn't there in the initial assault, what was his magic?" Raina asked as she prepared a blade much like the other two women in her group.

"What he claims; he says he hears voices, but I noticed he seemed to dodge others' moves as if he knew we'd make them, which might imply some form of mind reading?" Erza spoke out.

"Look at them down there Cubellios, even after telling them, they still won't listen." Cobra felt something off as he notice Cubellios moving closer to him, but further away from…

Cobra leered, "I may hear everything, but it's getting real annoying when others **don't** **listen** , Doc."

There was a chilling laughter coming from her mask that made Cobra almost wish he didn't have good hearing. "Are you aware that some senses become sharper when others dull, Cobra?" Beliere Val Belbala began. "It seems despite your excellent hearing, a very specific sense of your seems to be lacking if you have not noticed _that_ on your… friend." The plague doctor's masked moved to look at the snake hissingly angrily at her.

Cobra threw his hand between Cubellios' head, trying to protect his friend. "Watch it, doctor. Brain gave us access to your collars, and he made sure to leave the kill switch if you don't obey us."

Back down below, the three knight woman looked up in surprise.

Erza seemed wary when she saw Cobra seemingly confrontational with his own ally. "Who is that next to Cobra?"

Her answer came from Riana who prepared her blade and glared at cloaked figure. "I read the files: Dr. Beliere Val Belbala, a very twisted monster. A potion master that caused over a dozen magically enhanced deadly disease on small towns." She gripped her blade tighter. "In her interrogation, she was quoted for aiming for towns with large children populations."

That last bit of information chilled the blood of both Erza and Alexandra before steeling their resolve to stop that dangerous criminal along with Cobra of Oracion Seis.

Alexandra then took out a metal item that unfolded into a javelin before she threw it, launching it at impressive speeds towards their enemies.

Cobra acted fast, hearing the wind carried in the air. He and the doctor both dodged the spear however, it suddenly turned mid air aiming for the doctor. The fast moving metal javelin pierced through the torso of the doctor. However, a second later they saw the javelin seemingly melting from some kind of blue acidic goo.

"Alas, Theordora, this spike that pierces my flesh pales to the arrow of love that has shattered my soul—a very lovely quote from one of my favorite books." The Plague Doctor began before jumping behind a tree, but her voice echoed around the area as Cobra jumped down with an obvious smile on his face.

Cobra sidestepped as something from his own shadow shot out to stab him in the back of his head, revealing Raina with her sword pointed and missed attack.

"That's some dangerous magic you got there, Captain of the White Tiger Division." Cobra was only half mocking in his tone, there was a small edge that made him tense, meaning her magic really was dangerous to him.

HIs eyes widened as he sidestepped. The reason for this was because even though she was a good two meters away, Raina made a slanted swing motion with her blade. The moment she did, her hand wielding her blade turned into shadows, and stretched exponentially like a whip that cut Cobra's area much wider and faster than a normal slash.

"Impressive," Erza looked as Raina's shadowy limb recoiled back into that a normal hand. "Are you a shadow mage?"

"Not strictly, I call it Shadow Flash magic. Basically, I _turn into_ shadows more than control them." Raina went into a blade position as did Erza. Alexandra then threw her blade over them that curved and hit several potions falling down on the other two swordswomen. This caused them to back off as an orange mist separated the two opposing sides.

Dr. Belbala landed no to far from Cobra, "You know, I'm surprised you're not eating my poison."

Cobra clicked his tongue while continuing to glare at his ally. "To trap a bear, slather a trap with honey."

The phrase was obscure, but it also had a double meaning that the plague doctor recognized. "Oh come now, Cobra, we're on the same side." Dr. Belbala made no effort to make that sound sincere, but at the same time what she said was a fact.

With disdain and hesitance, Cobra, to the surprise of the three alliance members, inhaled the obviously toxic fumes. Erza's eyes widened as she couldn't help but feel a familiar magic in the air whenever a certain pink haired mage reacted towards fire.

Erza felt this familiar feeling exemplified when Cobra finished inhaling all the poison and gasping in relief. "I really want to hate you, but that's the most exquisite poison I've had!"

The cloaked plague doctor made a bow in a grandiose fashion. "You flatter me, poison dragon slayer."

"He's a dragon slayer?!" Raina cried out before Cobra rushed in with increased speed and punched the commander of the White Tigers in the cheek. The impact sent her flying before she recovered mid air and landed some distance away.

"I'm rejuvenated!" Cobra laughed victoriously before turning quickly and blocking Erza's sword with the back of his hand. In that moment of the clash, Erza noticed that there were scales above Cobra's hand skin, similar to the description Kain had for Gajeel and Natsu's Dragon Force mode. "I can hear your voice, Titania! A surprise attack won't work on me!"

A few seconds later, a round shield came at amazing speeds and knocked the side of Cobra's head, which allowed Erza to push through and unleash a slash that made Cobra fly somewhat until his snake caught him mid air by unleashing it's wings.

Cobra shook his head as he noticed the round shield fly back into the hands of Alexandra. However, it wasn't the action that made Cobra angry. It was the fact he could hear everyone's voice, except that of Alexandra from Phantom Lord.

"W-What?!" Cubellios started to move as Erza turned into her Heaven's Wheel Armor. She sent a flurry of blades against them that Cobra could easily detect. Suddenly, Cubellios screamed in pain and Cobra noticed some blades now pierced through one of his friend's wings! Cobra thought that was impossible! He would have heard Erza planning to aim for one of the wings, but she was aiming for him! However, he further noticed a black glow coming from the blades that pierced the wing and realized it was the same glow of the shield that hit him.

Cobra's eyes, while falling, trailed to Alexandra who had her hand out towards the blades. Cobra was furious as he inhaled and unleashed a devastating poison roar that warded the three swordswomen back. However, he was fuming as he raced to his injured pet for falling.

That finally clued him in. He was sure his magic was working, so—

Cobra glared towards Alexandra then pointed to her. "Why can't I hear your voice!?"

Alexandra blinked her red eyes. The green haired and red eyed gladiator seemed to have a look of realization on her face before looking towards Erza… and then making hand signs!?

Erza seemed to have her eyes widen after looking hand signs. "It really isn't mind reading! His other magic is to hear our thoughts physically somehow, but you've been mute your entire life!"

Cobra definitely heard that fact. "Alexandra is mute!?" His exceptional hearing magic, the one that could at times pick up Brain's thoughts when he was careless, they didn't work on someone who was born mute!

Raina raised her blade and stepped forward. "Which means that Ms. Raphael is our best chance at beating Cobra! You lead point! Ms. Scarlet and I will support and defend you!"

Cobra cursed under his breath. He wasn't expecting a mute mage to be among his opponents! These three were definitely a cut above the regular mages, he had a chance of beating them all if he could read whatever they could throw at him, but with all of them working together adding on the fact he couldn't read the thoughts of an S-class mage? His greatest advantage was turned moot point.

"Belbala! Help out already!" Cobra screamed before he realized something, or rather a lack of something: the plague doctor was nowhere to be seen, or even heard with his super hearing.

"This should be far enough." Cobra's enhanced hearing caught Dr. Belbala's voice… practically a mile away from where he was. "In case you can hear me, Cobra, I just want to thank you for giving me the chance to escape. Brain had me by the leash, but I was able to learn that your self destruct magics have a range limit. Luckily for me, all I had to do was make you too focused on your own pet to hear my plans of escape. Do take care in whatever hole they lock you up."

Cobra was seething. Brain had warned him about Belbala, but he wasn't expecting this!

At that moment, all three women, with enormous magical pressure coming from them, charged at Cobra and a weakened Cubellios. The second generation dragon slayer stood his ground but heard the whimper of pain coming from his snake.

Time slowed down; Cobra could hear Erza and Raina's plan to encircle him, to prevent him from avoiding through the right or left side. But Alexandra was the wild card, he couldn't bypass Erza or Raina fast enough for Alexandra to perform whatever move she planned. His mind moved back to Cubellios. Whatever happens, Cubellious would be hit from all sides with no way of escape! Cobra could handle their attacks, but could Cubellios handle it?

Cobra gritted his teeth and quickly turned to his friend. "I'm sorry." With his dragon might, Cobra kicked Cubellios high into the sky and away from him. The snake cried out in pain mid air, but saw the poison dragon slayer leave its sight, if one saw the look on the face of the winged snake, they would almost see it as a human reaction of fear and shock.

The Alliance mages didn't even hesitate as Raina and Erza reached two opposite sides of Cobra to prevent his escape while two small metal sheets shot out of Alexandra's cuffs and quickly caught and bounded Cobra's wrists together. Cobra struggled for a split second before another pair of metal sheets circled and clamped together his legs, leaving him unable to move.

The Oracion Seis member opened his mouth, only for a third metal sheet to come in and muffle around his mouth like a gag.

With those three threats suppressed, and him being bound up, Cobra lost balance and fell to the ground and all three females raised their magical energy.

Sensing the three about to unleash finishing blows on him, The second generation dragon slayer tried to power through the metal circlets, but his strength, while impressive, was breaking the bounds too slowly. He wouldn't escape in time.

At that realization, Cobra looked back to the sky where Cubellios was launched.

{ _I don't believe what the others say! I think you do have a voice, Cubellios! And one day I'll listen to it!_ }

( _Damn_ ,) He thought to himself as he closed his eyes while his hearing could only detect the rising hum of their magics. ( _This is a_ _pathetic_ _way to go._ )

All three mages unleashed a powerful blast that made a three way collision blast. As it died down, Cobra was seen, completely out cold.

"Well done," Raina began as she walked up with anti-magical cuffs in hand. "We've captured and defeated one of the Oracion Seis members." The Fiore Knight looked over to Alexandra. "But I am surprised, you were mute this entire time?"

Alexandra nodded only once, but seemed apologetic.

Erza seemed to add something in. "I learned of Alexandra's handicap not too long after our fight with Phantom Lord. Still, it does nothing to diminish your skill, it's one of the best I've ever seen."

Before more could be said, Erza looked up towards the sky. "But what are we going to do with Nirvana?"

At that moment, they received a cry for help from the youngest of their group through the comlinks.

* * *

"GAH!" William Tovar screamed as he was knocked away from an unseen power. He looked up, barely able to open his eyes before he fainted.

There was a yawn as Midnight trekked the broken battlefield, with the bodies of his enemies, Kara of Phantom Lord, The Rune Knight William Tovar, and that of Tarsus Steel Soul.

"Your group lost the moment the big guy was taken down." Midnight spoke with all the vigor of a sloth. "I'd kill you all right now, but Father did want allies and thanks to Nirvana… wait, why am I talking to myself? I'll just go up there and take a nap while Father does the rest."

* * *

I've always thought of Super Speed as a pretty cool power. Plus, the amount of things I would do with it could make my life so much easier.

But amazingly enough, now that I have it, it sucks in the places where I need it most.

Like for example: finding out someone is faster than me, and is my current opponent.

"This is payback for that embarrassment from earlier today!" Adding to the fact he has a personal vendetta against me when I was blinded by rage to the point where all my fears took a vacation, and that I was nowhere near returning to that potentially convenient state, at this point I wonder why I even bothered hoping for something like this not to happen.

He hit fast and with the likeness of a locomotive, but thankfully I had air superiority—which was just a fancy way of saying that I'm basically a cat stuck in a tree because a dog is barking at me down below.

"Get down here!" Racer waved his fist angrily at me.

"No! You'll beat me up if I do!" Wow, scratch the cat and dog metaphor, I now sound like bratty kid. That's somehow worse.

"Kain!" Lucy screamed over as she just caught up from me making a mad dash away from Racer. At that moment I saw Racer turn and face Lucy—oh shit!

Racer ran for Lucy and put her in a choke hold, I tried to catch up, but I was too slow in keeping up with him.

"Alright then," Racer spoke over Lucy struggling to get Racer's arm off her neck. "You power down, and I won't hurt this girly over here."

It was a dang Hostage Situation, how the heck did I not expect one of these to come up in my adventures here?! I was struggling to think of something until Lucy started to say something.

"Get you hands off me!" She managed to mutter out.

Racer just laughed at her command. "Oh? And who's going to stop me?"

"That would be me."

A new voice came out a second before a blast of familiar magic knocked Racer away from Lucy. I turned over to see Loke, in the same snazzy suit he wore when he saved me from Pierre.

"Kain," He saluted cooly before walking towards us as if he was in a park. "Good to see you again."

I could feel a smile coming up my lips. "Loke! Man can I just say it's great to see back up!" There was a shine coming from Lucy's direction, a little later, I saw Lucy in her new star dress which was a match to Leo's.

"You've done well, Lucy, I knew it was only a matter of time until you mastered both summoning and star dress at the same time." Loke spoke to his contracted master with a hint of flirtation.

There was a grunt that made all three of us look to Racer getting up from an attack we _really_ should have taken advantage off earlier.

"It doesn't matter how many of you there are, you can't even touch me, the fastest man alive!" There was much anger in Racer's voice as he slowly moved into a running position.

Still, that line he just said made me think of the Flash—wait a dang second. I am a comic book fan, and I've seen many of the complicated ways villains fight against the Flash! I remember one of them!

"Move back!" I yelled before stepping forward and punching the ground in such a way a boulder flipped up and I punched it towards Racer who swerved away from the incoming rock.

But that little detour was enough time for me to grab Lucy by her hip and lift her up in the air. "Loke! I need you to buy us at least a minute or two!"

"Sure thing mister tactician!" I could feel the teasing tone in his voice with having a bueatiful girl in my arms, but this was not the time for that.

Lucy was obviously confused as I tried to get away. Racer made a move towards the two of us, but a blast from Loke warded him back.

"Kain, we need to go back and help Loke!" Lucy seemed surprised.

"I just asked him to buy some time," I responded quickly before landing and letting her down. "Look, I think I know a weakness to super speed, but I'm going to need your help to do it."

The blonde, former heiress put a hand over her chest in disbelief. "Me?"

"Lucy, between the two of us, you have the better chance of beating him. Now listen closely..."

…

If I haven't expressed how much I hate this world yet, I would like to do so now. If I have done previously before, then I still would like to do it again.

Seriously!? Why is it that _I'm_ the one doing the dangerous parts of my own plans!? Every! Time! You'd think I'd be able to make plans where I'm in the safer area for once, but nooooo! Since I don't actually have any magic, all I'm ever good for is being the distraction in an active firing range! This dang armor basically makes me a walking target sign!

Despite my inner ranting, I spotted Loke getting beaten up like a rag doll by Racer. I knew racer was fast, but for some reason, Loke seemed to move more sluggish than usual. It was then that Racer, after dealing a heavy punch to Loke's cheek, he jumped up with the intent to send a flying kick with enough force to knock out our member/Lucy's Spirit.

It's just too bad he wasn't aware of me being able to flying kick him mid air before he could do something like that. For a speedster, he isn't very aware of his surroundings, which hopefully means this plan of mine might actually work.

"Loke!" I cried out to the beaten up spirit of the lion. "Thanks for holding him off! Tag out and head for Lucy! I got this next part!"

"Right!" It speaks volumes that apparently the leader of the golden Celestial Spirit Keys trusts my word without hesitation. I don't even have half of that trust to myself! "Good luck, Kain!"

"I was never lucky the moment I stepped foot here!" I shouted back before watching Racer looking even angrier than before.

The enemy speedster got up and even though his goggles were a little dirty, I could feel his glare behind them. "What the hell are you planning?"

I disengaged my wings and landed on the ground with a tap. "No plans, just a battle of speed." At that moment, I brought out one of my red construct blades, and I brought out the weapon of Horus and turned it into a shield.

Racer scoffed but took a step forward. "Well I don't know, you have weapons and I don't? How about we even the odds?"

I heard the sound of something familiar echoing around me. I readied my shield, ready for whatever Racer was about to pull off—what. The. No, not even the f bomb can't express this.

"Behold! One of my favorite magics! **Dead Grand Prix!** " Racer laughed as he brought in—and I still can't believe it considering what I've seen so far—an army of motorized bikes. Yes, he uses magic, to summon motor bikes.

"Is that the look of fear behind that helm of yours?" Racer folded his arms as he looked down on me from the slightly elevated land he was on. "You should be scared, these things are super fast just like—"

"Why?"

I could feel racer blink and look over to me with my slackened position. "I don't get it:

you are a speed mage, but for some reason, you choose to put time, effort, and energy into a spell that allows you to summon an army of-of that!?" I made a motion to his spell that would make a motor nerd fall instantly in love with Racer.

"I don't see what point you're trying to make here."

I just noticed that I had my sword hand near my head in an attempt to scratch it from confusion. Instead, I just exhaled and just asked. "I'm just going to ask: why did you even bother making this spell when you have super speed?"

"I mean," Racer began as he took a brief look back at the vehicles before looking back at my direction. "It's cool, isn't it?"

… "Yeah, it is cool." At that point I should have just given up logic and coherency altogether.

"It'll be much cooler when I send these bikes against you!" Racer returned full swing as the speed mage sent out a magic motorcycle army to kill me—there is no way I could come up with any of that shit even when I'm high.

As stupid as it sounded, it was even more stupid to find out these things really were fast! I was barely dodging some trying to turn me into roadkill! It was then I heard a more powerful roar and I spotted a red magic motorbike with Racer on it. He moved faster than the other bikes, obviously with the intent to run me over. Luckily, like a certain famous Italian plumber, I leapt over him to avoid his frontal assault.

Wait—GAH! Did one of those bikes just use a tree root as a ramp to hit me?!

I need to change tactics, at this rate, the plan wont work! As I landed, I rolled and readied my blade with a horizontal sword beam that destroy three bikes heading my way. There was a slight difference in Racer's motor than with the others, because I heard it coming up to me.

"Hey! These things aren't cheap, even for me punk!" He cried out as he moved faster. I then slammed my shield into the ground and because of it's unique, ancient magic, it formed into a physical object I needed the most: a ramp.

"S-Shit!" I heard Racer try to pull off the breaks, but he was far too close to react as he ended up flying over my head and being forced to jump out of the way before his speeding bike crashed into one of the huge trees that surrounded the area.

Racer rolled to stop and practically growled in my direction. "You bastard that was my favorite bike!"

It was at that moment, something shot up into the air, a familiar laser beam that looked like a fire works.

That was the break I need.

"Hey, Racer!" I cried out as my cape turned back into wyvern wings. "Bet you can't catch me!" And with that I launched myself out of there as fast as the armor could take me.

"That's a fool's bet!" I heard the last of his voice before there was a popping sound of him racing after me. He was faster than me, but I had the flight advantage as I did my best to weave around trees and roots.

Racer moved faster, each time almost tagging me. I had to keep moving fast for this to work though. There! I spotted Lucy in an open area waving over to me.

With everything I could muster, I blasted forward and stopped nearby Lucy in her Virgo outfit. We both looked back to see Racer jumping over a root and speeding towards the both of us in this open field.

 **Crash!**

"AAAGGH!?" Racer cried out because as soon as he stepped into the open field, his foot sunk in a pot hole and he fell forward—at his break neck speeds. The ground beneath collapsed, revealing the area riddled with varying trap holes that caused Racer to tumble towards Lucy and I like a giant tumbleweed, just more bloody and noisy.

"Now!" I yelled as Lucy switched back to her Leo dress and had her leg glowing with Loke's light. As Racer came tumbling towards us, I unleashed a powerful punch while Lucy shout out a Regulus Kick. The two attack connected straight into Racer's face before he was blasted in the opposite direction at the same speed he came in. Racer flew and flew, even crashing through like a dozen trees, before one final impact exploded.

"We," I turned to Lucy who seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "We did it! I can't sense his amazing magic anymore!"

A little past her, the ground burst open, revealing Virgo bowing down. "Princess, did I do well?"

"You did a great job, Virgo!" Lucy said to her before looking to me. "Kain, you were right! All I had to do was make pit fall traps for him to trip on and then we'd win!"

I could only end up half laughing and sighing in relief. "Thank goodness it worked!" It really was a simple plan. I've heard of stories of people breaking their legs by losing their footing on a normal run. For Racer, he must have had good footing to move so fast in any area. But, if there was a small pit fall that made him lose his footing, he would trip at the same speed he was going, meaning that he'd be hurting himself with his won speed!

Lucy and Virgo were the key, I had them find an area where they could make as many shallow pit fall traps as possible. When they were ready, I was to lead Racer there at his highest possible speed and then let gravity do the rest as soon as he lost his footing for a second.

"I couldn't have done this without you girls." I told them both.

"There's no way I would have came up with a counter to his powerful magic like that! I am so glad you're on our team." Aww, Lucy, you're making me blush.

"Hello!?" A voice near my ear made me realize we still had the comlinks on. "Please, Brain is already up at Nirvana, and I don't know what to do next!"

Lucy and I looked at each other before Lucy activated the device in her ear. "Wendy, this is Lucy and Kain! We've defeated Racer, where are you?!"

"You both defeated Racer!? Stupendous! I knew you two would be able to do it!" We were relieved to hear Erza in one of our ends. "Alexandra, Riana, and I have subdued Cobra, we're on our way to reconvene with anyone else. We should meet where Wendy is."

"As great as it is to hear this," Gray's voice entered into the comlink. "And to add on in the fact our group has Angel detained, we have a problem. Lahar says he can't contact Tarsus' team or Jura's team."

"What!? But those two groups practically had our big guns!" I responded as the news of the two teams with some of our more powerful members have gone dark.

"And I haven't heard from Natsu's group too. Knowing him, he should have been bragging how his enemies were harder or something by now." What Gray said made me look to Lucy with worry. Natsu was one of our best front liners, did he lose too? I couldn't imagine him losing unless he met with...

"We must postpone talk about the others." Riana's voice entered into the com. "Ms. Marvel, your comlink has a ping option. Press it and our devices will show us a map of where you are. There, we can plan about Nirvana and hope the others follow us later."

"R-Right!" Wendy spoke up before a second later, a radar screen appeared over my right eye showing me that Wendy was towards our right and not to far from us. "I-Is it working?!"

"It is," Lahar began. "Ms. Roxen is correct. Nirvana is priority. Our… We must stop Brain from having control over Nirvana!"

With that, I looked to Lucy. We were both worried for Natsu and the rest, but with the threat of Nirvana literally over us…

All we could do was hope for the best, and prepare for the obvious worst that was about to come.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **I would like to apologize for the lateness in this one. This new year has been—well, it's not boring to say the least. My family is currently in a bit of an economic problem, and I decided to work more to help relieve some of it. Adding to my own duties and new chores and new responsibilities, adding to the previous fact that during December and Early January, I was and still addicted to—**

 **SUPER SMASH BROTHERS ULTIMATE!**

 **Erhm! Yes. It's been well, I'd say I hope things get better soon.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know the Midnight part is extremely lackluster, but I just was so burned out making everyone else's and at the same time, I have something else planned for him.**

 **Next time, we finally get to see this version of Nirvana. With half of the Oracion Seis and Alliance down, it's a race to the finish with each side fighting inch by bloody inch.**

 **Thank you all for taking the time to read this. I hope you have a good day.**


	40. Chapter 40

As the winds passed through the ruined civilization of Nirvana, Brain could almost feel the ancient air hit him, as if he was there, generations ago when this place was first made.

Lakuya, Nirvana, the Weapon of the Ancients, here he was at last, and he could feel the magic around him unfurling, as if it was slowly waking up from a deep slumber. Here he was, years of planning and this was it, he could feel it coming together. He was at the very brink of victory at last!

He spotted the large tower, unlike the rest of the ruins, the tower seemed more preserved. As he got closer, the magic in the air could be practically be felt touching skin like the wind. Eventually, he reached the top of the tower with a few well placed teleport spells and as he stood in the center of an elaborate room, the magic in the wind started to stir, the room soon regained colors long lost and magical symbols started to appear around Brain.

"This is it." As Brain raised his hand, he suddenly felt something. Soon, three line tattoos vanished from his face and body. "What!? Three of them lost!? Of all times, they had to lose now?!"

The leader of Oracion Seis suddenly started to cough. "There's no time then." He reached out his staff and pointed it towards the machine.

Instantly the tower thrummed with old magic.

As Brain felt the magic activate several magical symbols opened up. "There it is! Nirvana's Guardian System!"

It was at that moment the slumbering magic of Nirvana, and hundreds of glowing eyes, were reawakened.

* * *

"Nirvana," I heard Lucy gasp as she looked up above. "It's not what I expected it to be."

I had to admit, seeing real magical and fantastical settings up close and personal was a very specialized experience. Every other time almost took my breath away, maybe they would if I didn't know how dangerous they were. Sasly for me, I wouldn't get to enjoy this beautiful view either because someone else was on my mind.

"Are you alright, Wendy?" I turned to the girl who seemed to fidget at my mention.

"I-I'm sorry, you all told me to go but Brain—" I ended up kneeling and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You did great, Wendy. It's not your fault. We can still stop this." I spoke earnestly. She seemed to relax after hearing my words and nodded once. I stood back up, trying to fight the logical part of my brain that was just confused as to how we would stop The Oracion Seis and Brain.

As soon as I said this, we heard the sound of people coming closer, to our relief it was both Erza and Gray's group. While we were all happy to see each other, we soon had to compare notes.

"So you're telling me that Goldmine is fighting Gramps somewhere?" Gray asked.

And then, some distance away, we saw a large, see through, golden hawk screeched high before several powerful towers erupted and clashed with the descending hawk. The clash caused us to all shield our eyes while the earth shook a bit.

As that little light show died down, I was the first to break the silence. "Well, good news is we know where they are. Bad news is, even without magic, I can tell Goldmine is pinned down trying to fight our master."

"I can barely feel their magic with Nirvana's so close." Jason commented before looking up on high.

"We should hurry with our next move," Lyon spoke out before pointing towards Ignis. "Let's get on this thing and go up there." I took obvious offense to calling Ignis an it.

"As much as we could do that, we need a battle plan," Raina began before I could even call Lyon a knock off version of Gray. "By the process of elimination, Jellal, Midnight, and Hot Eye may still be around to defend Brain. Two of those names alone imply Oracion Seis still has it's stronger members while we're lacking." I spotted Gray looking over to Erza, of course the name Jellal would get to her. There was still that complication among all this madness.

Then, the White Tiger Commander looked over towards our… newcomer. "We also have to acknowledge this… automaton."

Ah yes, this mossy robot that reminded of the shape of the Iron Giant, yet the color pallet and age of one of the robots from the Laputa, castle in the sky movie. It's really interesting to see things from my world bleed into this one, or was that one Justice League episode right? That all fiction are just people having a psychic memory of different worlds happening at the same time? Questions for later though, as it seemed to keep it's eyes on Wendy.

"We were already attacked by a dead machina. We don't need another machine thrown into the mix." Lyon spoke with the same temperature as his magic, but I could tell others were on similar wavelengths. The Machina King, AKA Earthland's version of General Grievous, killed Sherry and Eve with very little effort—and sadly this is the first time we've actually suffered casualties in these quests. I mean, we've almost died before, but now? Maybe our luck finally ran out?

I shook my head. Those thoughts are especially not welcome at this time. "Wendy, you told us earlier that this one was the guardian seal of Nirvana?"

The small girl nodded and tried to explain that it seemed to listen to her command, even Brain had to overpower her voice just to make the automaton do his bidding. However, she also said that he didn't seem to listen to her in re sealing Nirvana.

That instantly caught my attention before looking up to the mossy construct. "Wendy, sealing up Nirvana took a bunch of ancient mages to do so. I think this Guardian was the lock and key to that seal…" As I spoke that out something came to me. I could feel everyone looking at me when I was staring at the automaton that was waiting for Wendy. Then, as my thoughts started to form, I spoke, "Wait a second, the ancients gave this robot the ability to open the seal. That means the ancients might have foreseen Nirvana being re-awoken some day and the Guardian was left here for that purpose. Wendy, I think the Guardian is meant to lead the descendants on what to do, like an elaborate instruction manual."

At that moment all eyes were on the mossy metallic figure. "Wendy, I'm going on a limb if the ancients combined some magic tech in them, but as the Guardian to show us a schematic—map of Nirvana."

The blue haired girl seemed to take my words seriously as she looked up towards the robot. "U-Uh please show us a map of Nirvana!"

At that moment, the Automaton started to move. The gaps between it's plating started to glow from the core of its torso until it flowed through out it's body. The glowing green-blue eyes shined and then pointed behind us until a holograph isle of Nirvana was before us.

"Good job, Wendy." I told her as we all looked towards the hologram map. It showed something akin to what I expected from being under it. An entire floating kingdom, like sky Atlantis or that one Ghibli movie I watched as a kid. Speaking of tropes, I'd bet Brain would be somewhere in that elaborate looking tower in the center of the map—huh? I thought I saw a symbol of a cat for a second on the corner of the map.

However, before I could begin to speak out, there was a sudden shift of sounds coming from the Automaton. The tower in the green blue hologram started to glow red and soon, the map started to fill out with red dots around the outer edge of the kingdom ruins.

"W-What's it doing!?" Lahar cried out as he took out his two pistols.

Yet once more, it seemed like several things were happening at once because Happy, Charla, and Ignis all looked up. The two cats gasped as they did while Ignis was snarling angrily with intent to fight. My eyes went back to the hologram where the dots started to flicker much like a scanner, and all of those red dots were rushing towards one corner of the isle—

A corner that looked suspiciously like the area we were currently right under.

Much to my dismay, an army of ancient war robots coming at us from above with charged weapons made me wish that this world wasn't so creative in trying to kill me.

* * *

He was more than impressed. The Nirvana Defense System was more than he could hope. The ancient magic screens showed inside the isle, beneath the city ruins, was an intricate magic factory capable of creating an army of magical golems. And that was just one of the many defense systems Nirvana had to offer!

Brain laughed and laughed as he did not to long ago. "This… This is even better than I imagined! And it appears that Nirvana did indeed have more defense systems than I originally thought!"

The man smiled as he opened up a screen showing those battling his first wave. "But as fun as this was, I would very much like to have them in the upcoming assault on Era. It's time to activate Nirvana's true magic!"

He threw his staff and it instantly shot two lasers from it's eye sockets into a magical lock that appeared in front of him. His intent was to unlock Nirvana's most potent magic to turn his enemies into his allies, and use them against his enemies. However, before the lasers could hit the lock, it vanished, making Brain blast nothing but air.

The Leader of Oracion Seis looked on with bewilderment. Soon, screens popped up around him, saying, 'Access Denied.'

"Denied?" Brain repeated before noticing something on the screen: below the words, the symbol of a two tailed cat was staring at him. "No, I still need the girl!?"

He gritted his teeth and opened up his mouth. "Then I'll just order the bots…" Brain trailed off when he noticed the remaining Alliance members beating back the robots. "I don't have time for this." He looked at his hand and noticed a distinct lack of lines that used to be there. Brain raised a finger to his head. "All remaining Oracion Seis Members. Attack the remaining alliance members, but capture and subdue Wendy Marvel once more. I've made a miscalculation in my haste to get to Nirvana, I can't have complete control over it without her."

" _Is that so, Father?_ " Midnight's voice reached the link. " _I really wanted to take a nap by now._ "

" _Err yes Yes!_ " Hot Eye's line came in though he sounded nervous, not that Brain paid much mind. " _I too will get there and capture the girl once more._ "

The remaining Oracion Seis members should be able to take on the remaining alliance members. Especially since both Midnight and Jellal were still…

Brain realized he didn't hear from his newest member. "Jellal? Where are you?" he asked through the link.

"I'm right here." The leader of Oracion Seis heard that voice. It was indeed Jellal's but it wasn't from the link. The voice came from _behind_ him.

The appearance of the former councilman surprised Brain, but he easily dismissed it. "You need to go back down there and ensure the capture of Wendy Marvel once more."

There was only silence in response to the order until Brain felt an abnormal spike of magic.

A second later, Brain felt an intense pain before he was smashed into the side of the wall by a magical force.

"J-Jellal!?" Brain coughed as he suddenly felt pressure on himself. Jellal was using his magic to attack him!? "What are you doing!?"

His only response was silence once more and another spike of magic as Jellal sent a blast of energy towards the pinned down leader of Oracion Seis.

Jellal released a breath of air, sensing Brain's magic power diminish greatly. The room felt quiet, almost too quiet until Jellal could only laugh, a laughter that sounded more painful than pleasant.

"I must have done some atrocious crime in my past life." The blue haired mage somberly began, looking at his palm in partial disgust. "In order to atone for my sins, I had to betray the only man who knew of my great sins, yet openly welcomed me as a friend? Is even my path to redemption still damned?"

"Damned is too weak a word to describe what you will be, Jellal Fernandez!"

The former Wizard Saint snapped his head back up. He was sure he took out Brain with that surprise attack without the leader's magical energy up. However, with the leader still sprawled on the ground, the Wizard Saint turned his attention towards the center of the room where Brain was standing not too long ago.

There, the skull staff which had the brain of the evil mage, Jumanda Hagu, was standing up right, animated by magic that Jellal wasn't aware off.

"This betrayal shall not go unpunished!" The staff declared with eyes glowing orange. "I revoke your control over the Machina King!"

Jellal's eyes widened as he gathered energy to try and stop the staff. However, as he made his move, he could hear the distant sound of steel moving closer to him at an alarming rate.

The former councilman jumped back before the area he was standing on was attacked by a figure he knew far too well.

"Machina King," The staff began with glowing orange eyes. "I, Kloda, the staff of Brain, order to you to kill Jellal with your full power!"

The blue haired mage could only curse under his breath as the very tool that he fought along side with was now being used against him with all six of it's specialized elemental blades. It seemed irony had no intention of lessening Jellal's circumstances.

* * *

"Brain?" Hot Eye tried to link once more, only to find nothing but his own thoughts.

"What happened?" Genji of Phantom Lord asked the mage who was once obsessed with money.

"Something happened with the link, which means something Happened to Brain." Hot eye then looked up to the floating Isle. "I think Jellal is up there in Nirvana."

At that moment, the sound of two fists coming together and igniting with flames was heard, this caused the group to look towards Natsu, who seemed deadly serious after setting down Ren safely beneath a tree.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go up there and kick Jellal's ass!"

* * *

"Father?" Midnight looked up to Nirvana after hearing the link disconnect. "Father!?" With a flick of his wrist, he summoned his flying carpet and sped up towards the floating isle.

* * *

The alliance members defeated the last of the first wave.

Jason of Phantom Lord pointed up to Nirvana. "We need to get up there before the next wave overwhelms us!"

"Everyone, get on Ignis!" Erza cried out before she turned into her Black Wing Armor. "Kain, come with me!"

With out waiting a second, Erza flew up with Kain close behind her. Wendy looked to Carla, who picked her up and flew off as well with the Guardian Automaton following after her. Everyone else climbed a top of the crimson wyvern before they all raced towards the floating isle.

* * *

Jellal didn't find the small room favorable against the Griever. He blasted a nearby wall and raced out of there with Meteor. However, the Griever was still hot under his trail, using his six limbs to run after him like a spider-death god.

Kloda watched as the battle traveled out of the control tower. "You're not escaping that easily, Jellal. I can send the entire..." The staff stopped mid sentence as several screens appeared, revealing proximity warnings. "Tch, the alliance is making their move."

The staff glowed, and soon more screens appeared in front of the staff. "Forgive me master, it seems my priority is to stop our enemies first."

However, as the staff started to unlock the heavier defenses, a different screen activated a little behind the animated staff, one that was flashing a cat symbol…

* * *

Erza slashed through several attack bots incoming their way before hearing something above them in their ascent to the isle. "Kain, above us!"

The red rider looked up, seeing a row of automatons looking down towards the upcoming group with glowing eyes.

Kain recalled the Guardian had laser eye beams and considering the one on their side was an upgraded version, it stood to reason that the mass produced versions had similar abilities as well. He was right as the row of enemies fired a river of beams heading right for the alliance.

Without wasting another second, Erza flew froward and transformed her armor into her Adamantine Armor while Kain turned the Omni Tool into a platform for Erza to stand on with her heavy armor. Luckily for them, the beams aimed for one area, Erza's shield. The unlucky part was that they were up in the air.

The shield of Erza could hold, but Kain instantly felt the weight of a skyscraper pressing down on him, which of course was far beyond his strength limit. They were surely being pushed back until something helped supported Kain's platform. Kain looked towards the right and saw the Guardian and Wendy with Carla trying to push back the attack.

"We gotta help them out! Ignis get up there!" Gray cried out as the wyvern tried to fly further up. However, Ignis suddenly stopped moving. The reason he did was because there were some automatons coming in from the side which forced those a top of Ignis to focus their attacks and defense from being swarmed.

"Hold me up a little longer!" Erza cried out before she inhaled deeply and seemed to focus. She twisted one of her hands in such a way that a finger would be touching the back of her shield and with that fingers she started to write a symbol that glowed a green color.

The symbols completed them selves and no sooner than they were finished, they started to glow a soft gold light. The energy beams reflected back, destroying the entire row of attackers.

There was a gasp of relief coming from those taking on the brunt of that attack. Yet it was short lived as the ground beneath the isle opened up with a bright green light. Before anyone could react, Wendy's Cait Shelter guild mark started glowing and a second later, the girl screamed as she was yanked out of Carla's hands and dragged into the light.

"Wendy!" Both Kain and Carla shouted out as they raced after her, the Guardian and Erza racing after shortly after. Despite their speed, Wendy was already taken in by the light and soon the walls started to close as soon as she was taken in. Kain grabbed on to Carla and sped in faster, which prompted both the Guardian and Erza to do the same, all four making it into the light before it closed off completely.

"Erza!" "Kain!" Gray and Lucy respectively screamed as Ignis was nowhere near where the five flew in to.

"We need to get to land! It's obvious Ignis can't move as fast with all of us ridding him like this!" Jason's voice shouted out.

"But what about our friends?!" Lucy looked back.

"Ms. Scarlet is among them, they should be fine! Focus on clearing a path, without our fliers, we're sitting ducks in the air!" Raina declared before throwing her blade into the head right into the head of an incoming automaton. As it cut through, a black glow stopped the blade mid air and made it fly back to her hand. The Fiore knight looked over to Alexandra of Phantom Lord and nodded once in thanks.

Up on the tower, Kloda was staring at a screen. "What? What was that just now? I didn't command the defense system to do that." The staff looked among the defense system, but he was briefly distracted by a blast not too far from the hole in the wall. "Still, with the Machina King facing against Jellal, I have no choice but to activate the full security system against those that remain in the alliance. I refuse to let them take Master Brain until he's recovered!"

With that bold declaration, Kloda's eyes glowed orange and soon more screens appeared, ancient writings described the following words: Titans Activated.

The party on Ignis finally landed onto Nirvana, the floating, ruined city. The air was different even with some traces of smoking automatons nearby the landing party.

"Where's Erza and Kain?!" Gray cried out as he looked around.

"Your friends can handle themselves, Gray." Lyon spoke with all the tone of his elemental magic. "Our problem is the near infinite supply of robots being sent right for us. Unless we take down that glowing green tower in the distance, we'll be swarmed and out of magic if we spend any more time looking for your allies."

"You fellow ice mage speaks the truth." Lahar concurred before Gray could even respond. "We're losing too many numbers at this rate. Stoping Brain is our top priority now that Nirvana has been reawakened. We head to the tower and defeat him there."

As soon as he said this, the isle started to rumble. Gray, Lucy, Ignis, Lyon, Lahar, Jason, Riana, and Alexandra noticed that some of the very buildings and giants statues started to glow with green lines and soon some of them started to transform. Several buildings seemed to merge together to form two giant-sized stone robots while the remaining statues turned into more animalistic automatons.

"Soooo," Jason gulped as he raised his shield while everyone else seemed to tense into battle positions. "I think those guys won't let us near the tower."

Gray cursed under his breath. "They're not going to stop us!" He shouted with valor before firing an ice spell.

* * *

Jellal backflipped to avoid the pressure of gravity destroying the building he was atop on only seconds ago.

"It's far more annoying having him as an opponent than an ally." The former councilman gritted his teeth. Out of the dust cloud of the broken, old building, the Machina King strode forward with all six blades.

"I'm wasting time here, I need to get back to Brain before he wakes up again!" Jellal activated Meteor, the spell that increased his speed to amazing velocity. However, he knew with even this increase, the Machina King could still track and even keep up with his movements. But that was not the point of this move.

Jellal dove fast straight for the onyx colored, steel titan as he readied his blades. "It seems I have Kain Reynolds to thank for this move."

The blue haired mage unleashed a burst of speed, moving faster towards the Machina King. The titan slowly pulled back his blade and with a large swipe of his hands that moved faster than the tip of a whip… the Machina King hit nothing but air?

Jellal had cancelled his speed and magic a few feet before reaching the range of the Machina King. His charge was a feint attack to bait out the Machina King's ability to tag him; the eight limbed titan attacked too soon. While Jellal stopped his speed, he didn't stop his momentum. Gathering energy into his fist, Jellal threw a punch as the Machina King tried to re-maneuver. The impact of the magical punch sent the Machina King flying across the air into the opposite side of the isle.

Jellal released his breath and wiped his forehead. "Now to get to—" The Wizard Saint's senses blared and he instinctively jumped out of the way. A few seconds later, an invisible force tore the ground Jellal was previously on. Jellal recognized this spark of magic and looked up—only to inwardly curse as he realized he had just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Jellal!" Midnight, the usually slothful and lazy member of Oracion Seis was staring down Jellal with the epitome of wrath. "What have you done to father?!"

As the fallen Wizard Saint prepared for another fight, he was wondering if by even acting like the lawyer for a moment, he had accidentally inherited his horrible luck.

* * *

Those that flew after Wendy didn't know what to expect when they flew into the light, all they knew was that they didn't want to lose the girl a second time.

However, behind the light there was only a deep darkness.

"Wendy!" Carla pushed herself out of Kain's arms as she flew towards the little girl kneeling a few feet away from the fliers. Soon, Erza and Kain followed after her.

The girl looked back, only to have her attention seemingly caught by something in front of her. As the rest came over to her, they saw, not to far from Wendy was a glowing white cat with two tails.

Wendy's symbol started to glow and the cat looked up towards the girl, who could only stare back at the ghostly feline.

"At last," The voice of the cat was that of wind passing through a large valley. "Our redemption is finally upon us."

"And with that opening line, I'm more confused than anything else." Kain began as he and the others walked up. "Can we please get some context as to what's going on?"

The ghost cat looked over to Kain, who seemed to quiet up as the ethereal being looked at him in silence for some seconds.

"I suppose introductions are in order." The cat stood up on all of it's fours and looked towards the group. "My name is Roubaul, one of the head makers of Nirvana."

Both Carla and Wendy gasped. "Roubaul? Master Roubaul?!"

"Master?" The cat tilted his head to the right. "You must have me confused with someone else then. I am a left over presence tasked with guiding our descendants in what must be done to destroy Nirvana."

"Destroy Nirvana?" Erza repeated in confusion.

"I suppose I must start from the beginning." The ghost cat started to glow and soon, like someone shinning a flash light through the darkness, a wall was revealed showing much of the old art style scattered across this land. It depicted flames, destroyed cities, people fleeing, dragons in the darkened skies, and some strange and odd beasts hunting after some people.

"Before The Gathering War, magic was untamed, chaotic, and dangerous." The cat began as he turned around, walking ahead. As he did, the 'wall' seemed to follow him and the art work seemed to animate. The dragons in the sky were destroying whatever was left of the houses, and the monstrous creatures were eating poor people. And even other people armed with spears were attacking others. The three people, one cat, and robotic automaton followed the cat while watching the wall.

The picture seemed to stop and soon came in a new mural, that depicting of people wearing clothes similar to that of Wendy only far more extravagant, revealing that they were leaders of some kind.

"My people and I got together with the best constructers, makers, and molders. Our idea was to create a kingdom that would protect us from not only the magical chaos of our world, but also soothe the savage hearts and turned them into kind and loving people."

The mural started to show many people, even some of different races like dwarves and minotaurs, or as they were known in Earthland, Minotauren, were helping to build the city. Eventually, the mural changed into a beautiful city isle in the sky.

"Oh," Kain whispered as he watched the mural. "I'm starting to see why they said Nirvana had brainwashing magic."

The cat turned around. "It wasn't meant for brainwashing. It was meant to bring the good out of bad people." The phantom cat then looked down, as if utterly ashamed. "I should have seen it sooner. We created an intricate and powerful magical nexus that changed people for the better by switching the emotional and mental magical properties in their body. I did not fathom the interconnected theory of balance between that of Luminosity and Tenebrosity until it was too late."

"Uhhh?" Wendy and even Erza seemed somewhat confused at the large words the cat spoke out.

Kain, who was in no way a magical expert, but was really good with words spoke out. "From what I did understand, he helped make the powerful magic that turns people good and evil, but even though what you created did it's job, you made a miscalculation that ended up in disaster."

The cat sighed as the mural changed, revealing a person who was half white and half black. "In simpler terms, our magic turned bad people good by 'flipping' their essence so that their light sides would be dominant instead of their darker, crueler sides and emotions. It worked for a time, but as I lamented earlier ago, I didn't understand how much light and darkness need to be balanced together. The magical nexus that we created, over time, started to change. All of the dark energy we 'flipped' over, some of it was stored into the nexus. With how often we used it, it stored and captured many dark essence over time."

The mural showed something shinning in the center of the isle. However, with Roubaul's words, the shinning light slowly dimmed and started to turn black. "The reason the machine did this was to balance out all the 'light' we kept using it on. It came to the point where Nirvana became so full of light, the machine itself couldn't keep up with that imbalance. It gained a form of sentience where it need to be balanced and it did so by breaking through our control and 'flipping' all light of the city into darkness.

The dimming in the mural swallowed the whole mural and a new mural, one that almost seemed painted with blood took it's place.

"That was the day Nirvana fell." The cat stated softly. "Every thing we worked, for, everything we accomplished, undone in one moment by hindsight." The ghost cat looked up. "And it only got worse. The magic of our city had become twisted and was unleashing an unstable amount of energy that we could not stop. It threatened to pull all of Ishgar into its reversal magic, turning those who were good into evil and perhaps even evil ones to turn far more ruthless and removed of whatever honor they had left. I and the remainder of those still sane sealed off the city… and in doing so damned everyone living there."

The light of the mural faded, returning to the darkness from a while ago.

"Before I left the seal and our last Exemplar." The cat looked towards the Guardian, revealing the second name of the ancient automaton. "I left this ghost of my magic as a failsafe incase Nirvana was awaken by someone other than our descendants." The two tailed cat looked over towards Wendy. "You who bare our mark, destroy Nirvana before it's activated."

"Before it's—is it not already activated?" Erza asked with equal amount of shock.

The cat shook his head. "There were several failsafes we added after sealing Nirvana. One of them sealed the controls over the Magical Nexus that could convert both light and dark energy. It would only work for someone who bears proof of our culture, which this young lady now has." Everyone looked towards Wendy and to the symbol on her shoulder. "She must be the one to destroy Nirvana and end this eternal nightmare."

"Wait," Carla spoke out and pointed towards the ghost cat. "Why couldn't you destroy Nirvana in the first place?"

"It was impossible to destroy it at it's peak. The magic it gathered could potentially take out a little less than half the continent. Right now? The centuries of the magic being inactive means that it's finally possible to destroy Nirvana without grave repercussions." The cat looked back towards Wendy. "However, you must move quickly! Nirvana's magic grows with each person passively converted between light and darkness. If this isle were to reach any populated area, it may regain it's unstable power before it's first sealing!"

Everyone looked towards each other. A brief second past before Erza, Kain, and Carla looked towards Wendy.

"We will help you." Wendy spoke out with courage. "What do we need to do?"

The ghost cat nodded. "You will need to follow that path." As he said this, a lighted road appeared that seemed to go on to a distant flicker of light. "It will lead you all to the heart of the isle, where the main magic of Nirvana rests. One of our descendants and the Last Exemplar must—"

There was horrible shaking in the isle, followed by the sound of glass shattering all around the darkness.

"What?!" The cat known as Rauboul shouted. He started to flicker in and out of existence. "No! What has enough magic to pierce through—"

He didn't get to finish. Something from above crashed through the darkness and seemed to undo the specific magic. With the old magic gone, the area around them was revealed to be an old, ruined pathway lit up by ancient green runes and the walls held pictures of the murals the group had seen previously before. The cat looked desperately at the group, his flicker becoming more frequent, his form fading rapidly.

"Music!" The cat cried out in utter desperation before he vanished, like someone snuffing out a candle light.

Yet, even with the cat gone, their troubles were not over.

Something had physically crashed through the ceiling and into their path. Whatever it was it seemed to be smoking, as if it was hit by a powerful attack. Soon, six colors glowed from behind the smoke and everyone in that group could see what had fallen.

It was the Machina King, now armed with six blades instead of two. As it rose from whatever grand attack that warded it away, it glanced to it's left, to see those from the Alliance.

Erza stepped forward fast, summoning her fire pants, bandages over her breast, and two katanas. "Wendy! Get to the center of the Isle! Kain and I will hold him off!"

Kain, on the opposite emotional spectrum, raised out a finger lamely. "Umm, can I go with Wendy?"

"Are you that cowardly!?" Carla yelled out.

The lawyer from another world looked down towards the talking cat. "Do you want to fight that thing!?"

"Kain!" Erza yelled as the Griever slowly turned it's whole body towards all of them.

"Dang it!" Kain yelled as he took out the Omni Tool and turned it into a shield. "I really..."

The boy's complaint was cut short as the Griever seemed to give off a sudden metal scream and wielded his blades into a terrifying battle position… that was pointed specifically towards the boy from another world.

"What the heck!? Why is it angry at me!?" Kain took a step back and put the shield up— "Wait a second. It's looking at the Omni Tool."

"...The Omni Tool given to me by Erza, who originally got it from Horus Anhur." Kain began monotonously.

"And Horus Anhur was the one who defeated and killed the Griever… who is standing in front of me right now and currently glaring at the weapon used by the man who killed him." One could hear the gears, not from the Machina King, whirling.

"That **I'm** now wielding..."

…

"Oh."

The Griever gave an inhuman sound of clashing steel as he jumped up with all six blades lit with energy. All of them with the intent to attack the one wielding the weapon that killed him.

The current owner of the Omni Tool responded appropriately.

"SONOFA—"

* * *

"Natsu!" Happy raised his paw as he pointed over towards the rising stone golems heading towards one direction of the isle. "Look over there!"

"What is that?" Natsu looked over with his hand raised above his eyes.

"Those are more than likely the defense system of Nirvana." Richard, or Hot Eye of Oracion Seis spoke out. "It seems Brain is sending them out against your friends, or at least, it might be him. I can't reach him in the link anymore."

Genji of Phantom Lord stepped forward. "That may be a good thing. That way, he won't detect us as well."

"Man, look at all those things, if their attacking our friends, we should go and help them!" The dragon slayer pointed out.

"I want to help my friends too," Genji admitted before folding his arms. "But you said so yourself that you believe in them to win their fights. We still need to focus on Jellal. The others might be overwhelmed if Jellal enters the fray before we can find him."

Happy looked up as he noticed Natsu gripping his fist at the mention of Jellal.

"I can hunt him down with my nose." The son of Igneel declared. "When I find his scent, I'm gonna...gonna… what the hell?"

Even though Richard and Genji knew Natsu for a short period of time, confusion was not a look they expected to see on the Fairy Tail mage's face.

"Natsu?" Happy also looked up with worry towards his friend.

"I can smell where Jellal is but… I'm smelling something really strong. It's close by and it smells like the ocean..." His mind or more specifically his instincts were focusing a lot on this strange scent. "And… and..." Why did it feel so weirdly familiar to him? "I think bleach?"

The last word made Natsu remember.

{ _"He smelled weird."_ }

{ _"What smell in particular was it that made you think it was weird?"_ }

{ _"Well, he smelled like the ocean, but there was another smell. Maybe bleach? Might have been his clothes with how clean they looked, but it was kinda strong._ " }

"No." Disbelief was another look on his face that no one expected to see on the Dragon Slayer. "This can't be his smell!"

Natsu followed that scent without another second wasted. The other three could only run after him, confused as to why he reacted the way he did. All of them noticed that the travel brought them all towards a large, ruined building.

They quickly assumed it was a library. Why? Because the doors were wide open, revealing columns of old, forgotten texts inside. The doors, of a just revealed and resurrected isle from ancient times, was seen open recently. And with everyone accounted for in the battle, who was in there, and why?

Natsu felt compelled to enter into the library, a place he never even went to much back in Magnolia. As he entered through the stone building, his feet made sounds on the stone floor. Soon, the other recognized a different pair of foot steps heading towards them around one of the farther corners of the library.

"So, Fero, is there any way to pinpoint the book—" A familiar dark blue haired man who once stole Natsu's title walked casually into the sight of the four. He was carrying one of the old books of the area and reading it as he moved. When he looked up at the last part of his sentence, he saw four beings that definitely weren't his teammates.

"Hey wait a second, I know you! Well, I've heard of you more from my friends than anything else, but I know you! You're Bora!" Natsu pointed. If Erigor was there that very moment, he would have complained quite vehemently.

"You're one of those brats that ruined me in Hargeon! What the hell are you doing all the way here!?" Bora, in shock, pointed over towards them and dropped the book he was holding.

"I was about to ask you that same question!" To the surprise of many, it was Richard who asked that. "You were one of the men who sold us all those Rhodonite Drugs, why are you here?!"

Bora started to stammer with all the intensity of a pro rapper but took a step back. As he did, up on the second floor, someone leaned over one of the rails.

"Bora, stop shouting, we might be..." And there it was, the true source of Natsu's smell. Him, Natsu remembered clearly.

He recalled the smell of the ocean, and those eyes staring back down at him. Eyes of someone, who was an obvious threat.

{"… _And you four? ... I do hope we don't meet again._ "}

Captain Fero, the Hanged Man, had his eyes widen when looking down at wthe four that had just entered into the library.

"You!" Natsu pointed. "I remember you!" (Meanwhile, Erigor writhed despite being completely unconscious.)

Fero's eyes instantly narrowed, he threw his hand out and soon the four sensed a spike of magic an instant before a fishing rod was summoned by the man still dressed as a boat captain. "Bora! Run and find it! Oshen, pray!"

The assassin acted fast and flicked his rod behind him. No sooner than he did, a stack of books flew off the rails and attempted to crash on the four intruders.

Natsu and the others got out of the way of the collapsing book case, but as Natsu looked up, his beady eyes met with a familiar pool of gray eyes. They were just as intense as the night he met both Lucy and Kain.

"So it seems," Fero slowly spoke before Natsu noticed a dozen reflective gleams around him. "Fate has the strangest sense of humor."

A split second later, Natsu saw only darkness.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Sorry for the slower uploads, I need to do some stuff and such. Though I have an honest question for you guys, would you like shorter chapters and more frequent uploads, or greater length chapters with slower uploads? I originally wanted to end this fortieth chapter as the end of the Nirvana Saga, but then there was too much I really wanted to do to cram into one long chapter.**

 **Anyway, now the war is slowly reaching it's end in a four way battle. Gray and Lucy's group versus Kloda and the Nirvana Defense System; Erza, Wendy, Carla, and Kain (fighting) against The Griever; Jellal doing a surprise betrayal and ending up fighting against an anger filled Midnight; and surprise surprise, Natsu's group with Hot eye facing a surprise opponent: Bora and Fero from the second chapter/First Episode of the anime. What are they doing here!? How did they get there? And what are they looking for?**

 **Anywho, I'll see you guys later. Thanks for reading.**


	41. Chapter 41

Sometimes, he could close his eyes and see it. He could see her face, crying over and over begging him to join her in escaping that damned mountain. What he would have given to just say yes—what he could give to just at least nod once and leave with every one of them and say goodbye to that damned mountain forever.

But that's not how the memory played. He was like a prisoner in his own mind, aghast and horrified as he watched a twisted child torturing someone who even then made his heart skip a beat. He watched with a million, unheard screams begging the being with his face to stop hurting his friends, stop lying to them, stop manipulating them, stop treating them like dirt, stop secretly forcing them against their will—to just stop and let him be himself. Let him be himself and say what he's always wanted to be: free.

Maybe a god was listening. Or was it a demon? Either way, he got his wish. The resurrection for Zeref, it was tampered with, perhaps it was doomed from the moment it was whispered to his mind, but instead of the dark sorcerer the twisted sycophant envisioned, a dragon took it's place. A dragon that could devour souls. He was attacked, but was saved by one who was supposed to be his enemy?

Yet something was taken from him. He thought he didn't feel different, but then he realized it: he could feel again. The presence was gone, but the years of realization and guilt washed him over like a tsunami.

His free will returned, but the sins remained.

God, he almost killed the love of his life and his closest friends! He made a new prison out of the old one, he never escaped it!

So, Jellal Fernandes plotted. He plotted to redeem himself, to at least make up for some of the wrong he's done.

He just wasn't expecting the process to be just as emotionally taxing as the sins he committed.

"I'll kill you, Traitor!"

He also wasn't expecting it to be this darn painful. At this point he was probably better off not thinking about how things could get any worse.

Though being hit by his own attacks was starting to prove him wrong.

Jellal was blasted through a wall by an attack that he originally used against Midnight. Considering that was like the fifth time something like that happened, Jellal was quick to guess that Midnight's magic was reflective based, but some parts of it didn't quite make a lot of sense, one of that was Midnight's ability to send an invisible force to rip the air, or rather him if he didn't get out of the way.

"I knew I should have said something against you joining us, Jellal! I knew you wouldn't be welcomed here! I just wasn't expecting you to be such a coward and backstabber!" He threw out his hand and Jellal felt the shifting in the air.

With the help of Meteor, he was able to avoid being caught by the invisible force somehow twisting the air around him.

"That power of yours is quite annoying." Midnight spoke as this time, Jellal tried to rush for Midnight. The blue haired mage sped in and punched the opposing Oracion Seis member in the stomach—

( _Wait a second. Something's not right—why'd he let me get in close?_ ) Jellal's mind worked over time as he tried to figure out why Midnight would let his guard down and allowed him to strike.

His mind abruptly stopped when his arm twisted like someone playing with toy clay.

Jellal let loose a pained a scream and fell to the ground, grabbing onto his right arm that was twisted in a way that shouldn't have been possible. However, he noticed that Midnight was towards his right and somehow uninjured from that attack. Jellal had the mind to quickly retreat, but then another horrible pain came from his left leg. Soon, Jellal found that he hadn't even moved from his spot.

"I'm going to make you suffer," Midnight began in a low tone. "I'm going to break every limb, drag you to father, and then pay tenfold for whatever you've done to him."

That was something Jellal could not allow. With his left hand, Jellal gathered magic into a small sphere that he flicked in front of Midnight with his thumb. Midnight looked confused at the marble shaped light before it suddenly exploded with light, revealing it was a makeshift flash bang.

Midnight screamed as he held on to his eyes from the temporary pain. When he did come to, Jellal was nowhere to be seen.

"I'll kill you coward! Don't think I didn't sense you! You're nearby, otherwise that speed spell of yours would have alerted me in whatever direction you would have flown to!"

Jellal grunted in pain as he hid behind one of the ruined houses. "Damn, he's smarter than he looks. Not to mention, he can lock me into an illusion while breaking my body. So what the hell am I supposed to do with someone who I can't hit in long range or in short range?"

For some reason, Jellal thought back to his battle with a certain red armored lawyer. "Guess I need to borrow more than one thing from that kid. It's funny how much I'm stealing from someone without an ounce of magical power, but seeing as he's still alive from whatever tries to kill him, there might actually be some merit to his strategy."

Still he had to deal with his 'crippled' arm and leg. He couldn't quite heal, but his magic would allow him to make a… 'cast' of sorts. Its just this part will require magic and cause an extreme amount of pain that will no doubt catch Midnight's attention. So before he could do that, he need away around Midnight's fearsome combo magic.

He could bend space and magic to his will, but it was obvious there were limits to it otherwise he wouldn't be alive right now. Jellal's guess that he could only use it one at a time because the illusions broke soon after those space rending attacks got to him. So there was that at least, he need an opening between his combo of spells to get a get rush attack in.

Wait, Midnight used illusions to be able to tag Jellal at his high speeds. Back when he met Brain as a young child, Jellal was taught there was a very special circumstance for illusion magic to work.

Midnight started to destroy the area, furiously looking for any sign of Jellal. "Where did that coward go?!" And then he heard a screaming coming from one of the first buildings he destroyed, along with a spike in magical energy. "There you are, Jellal!" Without another second, Midnight blasted those rocks with his Invisible Scythe spell.

Out of the ruble, before it was destroyed, was Jellal with his hood up. Midnight wondered how he seemed to be moving fine when he had crushed an arm and a leg, but noticed both crushed limbs were coated with golden energy casts. More than likely, he even stabbed magic into his own bloodstream to properly keep his bones moving properly.

Midnight activated his illusion. This time, he would be sure to crush all his limbs in this next attack—

The member of Oracion Seis stopped thinking for a moment when he was hit by a strong punch into his jaw and sent flying into a wall.

Midnight's mind, as soon as it stopped spinning, was confused. He got back up and glared at Jellal, wondering why he wasn't affected by his illusions!?

"Oh good," Jellal spoke out as he slowly moved his hand out in a wide sweeping motion. "That reflective magic doesn't work on people directly. I can work with that."

It was then as Jellal turned fully over to him, Midnight saw why Jellal wasn't affected by that previous illusion: he had ripped a piece of his clothes and created a blindfold! It was true he could make strong illusions, but they were activated through the eyes so the brain could be fooled in the first place. With Jellal suppressing his sight, it was now impossible for the blue haired mage to perceive illusions!

Midnight made a fast sweeping motion with his hands, attempting to hit Jellal who was standing in front of him. To the usually slothful mage's surprise, Jellal backflipped using Meteor, dodging the space that was twisted and meant for him.

"You're powerful, Midnight." Jellal began before Midnight used his power again, and just like before, Jellal was too fast and avoided the rending of space. "But it's obvious you have no experience fighting equal level opponents." The Wizard Saint's mind trailed back towards a beautiful red haired woman as he said that.

"Shut up and die!" Midnight cried out as he fired again, only for Jellal to activate Meteor, dodge the attack, and, within less than a second, punch Midnight in the stomach that caused a visible shockwave and caused the black and white haired man to gasp so hard drool flew off his mouth and he instantly buckled to his knees.

Jellal wasn't one to waste any more time as he shot out his hand and fired a bolt of his magic at point blank range of Midnight, blasting him through another building.

"I was worried about being blindfolded, but I was right that your magic power was so distinct that a newbie could sense your exact location a mile away."

However, what the Wizard Saint didn't know was that Midnight was still up, clinging on to consciousness like a lifeline.

"Curse… you… Je..." Midnight struggled to grab on to any of the rubble around him as his body convulsed in pain. "If only... it was... midnight then—" The black and white haired man stopped his complaint. His eyes snapped wide open and a smile appeared on his beaten form. He moved his still free hand and began to cast a subtle magic.

Jellal took a step away, getting ready to head towards the tower. However, he felt a powerful spike of energy coming from Midnight when he thought it was starting to vanish. Jellal turned back, still thankful he had enough caution to keep his blindfold up.

"You know, Jellal," Midnight seemed to get back up, his voice much more energetic than awhile ago which only confused Jellal greatly. "I think I get what you mean by fighting equal opponents. Brain once taught me that when people have the same magical abilities, the deciding factor for victory comes to how a person uses their abilities."

"W-What!? How are you back up!?" Jellal screamed as he went back into fighting position.

Midnight chuckled. "I just said Brain taught me that using my magic in different ways can be the deciding factor for the victor. If I couldn't lock you into one of my illusions, who is the only other person I can cast illusions on here in this fight?"

The former council man was confused at that question. They were the only two there… wait! They were the only _two_ there! "No, you used an illusion on yourself!?"

Even though he was blindfolded, Jellal could feel Midnight smile that still sent shivers down his spine. "Correct, Jellal! I used an illusion on myself to get rid of my own pain! I admit, it's kinda faulty, and now and again I can feel the phantom pain coming and going, but now I don't feel as hurt or weak from your powerful attacks a while ago. And here I always thought the Placebo Effect was stupid!"

Jellal sensed the spike of magic power coming from Midnight, indicating he was about to attack. However, As Jellal made a move to avoid the spot he was, he felt Midnight's attack some distance to his right, hitting nowhere near where he was—

The Wizard felt something—something _s_ hit him his right side. Not only did it hurt, the pain from his casted right arm returned tenfold. Jellal's mind could feel the strength of what struck him, it wasn't magic, it was a bunch of rocks!

"You thought you were so clever, stopping my illusions by just blocking your sight." Midnight's voice began before once more he used his magic. Jellal moved, but once more, he heard the sound and sensed Midnight's attack in a different direction and then half a second after an explosion, Jellal felt himself pelted by fast moving rocks that knocked him down from the sky and made him land like a shot duck. "But you just gave yourself another weakness: the fact you can't even see right in front of you! All I have to do is use my reflector magic to manipulate the rubble all around us and throw them at you at high speeds!"

Jellal grunted before he felt another spike of power. He figured that this time, he could avoid the cluster of rocks coming his way by angling himself away from where the attack was sensed. However, as he tried to move away, he still felt pelted hard by around a dozen rocks. This time, the speed and power they were launched made some rocks pierce through and stick to Jellal's skin.

"Hahaha!" Midnight laughed as Jellal fell back down. "You know how shotguns work, right Jellal? They have cartridges that shoot a pack of pellets that can cover a larger area than just one bullet. That's essentially what I've done with all the broken steel and stone around us! You can try to avoid the attack, but my attack now has an area of effect! It too spread out for you to dodge and even for your speed—you can't get out of it's range quick enough!"

Jellal forced himself back up. While inwardly regretting calling Midnight untrained, the black and white haired mage was more than making up for it with creativity. He tried to blast a magic laser right for Midnight, who only easily deflected it, showing that impenetrable defense was still there.

Midnight retaliated fast, sending his reflector magic some distance away from Jellal again. This time, the Wizard Saint tried to adapt by putting up a magic dome barrier around him. The Barrier worked to stop the rocks coming his way, but an instant later, he felt the familiar pressure of Midnight's Invisible Scythe crushing through his shield and sending him flying again. The barrier weakened the effect of Invisible Scythe, but Jellal still got hurt from the attack.

The Wizard Saint realized at this rate, he wouldn't even win. He could try to escape, but that was problematic with too many factors such as Midnight might still be able to catch him in his attempt to flee. Which meant that there was only one option: to end it now.

With a burst of his magic, he used Meteor to close the distance right in front of Midnight. Jellal could sense the slightest movements coming from Midnight in his Meteor state, but before even he could finish a twitch, Jellal let loose a flurry of punches and kicks with the intent to turn Midnight into that of rag doll. He finished off the heavy assault with left handed punch that created an even bigger shockwave than the first punch on Midnight's stomach and slammed him into the ground.

Jellal gasped for breath as he took a step back. There was no way Midnight could keep up his self casted illusion and the pain form before added into the new pain he just unleashed should be more than enough to knock him out unconscious.

However, his hopes for victory were dashed when he heard a cough coming from where he unleashed his last attack.

"I," Midnight coughed, while still on the ground. "I won!"

Those words caught Jellal off guard. They didn't sound like something out of delusion, even though he put up some good hits into Midnight's head.

Midnight, while still on the ground, turned to Jellal with a victorious smirk despite how bloody he looked. "I knew you'd resort to close combat to win. Before you attacked me, I placed another illusion on my self to lessen the amount of damage I received! I need to withstand your assualt, so I could do this!"

There was a small blip of magic that Jellal wasn't expecting near his head. It felt more like a tickle than an attack, a mere moment later, the Wizard Saint saw—he could see again! Midnight had used a subtle form of his Invisible Sight to cut the cloth around Jellal's eyes!

"Now!" Midnight screamed faster than Jellal could react, his voice filled with power despite laying there on the floor. "I cast illusion on both of us! I cast an illusion where we both believe it to be midnight!"

The sky rapidly changed into that where the moon was full and over their heads. Jellal looked around in fear, realizing that he was trapped in an illusion. He made a move to finish off Midnight then and there, but he was suddenly stopped and uppercutted into the air.

As Jellal got back up, he saw Midnight, looking as fresh and untouched as they had first met. Jellal's mind went a mile a minute, Midnight had just shouted he was dragging them both into an illusion, but why did that hurt like the real thing!?

"Thanks to you, Jellal, I've grown stronger than I ever thought before." Midnight spoke as he seemed to look at his hands as if they were not his own. "There's no point in hiding it since I just shouted it, but this is an illusion," He looked back down on Jellal and smiled in such a way that seemed impossible even for an illusion. " _ **My**_ illusion. At midnight, my illusion powers become so strong that it's like imposing another reality on my victims. In other words..."

Midnight vanished in a puff of smoke. Jellal slowly got to his knee before he felt Nirvana starting to shake—no, he felt like the entire world was shaking! Large pillars seemed to entrap the edges of Nirvana—wait no! Those weren't pillars, those were fingers!

A booming laughter came from above and Jellal was beyond horrified to see Midnight, now able to make the giants of Sun Village look like ants, his face like the size of a mountain and carrying Nirvana in his hands, his own two hands!

" _ **I AM A GOD!**_ " Midnight's voice moved like a sonic boom, even blowing away the rubble around Jellal in this fake world.

Soon the earth around him swallowed and trapped Jellal and shot him up to the sky. Jellal tried and tried but he couldn't access his magic in Midnight's illusion world.

Laughter came from the massive Midnight, and even that threatened to burst Jellal's eardrums.

It didn't take long for Jellal to realize that he was among the stars with the very planet of Earthland down below him while he was still trapped among rocks. Midnight appeared in front of him, no longer a giant, but wearing extravagant clothing that was similarly styled to that of Brain.

"As you can see, the whole point of that fight was so I could remove your blind fold. As long as you had that, I couldn't use my most potent magic against you. After all, illusion magic is still technically an eye magic where you need direct contact with your opponent's eyes to make it work." After making superfluous hand gestures, Midnight put a hand on his chin and looked down with contemplation. "Hmm, I wonder if people with artificial eyes would be affected by this? Bah that doesn't matter."

Midnight summoned a staff similar to that of Kloda and used it to whack Jellal across the face. He did this several times, each time more painful as the last. When he stopped, Midnight grabbed Jellal's bloody and beaten face by the chin.

"I have to admit, you've done well to make me use this. I can't bring you back to father any more, so for pushing me this far, I'll kill you in a way that's fitting," Midnight's face became distorted, like that of an inhuman beast as his smile seemed to go beyond that of human muscle and his eyes became like that of empty voids. Even the stars above and the earth below was swallowed whole by an unending darkness. "I'll kill you with your own worst nightmares!"

Jellal suddenly felt his weight shift and he started to fall at an alarming rate. As he screamed in his fall, Midnight could only laugh, his laughter was the only thing in the universe Jellal could perceive…

Until he reached hell.

* * *

 _The Tower of Hell._

 _He could feel the jagged stones of the path pierce his rotting and scarred flesh under the sole of his foot. He smelled that detestable iron that was like an extra limb force on to him for years until he was at last able to remove them. And that mocking, hurtful laugh of those cruel guards, it hurt just a little less than their taser staves they used on him like he was cattle._

 _Jellal (No Last Name) was back in the Tower of Hell as a small, scared, and powerless child._

 _But something was worse this time. There were no other prisoners, it was just him, carrying stone after stone up and down the spiral staircase, his feet bleeding more blood than he ever should have had, his fatigue growing and growing but his body refusing to stop or even listen to his demands, being shocked by tasers over and over with almost no chance of reprieve, and worst of all, the laughter of the guards started to change into something much, much worse._

" _We believed in you, and you lied to us!" The guard whose head looked like Milliana screamed with hate._

" _You made us stay and work years in that hell hole! You took away the lives we finally took back from our enslavers!" The Guard with Sho's face screamed and pointed at the small Jellal before stabbing him with a staff, sending an undesirable pain through Jellal's (No Last Name) body._

 _A guard with Wally's face slammed his staff into Jellal (No Last Name)'s face, but instead of being knocked down, his body still trailed up and up. "Worse! You became our new enslaver! You enslaved us, and yourself!"_

" _But the most unforgivable of all," This guard with Simon's head and voice stared down Jellal (No Last Name) with a gaze so piercing, it almost seemed more painful than everything he had felt since. "You betrayed her."_

 _He was wrong, the Not Simon's words hurt more than anything before._

 _Jellal (No Last Name) walked up the stairs for seconds_ _—minutes_ _—hours_ _—days_ _—weeks_ _—months_ _—years with every aching moment of bleeding feet and staff tasers until he reached the end of the stairs_ _. He remembered this place, it was the place where they whipped him, the place where he had met—_

" _Hahaha! You stupid, little boy!" Ultear, who was leaning on the crystals in the center of the whipping room and wearing her Magic Council clothes, smiled without a shred of kindness after laughing. "You know that you didn't meet Zeref in this room. With your knowledge of magic now, you **know** this was another illusion! A brainwashing one to be precise, but by the time you figured it out it was far too late!_"

 _The Tower Of Hell shook with great intensity as the room was soon encased by the very crystals in the center of the room. Ultear and the 'guards' were all swallowed by the crystals and soon the entire room shattered, revealing a familiar white and red dragon._

" _And what did you do when you were finally 'free'?" Logos the Soul Dragon began with a taunt as Jellal (No Last Name) could do nothing but watch in horror and pain. "You ran like the coward you were, like the weakling you were! They called you Siegrain, the Wizard Saint Prodigy! Ha! If any of them knew who you truly were they would have struck you down where you stood and it would have been as much effort as lifting a finger!_ "

 _Jellal (No Last Name) tried to scream, tried to say it was nothing like that, or to shut up. But by now his own mouth disappeared, and he could only hear the slander—( **TRUTH!** )— echo around him._

 _They all came back, shouting out slander—( **TRUTH!** )— from all sides, the cultists, Ultear, Logos, Brain, Team Valiant, The Magic Council, his old friends, Trinity Raven, and everyone he had ever met—( **HURT/FAILED/BETRAYED/LIED/TORTURED!** )— shouting and shouting the same hurtful things over and over._

 _Jellal (No Last Name) fell to his knees and clutched his head, tears falling from his shut eyes, begging it all to stop._

 _It did._

 _The young ( **Monster/Psycho/Fool/FAILURE!** ) raised his head and saw only her. _

_She was as beautiful as he remembered, even becoming more so as she grew up. But she only stared at him in disgust._

" _I loved you." Her voice was so heavenly, but it made him almost want to go through his torture from before to avoid this new pain. "I loved you, and you used me."_

 _Jellal (No Last Name) tried to say something, tried to explain himself._

 _But he had no mouth. It still wasn't there. Tears continued to flow down as he tried desperately to make his mouth appear once more, even using his own nails to dig into his skin to force it open. But even that was futile and useless._

" _Years, I lived with false freedom, years I lived with fear and worry from my other real friends, and when I finally thought I got to you, I was betrayed and used yet again."_

 _The Boy With No Name kept crying. All he knew was this horrible pain and he didn't know how to stop it._

" _You want to make things right?" The most beautiful woman of his world asked._

 _The Boy With No Name could only nod once before something was thrown a little ways in front of him: a dagger._

 _A spark of fear came across him as he knew what it meant, what she was asking him to—_

" _You call this unfair!? After what you've put us all through!?" She exclaimed as the others returned full force, screaming in droves of millions, all cursing his name, cursing his actions, cursing his very existence._

 _The insults hurt, they hurt more than the word was possibly capable off, but then they stopped abruptly because of her. "I knew it. You didn't have the guts to do the right thing after all. No matter what you do, good or bad, you will always fail. That is your life forevermore: **FAILURE.** " _

_The insults stopped, but then… **laughter** took it's place. All of them laughing **at** **him** , his weakness, his cowardice, his dreams, and his failure. _

_The laughter was maddening and soon… even she started to laugh at him._

 _Laughter._

 _(It hurts.)_

 _Laughter_ _._

 _(It hurts!)_

 _Laughter._

 _(MAKE IT STOP!)_

 ** _Laughter would never stop._**

 _That was it. He couldn't take it anymore. He saw everyone's faces ( **Midnight's faces** ) were all laughing at him and they would laugh and mock him for eternity._

 _His salvation was the unassuming dagger place right in front of him. The Boy With No Name couldn't have grabbed the dagger faster than he could._

 _He placed it to his neck. He took one look at her ( **With Midnight's Face** ) and pushed the blade—_

"Sorry I'm late. Darn bones aren't what they used to be."

 _Something gr_ abbed on to the knife to stop it from ending it all. The small child looked up, seeing someone he never thought he would see again.

"R-Rob?" The child spoke, his mouth returned as he looked towards the kind old man from this great hell hole.

" _ **WHO ARE YOU!?**_ " Everyone with Midnight's head roared and pointed to the skinny man wearing chains similar to that of the child.

"Weren't you listening? I'm Rob." His voice was raspy and weak, but it could still deliver a jovial smugness as if he was in his prime. The old man gave a hand to the blue haired child after throwing away the knife he took. "Come on, Jellal Fernandes, even you have spent too much time here."

" _ **I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DID THIS JELLAL, BUT I WON'T LET YOU—**_ " Jellal Fernandes ( _My_ … _name..._ ) grabbed onto Rob's hand and a light exploded from their contact.

Jellal opened his eyes after the light, to find himself under a beautiful Sakura Petal Tree surrounded by serene water and beautiful archways.

"You really out did yourself with this one, Jellal" The blue haired prisoner snapped his head back to the old man staring up to the tree. "It's more beautiful than any grave I've ever seen before."

A million questions followed by a million emotions skyrocketed on the injured prison child. But out of all of those complex storm of impossibilities, the simplest ones came up first. "How… How are you here, Rob?"

The old man smiled at the little one. "On the day I gave my life to save Erza, it wasn't just her I gave my life force for. When I sacrificed my self for my final spell, I was thinking of all you children, even you Jellal. It seems a piece of my magic was able to flow into you, far away as you were. I wanted to protect you too, but it seems like it choose now to act, sorry about not coming sooner."

Jellal saw Rob smile, even back then in that place that stole dreams and crushed hopes like insects, the old man's smile calmed down Jellal. However, with that smile came regret, with that regret came realization, and with that realization shame over came Jellal at all he had done and failed.

Jellal Fernandes, Wizard Saint, former Councilman of the magic council, and feared mage by many... cried like the little boy he was never allowed to be.

"Rob!" He gasped between horrible sobs. "It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

"You poor boy, come here." Rob went down on one knee and hugged Jellal close, allowing him to cry for the first time in a life time. "It's not your fault, Jellal, you're just a victim of horrible circumstance. If there is anyone to blame, it's me. I tried to hunt down these cultists a long time ago in a very bad emotional and mental state without any of my friends. They got the jump on me and siphoned most of my magic to power up their magical objects. With each new prisoner they brought in, including you and the others, I was only reminded of my failure and arrogance."

Rob hugged the crying child harder. "I ask you to forgive me, Jellal, for letting a brave child like you go through all of that alone."

Jellal's crying lessened to sniffles and small sobs. He let go of that hug with Rob who, with the grace of a butterfly, wiped off Jellal's tears and smiled at him.

"B-But I'm not brave! I also did so many things wrong!" Jellal screamed, though it was obvious he was more upset with himself than with Rob. "I was weak, and many more suffered because of me! Even when I'm trying to do the right things, it's even harder than before and I'm even failing! I don't... I don't deserve..."

"And I didn't deserve this," Rob motioned to the beautiful grave around them. He looked to Jellal, his eyes may have been squinted by the boy could swear there was a wink in there. "Don't you think? This grave is a little too good for the likes of a failure like me, right?"

Jellal shook his head. "You didn't fail us, you always took care of us when we were hurt, snuck extra rations for all of us!"

"And who protected Fairy Tail from the councilmen every time they threatened to disband them? Who vouched for them every time without question no matter how many were against him?"

Jellal seemed surprised. "I-I wasn't helping them! I was keeping up appearances so it would be easier to keep tabs on Erza!"

"Oh? You were a Magic Council member by then though, with your resources, keeping track of one girl wouldn't have been hard at all, right? And if you helped disband Fairy Tail earlier, Erza would never had friends to save her from your plot in the Tower of Hell. That seems counter intuitive for your plans from the first time."

Jellal could only stare with a confused look on his face.

"For someone possessed, you still honored the dead, helped people, even sent Ultear as back up for a poor soul who believed himself an equal to one of Zeref's demons."

"Rob! No! Stop _—_ stop saying that! I was doing all of that for evil reasons!"

Rob only gave a soft laugh and rubbed the boy's head affectionately. "Pay attention, Jellal. I'm saying, for all your evil deeds, there was traces of good in all of them no matter how subtle. You say you had no control? Boy, you've been fighting against the magic that controlled you your entire life. If it had complete control over you, your dark ambitions would have been long realized."

Jellal tried to deny it, he had to deny it. He was a horrible and weak person wasn't he? But he thought back, when he had found out about Deliora and those mages trying to unleash it, why had he sent Ultear to help them? Why did he even need Deliora in the first place if he wanted to resurrect Zeref? It seemed completely unnecessary. Come to think of it, he knew where Erza was all her life outside the tower, why did he even need to protect Fairy Tail all the time he was in the council? He could have let it be disbanded, and make Erza think it was her fault, further breaking her spirit and weakening her by the time he brought her back to the Tower of Hell.

The boy realized how easy it was for him to actually win while he was evil. Why didn't he? Was... was he still fighting, all that time he thought he lost?

"You're not weak, Jellal. Do you know what the name, 'Fernandes' means?"

The name given to him by Rob. A name like how he gave Erza her last name.

"Fernandes means, 'Brave Traveler'," Rob couldn't help but smile wider after revealing what that name meant. "You have earned that name a million times over, Jellal Fernandes. And I am so very, very proud of you."

Jellal started to cry again. Not of anguish, sorrow, or frustration, but for the first time, he cried in relief at hearing the words he never knew he needed to hear so desperately.

Rob stood up and showed an open palm to the boy. When Jellal took Rob's hand a second time, he was no longer the prisoner child inside the Tower of Hell. Now he was a grown, handsome young man with courage etched into his very soul.

"Rob, thank you." Jellal smiled as if all the weight of the world was lifted from him.

However, that happy moment wasn't meant to last as the room started to shake violently.

"What's going on!?" Jellal looked around as he saw pieces of the outer wall starting to collapse.

" ** _JELLAL!_** "

"That young man has some potent magic." Rob glanced up before looking back to Jellal. "You'll need to get out of here."

"How though!? His Illusion magic traps me into a reality of his own design! He is a god here!"

More ruble started to fall and even the Sakura Tree started to crack, yet Rob remained calm. "That's not true Jellal, and you know it. Illusions are a two way street, the victim has to believe these illusions are real and even a powerful illusion like this can only manipulate your mind. In order to win, you need to do what you've been doing since the beginning: fight for your freedom."

Rob's image started to fizzle and a huge chunk of the roof fell.

However, Jellal breathed in deeply. He clenched his fist and looked determined. "I will. Again, I owe you more than I can ever repay, Rob."

Rob smiled at the boy. "If you really wanna repay me, apologize to Erza." The old man could feel Jellal tense. "You know, right or wrong, hard or impossible, it's something you must express to undo your mistakes."

"I... I don't think I'll ever be brave enough for that."

"You will." Rob said only two words but the way he said it made it sound like the would come true.

A large chunk of the roof cracked and fell on the tree, crushing it completely. With the tree gone, Rob started to fade into a gust of petals. As he left, there was something on the floor where Rob once stood. It looked like a shovel that Jellal stole to try and first save Erza until he stole a staff taser.

Jellal picked up the shovel and looked up to see the last of the roof crumble, revealing Midnight in his god-like fury as a giant.

" _ **THAT'S IT! NO MORE**_ **GAMES!** " Midnight threw his moon sized fist back that soon exploded with insane magical power coating around it. " ** _DIE, JELLAL FERNANDES_**!"

Jellal stood his ground, wielding his shovel like a weapon. With a powerful scream, he charged head first towards the fist with powerful energy and smashed the shovel in to it.

The result was something no one expected: Jellal was now in a clash of magic against the giant, powerful fist with just a shovel!

" _ **WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE! HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!?**_ " Midnight cried out in shock. He sent out another fist with similar powers and strength.

Again, Jellal was somehow able to hold his ground with a shovel against both fists. He gritted his teeth and shouted a war cry, taking a step forward and now pushing Midnight back.

Midnight was beyond baffled, his magic was indeed that of something beyond understanding, but Jellal himself was doing something impossible as he continued to push forward at what should have been the power of a universe.

" _ **HOW!? HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS!? I AM A GOD!**_ "

The blue haired Wizard Saint gasped before pushing through with everything he had!

"What is a god... TO A NON BELIEVER!?"

Jellal swung his shovel with a force that could never be measured. Midnight's hands were repelled back and soon started to shatter like glass, following up to a screaming Midnight who kept shouting how this shouldn't have been possible.

With Midnight defeated, the illusion shattered like him, revealing Jellal, still standing over a very beaten up Midnight.

"No!" Midnight coughed, pain overcoming him at that moment with his magic depleted. "H-How did you..."

With no strength left, Midnight fell unconscious. The strongest of Oracion Seis was defeated at last by no one from the Alliance no less.

Jellal, gasping for breath and seeing Midnight finally pass out, looked up to the sky and promised, "When this is done, I'm getting you a proper grave, Rob. One way or another."

His battle with Midnight was far too exhausting, but Jellal needed to keep moving. While it was more than likely not a single second passed when locked in Midnight's nightmare, he still needed to stop Brain.

However, as he made a step back towards the tower, he felt another spike of magic that came right behind him and Midnight.

Jellal really, really, really, really, really wanted a break right about now.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Okay, I'm surprised about this chapter. I intended to send four battles across Nirvana, but as I started to write Jellal and Midnight's fight, it just was more than what I expected it to be.**

 **And I just couldn't resist putting up that quote at the end of the Jellal Vs Midnight fight. How could I not with how I set up that fight!?**

 **There is just so much I wanna say about this chapter, but I don't want to ramble. I feel like with the talk with Rob and Jellal just explained to myself how some plot holes could be covered. I wanna say Midnight's magic seemed like a good tool to promote emotional growth in whoever he fights.**

 **I wanna describe how Jellal's nightmare was written not from my mind, but from my heart, and that some of those things I tried to write out wasn't fiction.**

 **... With how I accidentally wrote this, I think it deserves to be it's own chapter, separated from everyone else.**

 **Over all though, I had SOOOOOOO much fun writing this fight. I hope you all enjoyed it too.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	42. Chapter 42

Bora, previously of Titan Nose, yawned with his hand lazily attempting to cover his mouth. The sun was not even up yet, it would not be up for at least two hours. Yet here he was in the WorthWood Sea traveling with his new team, or rather a new team concocted by their boss who seemed as serious as a circus and just a sane as one.

"Why are we even here?" Bora asked while he rubbed his eyes.

"Ya don't know?" The criminal mage had to briefly ask himself if he was still half asleep due to the fact to his left was a green skinned troll who just spoke now. But his sober mind did in fact confirm and remind the rest of his brain that Bora was now working with other species. "Didn't ya get the message from da boss?"

Oshen was his name, and he was the very first troll Bora ever met. He was tall, lanky, but even then he was surprisingly muscular. He had two large tusks growing from the side of his teeth and the tusk on his right was chopped off and decorated with decorated bands. He wore a leather tunic with long brown leggings, a belt that contained many pouches and bags and he held a staff, or a crooked stick with carvings in the shape of animals.

"I..." Bora tried to think back to many of his confusing interactions with the man in charge of one of the most elaborate crime syndicate he could ever fathom. "He gave me a coupon for a restaurant called 8-Island?"

"I told him to come, Oshen." Fero spoke out from ahead while still looking at a piece of large paper that looked like a map. "Boss told _me_ that he wants us to find a specific book that was hidden away in a special ruined city here in the Worth Wood Sea. From prior research, I think he was referring to Nirvana."

Bora snapped his head towards the one leading the three of them. "Wait, Nirvana? As in the rumored weapon that may or may not exist? What makes you think it's there?"

"As I said: I did research. According to some of our older members, Nirvana was a very advanced human city that was sealed away by it's makers and our boss wants a specific type of book hidden in their library." Bora wanted to ask how older members knew that, but his mind went to Oshen and the fact that around Otwill, he could see many different species. He wasn't expecting some older races to be part of the syndicate, but then again, he probably only scratched the surface of that place with how vast everyone made it sound and how little of it he actually saw.

Bora raised his brow. "Wait, so let me get this straight: he wants us, only three guys, to search for a legendary city no one's been able to find before, just to get a book?"

Oshen hummed as he brought his free arm under his chin. "What else did he say, Cell Leader?"

"He said a lot of casual things. But from what I got from his casual monologues was that he had someone with clairvoyance magic pay close attention to when and where we could find this book." Fero stopped and turned to the two, showing the map he was holding. A specific area was circled and a specific time around the afternoon was shown for that date. "This is where we need to be at this time. I'm currently moving us to a nearby cliff so we can overlook the area."

"We have a clairvoyant, like seeing the future accurately than simple fortune telling?" Bora asked in surprise. "Isn't that magic like... impossible?"

The blue haired mage flinched when he felt a large slap on his back which stung quite a bit. Oshen had done that, apparently laughing as he did then said, "Sha'tarn, we be having many types of magic. Der be nothing impossible in dis here world!"

Bora didn't even know what Sha'tarn was before a voice brought his attention back. "You're both right." Fero dismissed. "Even though we have a clairvoyant, or more than one—I've never met any of them, I was told by the boss that their clairvoyance, while accurate, has drawbacks on the users. It's one of the reasons why he gave me few details as possible."

"Isn't he just being lazy?"

"I guess it's a bit of both really. We're still supposed to be doing this job." Fero responded to Oshen's comment.

"So we sit around and wait?" Bora was surprised at how simple this all sounded. With such an expansive and big underground syndicate, he kinda expected—well, robbing some top secret stuff from the Magic Council, dealing with magic unheard off, like those bloated stories always write about.

"Basically, but there is a stipulation." Fero looked back to Bora. "Do you remember when you and I, with the boss, had to unload a large shipment of specialized Rhodonite Drugs to one of the major Dark Guilds?"

How could he forget? Meeting one of the infamous leaders of the Balam Alliance? He thought he was going to get a heart attack when they went to Phantom Lord. Just meeting two of the Oracion Seis, one of them being their leader, and one being a guy who liked to talk about money, was almost enough to put poor Bora into a coma if not for Fero watching his back.

"We've received intel that the Oracion Seis is going to be around this area too. Our team is going to a touch and go mission. The few of us go in and get out before we're found by our business partners and whatever war their planning to wage against."

Bora swallowed his spit. He just had to ask, didn't he?

"Still, we should remain low as possible. I have some equipment, along with Oshen's own concoctions that should prevent us from being found by any magical means. The mission is doable, Bora, have some faith."

* * *

Bora really did have faith in his new Cell Leader's plan. When the forrest was set ablaze, Fero kept them calm and told them to wait, when magical energies kept rising around them, they still weren't found, when against all odds, the legendary city of Nirvana was summoned and flying right before them, at that point, Bora knew trusting Fero would get him far.

It was probably his fault for letting his guard down because he thought they were practically home free after all that waiting near a dangerous area, but they were eventually found out by one of the last people he even expected to find him no less!

"Bora! Run and find it! Oshen, pray!"

The former Titan Mage didn't need to be told twice before Fero pulled an impressive move by launching a bookcase down on the people who had found them. Bora ran to get away from the impact but was able to see Fero staring down that pink haired kid who apparently burned down one part of the ship. Bora watched as Fero said something before unleashing a wave of strings aimed right for the neck of the dragon slayer. Bora wasn't fast enough to even process the move, but at the last second, a pink haired monk with black highlights tackled Natsu out of the way from being hit, but in the process made the fire mage knock his head on the floor and close his eyes.

Fero instantly snapped his head back towards Bora. "I said, look for the book!"

Whatever Bora was about to reply with, it was cut short with their opponents starting to make their move.

Fero looked down and jumped out of the way from the earth literally trying to eat him whole. While mid air, he pulled on the fishing rod and some string, the result was some books nearby being pulled and launched at the priest looking member of the Oracion Sies.

That was Bora's cue to run off towards the side of the library where they weren't fighting.

Hot Eye noticed the runner and made a motion with his hand as he gathered energy. "And where are you going?!" He commanded the gravel stone beneath him to shoot up and rush up and form into a miniature wave and head for the escaping Bora.

Fero spotted this, but as he made a step forward, he made a large leap back to avoid being hit by a strong axe kick from Genji.

Bora instantly panicked as he saw the wave coming his way, and he was definitely not fast enough to out run it. "Baló darrrium, Baruby!" " **Bal** **ó** **darrrium, Oshen!** "

Something jumped off from the opposite side of the second floor where Fero originally was. It was glowing a deep brown and dove right into the earth wave meant for Bora. Hot Eye's spell was soon quickly dissipated, and all watched a rabbit seemingly made of brown light land on the stone.

"Wait, is that what I think it is?" Hot Eye looked at the small, glowing creature in front of him before glancing back up.

Fero looked back up to the monk and gave a soft whisper. "Cutting it close, Oshen."

"That's an earthen spirit!" Richard cried out as he summoned spikes to stab the tiny rabbit. However, his magic that were like missiles to the target were twisted away from the small brown rabbit, like the earth itself didn't want to even go close to the tiny creature.

Fero tried to use the string from his fishing rod to cut Genji, but the monk themed mage jumped away obviously seeing the near invisible string meant to cut him.

At that moment, Natsu got back up, rubbing the back of his head and shouting, "What the heck was that for?!"

"Natsu!" Happy flew nearby Natsu before pointing back towards the second floor. "We need to get to the second floor! Someone's there probably ordering something weird to attack Hot Eye!"

The dragon slayer didn't quite get it, but seeing Genji fight against the fishing pole guy while Richard struggled with a rabbit that seemed to turn his own magic against him, Natsu knew that there was more to this fight than he thought. He let Happy carry him to the second floor where the scent of incense and something he never smelled before caught his nose.

To Natsu and happy's surprise, they saw a green skinned troll standing some feet away from them with a staff that had one of it's animal carvings glowing. "Batrak nux barick."

"Ah! A troll!?" Both Happy and Natsu pointed with all the tact of a four year old.

"Suka, naldarium..." The Troll sighed quickly and put a head on his hand.

Natsu, getting over the shock, lit his fist aflame with obvious intention to punch his opponent. The Troll's eyes widened and he bashed his staff into the ground. One of the carvings, one that looked like a fox started to glow orange red. A fox made of fire then jumped out of the staff and then soon, Natsu's flames dissipated and the Troll was able to catch the fist of the Dragon Slayer and throw him into the floor, which also meant that Happy was thrown into the ground as well.

" **Ēyasum borackta, Oshen.** " "Ēyasum borackta, Xulzi."

After the fire fox and the troll spoke to each other, Natsu got up, scooped up Happy and backed away. "What the heck is that!? What happened to my magic?!"

Oshen stomped with his staff before twirling it with enough speed to create a wind draft from it's movement.

Natsu felt a sudden pressure and moved his body to the right faster than his mind could realize he had just dodged the staff attempting to stab him. For something so tall and lanky it could move as fast as some of Natsu's stronger opponents.

"Zabambi, wa'yai." Oshen turned and stomped his staff down.

"I don't know what you're saying, but I can tell their fighting words!" Natsu, a man who could get provoked from even a child's taunt, screamed out with frustration. After setting down Happy, he went for his opponent a second time with his flam—as soon as the first spark started, the fire fox started to glow. Natsu's flame was snuffed out quickly and when the Dragon Slayer was surprised, the Troll used his staff to stab him with enough force through several shelves.

"N-Natsu!" Happy yelled.

Oshen jumped off from the dust cloud to avoid a right fist coming his way. It seemed like at the last second, Natsu was able to catch the staff with his left hand before it hit his stomach. The attack gave a very distinct pain around his left hand as he felt something broken even though he could still move it. Still, this was rather annoying. It seemed like his fire was nullified by that weird fox thing.

Natsu smiled though, his mind trailing back to Galuna Island. "You think you're the first to stop my flames?!"

Natsu acted fasts and blasted off with fire gathering behind him. The fire fox nearby started to nullify the flames—but by then Natsu slammed his foot into the face of Oshen with enough force to kick him through the walls of the second library floor.

You see, from his battle with Lamia Scale's Yuka Suzuki, Natsu learned that even though magic could be nullified, physical force couldn't. The dragon slayer figured out the fox was nullifying his fire the moment they appeared. With that in mind, Natsu accumulated magic around his feet and like holding a finger back to flick with, he released the flame mage that rocketed him forward at great speed. It didn't matter that they were nullified the moment they came out, their job was done the second before they were activated.

However, while Natsu still could use his magic, he wasn't expecting the Troll to grab him mid air and toss him down into the dirt road of Nirvana. Natsu rolled on the ground before seeing something bright coming up from above him. One would think a ball of fire would cause alarm to any normal person, but for Natsu Dragneel, it was like an oasis in a dessert.

The pink haired mage didn't hesitate to inhale the flame, surprising Oshen who seemed to be taken back by the action of eating flames. As Natsu finished and saw the fire fox, a pernicious smile appeared on the dragon slayer's face.

The troll reacted fast as he saw Natsu come in and held his staff ready. However, Natsu jinked and circled around Oshen, moving closer towards the fire fox. Natsu got ready to eat the flame animal—

Only for Natsu to suck on air rather than magic.

That allowed Oshen to swing his staff and smack the dumb-looking mage at the face to ward him away.

Natsu got back up, being the glutton for punishment that he was, then pointed over to the fire fox. "Hey! What gives!? I can't eat that flame!"

"What are ya? A Slayer mage?" The troll finally spoke in a language Natsu could understand. "But there ain't no way you can eat Xulzi here. He be from the planes of Fotiá."

That was an answer Natsu had no context before. "What the heck is a Xul and a Fotee?"

"What, don't ya be havin Shaman and Earthen Spirits here in Fiore?" At that moment, something burst through the first floor of the library, revealing it to be a thrown Hot Eye who looked beaten and battered with dirt and mud all over him.

Natsu looked towards the new hole in the building where of all things, a brown stone, bunny hopped out.

"You're getting beat up by a bunny!?" Natsu yelled out and pointed at the small thing that did a little hop off the first floor and into the ground.

Richard/Hot Eye looked at Natsu with more confusion than any other emotion. "What? Don't you know that earthen spirits have are invulnerable to elemental attacks and the only way to defeat them is to—" Whatever exposition he was about to reveal was cut short when the ground shot out two giants rocks that tried to crush the two of them.

"Are ya really be talkin about facts in da middle of a fight!?" Oshen screamed out. "Why are most of you pig-skins so nur'mirial?!"

"You're making that last word up! And quit calling us out on our skin color!" Natsu pointed at the troll before trying to attack him once more this time. However, this time Oshen had both the stone rabbit and the fire fox with him.

Hot Eye, who got back up and saw the two about to clash screamed out, "Natsu, wait! Shaman's weakness are—" Sadly for him, a sudden hail of stone and fire forced him to drop whatever message he was trying to say.

Meanwhile, inside the library, Genji of Phantom Lord was feeling rather disappointed. This was mostly due to the fact his opponent was throwing many of the ancient city's long lost books at him like rocks. There was probably literature and knowledge that could potentially enlighten people in modern times and here he was forced to avoid and even hit away these tomes of forgotten knowledge.

This sea captain with the fishing rod wasn't all that skilled really. He was just using a magic fishing rod of all things that was very easy to avoid. However, a problem started to occur mid fight when Genji lost sight of his opponent for one second, leaving him in an area filled with enhanced string that could cut the ground from where he was.

The monk-themed mage with pink hair looked around but saw no sign of his opponent. However, he saw the hook end of the fishing rod lash out towards him like a snake. Genji was about to smack it away until the last second where the magic around the hook felt different from the strong. He jumped out of the way to see the hook phase into the stone floor as if it was thrown into a lake.

The Phantom Lord mage realized what the hook's ability was and jumped back as something made a splashing noise beneath his feet.

The hook moved like a viper about to bite, yet Genji was able to avoid every strike which he soon found out was aiming right for his heart.

With how the hook seemed to phase through solid objects it didn't take long to figure out that his opponent was aiming right for his heart with the intent to stab right into it. Genji realized he need to find find his opponent fast. However, as he tried to move, he felt a stinging pain in his ankles. He looked down, seeing the string of the rod was tightened around his feet.

The Phantom Lord mage panicked for a second when he looked back up to see the fishing rod flying right for his head.

In that instant—Genji vanished into thin air and the string around his feet were quickly cut.

Behind a book shelf, Fero's eyes darted around the area. He acted fast, holding on to his string to sense for any movement around the immediate area with all the string he laced around the battle field.

There was a sound coming from _above_ Fero, making him realize: he didn't think to put string atop the shelves.

An instant later, Fero felt himself flying and crashing into several bookcases toppling over. Fero's hand trailed towards his stomach where he felt a heavy blow contract his lungs inward, as if his body just realized he was hit after the initial impact.

He heard the sound of a scream coming from beside him and looked to see Bora in stupefied horror.

"W-What, are you doing!? Get the book!" Although Fero said that, he coughed more in that one sentence than he wanted to.

"R-Right!" Bora then turned and ran, leaving Fero to stand back up and sigh.

"His magic, is it…?" Fero held on to his rod and put the reeling pat close to his ear. He closed his eyes and then, two seconds later, felt a light tug. His eyes snapped open and he pulled on the string, Suddenly something was snagged to his right and Fero didn't hesitate to whip his fishing rod right into a different stack of books. He saw something his string was tied to get picked up and slammed into the direction he wanted. "It is invisibility." Fero muttered to himself before proceeding to do his best impression of a batter in a practice cage.

Bora in the meantime was sweating like someone without a bat inside of a batter cage. Why? Because no one _bloody_ told him what the dang booked ever looked like! He was about to _bloody_ ask Fero until they were found out, and now all _bloody_ hell was breaking loose!

If this kept up, he was going to be a _bloody corpse!_ What the in all corners of Earthland did this dang book even look like!?

While Bora was having his mental crisis, the wall he was running near exploded. The former Titan Nose mage screamed again as he flew, seeing flaming rocks being thrown out and Oshen along with those rocks.

"Ugghh..." The green skinned troll groaned as he rubbed his head. "Dat be at I needing now, a splittin headache."

Bora soon realized that this was technically a blessing in disguise. "Oshen, what was the book we were supposed to find!?"

The troll looked over to him as he got back up. "How am I supposed to know?! All the boss said was somethin about a magic tome!"

"How does that narrow this down!?" Bora's lamentations were cut short as Osehn started to move again to avoid Natsu and Hot Eye attempting to attack him with their elements.

"See!? I told you Shamans themselves are the ones to aim for, not their Spirits! Yes Yes!" Hot Eye began.

"Okay then! You know, I've never beaten up a different race before!" Natsu spoke as he pumped his fists.

"Natsu, Hot Eye, look out!" Happy's voice came from outside before Natsu was tackled with a boulder and a fire blast exploded right next to Hot Eye, forcing him away in the opposite direction Natsu was tackled.

"Just be looking for it!" Oshen screamed at Bora. "I can't be holding off the two of them forever now!"

"A magic tome, where am I supposed to..." The former Titan Nose mage saw smoke rising from beneath him and saw one of the books in front of his feet catch on fire. Oddly enough it burned and was absorbed by fire very quickly, but instead of turning into ash and dust, the book retained it's shape. The ash around it blew off, and a brilliant red book bound in runic, flashing chains was seen where the regular book was last seen.

Considering how special that book looked even after being burned clued the two to the obvious.

"I think that be it." Oshen duly noted before Bora bent quickly to pick up the book.

To the two's right, Fero came in, flying through the air before landing near his two teammates with a slide after being hit again.

"Fero, I got it!" Bora threw the book in the air with his hands much like a kindergartener who believed their hand painting was the best thing ever.

Without even looking back, Fero jumped back closer to them and started reeling in his string. "Alright, stick close, we're getting out of here!" As that happened, he put his free hand into his suit and brought out a glass orb with some kind of glowing pink light in it.

"We're not letting you get away!" Natsu screamed up as he broke down several rocks and made a beeline for the three with white flames.

Bora screamed, Oshen got ready to fight back, but Fero was already moving, sliding his finger as his string continued to return to his fishing rod. And then, with one fast and powerful yank, the broken stone right under Natsu at that moment, shot up, stopping and moving the Dragonslayer's momentum upward instead of towards them. Fero threw down, and the rock with Natsu ended up falling like an asteroid right atop of Hot Eye, who was getting back up from a fire attack.

With that done, Fero threw the glass orb into the ground of the three's feet, and a pink portal opened up and swallowed all three of them like a pothole. A second after it closed, there was a thud, and Genji reappeared. The usually stoic monk seemed frustrated not being able to follow after the three after they seemingly got their objective.

Natsu slowly got back up, pushing up the rock and screamed. "What the heck! I'll beat that guy for that cheap shot!"

"Natsu?" Happy's voice made the dragon slayer look over to the blue cat pointing nervously behind him. "Umm, you're stepping on..."

Natsu followed the point to see that he was stepping over Richard/Hot Eye's face, who looked completely knocked out cold. "Ahh! Richard! I'll definitely beat up that captain guy for beating you up to!"

"Natsu, I think you were partly at fault too..." Happy gave a soft comment.

Genji walked up to his fellow pink haired mage. "They all escaped with a strange book. Do you have any idea what is was about?"

"No, but… something about them being all the way out here for a book, doesn't sit right with me." Again, something in his gut didn't like this. Why though? It was a book—if only Lucy or Kain where here. They were the smart ones.

"Natsu, you're still on top of Richard."

Happy was unintentionally ignored when Genji spoke out. "Do we go after the others now? We are battered up from this, how are we supposed to surprise attack the remaining members now?"

Before any of those questions could be answered, there was a loud shout and a spike of strong magic that everyone sensed. Happy, Natsu and Genji all ran towards the source of the spike of magic and to their surprise, they saw the familiar face of Midnight losing consciousness with an injured man standing over him.

And that man was none other than Jellal Fernandes himself.

"Jellal!?" Natsu yelled, all anger returning to him tenfold.

The blue haired Wizard Saint turned around and it almost seemed like he really, really, really, really, really wanted something, but Genji and Happy didn't know what.

Yet if that wasn't enough, they were all distracted when they felt an oppressive magical aura blanket over the isle.

* * *

Death has more effect on the living than those who actually died. Gray Fullbuster knew this more than anyone considering how many of his loved ones were in graves long before he was ready to understand what death meant. He also knew what happened to Lyon when their teacher Ur died. The rather mild manner young kid turned cold and ruthless after Gray left him the first time. So, with that in mind, Gray should have seen it sooner. Lyon may have acted cold towards his teammate but there was another change in his character, something subtle, but none the less prevalent when his guild mate died.

"Lyon, you're getting too far from us! Get back from here!" Gray was quick to notice his friend seemingly attacking anything on sight with little restraint, freezing and shattering the incoming automatons like a grinder to thrown meat.

Gray wouldn't say that they have a proper formation, but from his experience, fighting with someone watching your back was so much easier than going in solo. With Lyon advancing too far ahead, Gray noticed the giant Automatons where tilting their head towards the member of their group that was straying away from them with obvious intent to destroy what was alone and easy prey. Gray cursed under his breath, asked Lucy to watch his back, and ran after Lyon before she could even respond.

The giant guardian had his eyes glowing as a loud humming noise increased in volume around the battlefield. Considering what they had seen so far, it wasn't a surprise that the Giant Automaton could also shoot eye beams, it's just the one from the giant had way more fire power than even the wave of attacks that caused them and their fliers to separate. The attack sped for the other half naked ice mage and the beam crashed onto the area with a deafening boom.

Gray was worried for his friend until something zipped past the giant lasers and into the sky. Out of the dust, it was revealed that Lyon was riding on his own ice Pegasus construct and flying high into the air.

The sound of an incoming machine forced Gray to look towards his right, only to briefly see an incoming four-legged automaton get stopped by the smack of a large, familiar tail with the force and speed of the end of a whip.

His brain processed that he was just saved from an attack and looked to see who had just protected him. A smile cracked under Gray's face as he saw who it was. Ignis gave a low growl before giving folding his wings and looking right at Gray.

"If anybody asks, you are my favorite fake fire dragon in the guild." Gray lied. Even if no one asked, he was definitely going to go out of his way to tell everyone that Ignis was better at being a dragon than a certain someone the moment they got back into the guild. But his bias was put aside as Gray rode back on Ignis and the wyvern flew back up in the air with the intent to catch up to his friend.

The two titans were firing lasers into the sky, all with the purpose of attempting to hit Lyon out of it. The ice mage himself ignored his attackers and motioned his construct to move closer towards the tower itself.

Inside the tower, Kloda was watching the perimeter alerts about an incoming object. "You think such a simple plan of heading right for the control room would be that easy!?" As he said this, the staff summoned and activated more screens.

Lyon sensed a shift in the air and a spike of unrecognizable magic. He noticed the top of the tower started to cover all of the surrounding area. Wasting no time, Lyon forced his construct to move faster with obvious intent to get through before the forcefield was erected. However, as he moved closer and closer, his brain started to recognize the speed of his construct was not going to make it, but instead of listening to that little voice in his head, Lyon pushed forward faster than he attempted to before.

He was going to make it.

He was going to get in, beat Brain, destroy that blasted machine corpse, and avenge—

 _It's all your fault she's dead!_

 _Ur's not dead…_

For the tiniest fractions of a second, Lyon felt a sense of déjà vu. Within that moment of his distraction Lyon realized he was about to get hit by the barrier in front of him. His survival instinct kicked in, forcing himself off the fast moving Pegasus from a good two hundred feet in the air. But the height of the fall wasn't the problem: it was the two remaining titan guardians now having a clear shot at the falling ice mage.

Lyon panicked as he saw the two giants already about to fire, but a streak of red appeared before him, and he found himself atop of a wyvern saddle climbing higher up the force field while moving away from an explosion that he didn't have the power to stop by himself. It took another moment for him to realize that Gray had saved him, along with the wyvern that had used him like a mallet to a wack-a-mole game.

"Damn it, Lyon, you're being as stupid as you were back on Galuna Island!" Gray screamed over the winds as he held tightly into the reigns of the crimson Wyvern.

It was then that the two ice mages and wyvern saw glyphs being written on the side of the tower wall. As soon as one was completed, it fired a green laser that caused Ignis to barely dodge out of the way. This clued in that the tower was now shooting at them the second before a hundred or more so glyph signs were completed and unleashed a hail of lasers.

"Hold on! Ignis, time to show us your flying from all those laps around and inside Magnolia!" And with that, Gray and Lyon held tight as Ignis rose even higher into the sky than they already were to avoid the lasers.

"Wait, we need to get back to the tower! It's the only way to stop these attacks!" Lyon cried out as he held on. It wasn't long before the ice mage of Lamia Scale realized that they were still going faster and higher up, as it was becoming much harder to breathe due to thinning oxygen.

"I'm trusting that to the others below!"

Meanwhile, with all the laser pointed at the three above, down below the others had made their way closer to the tower.

"Are you sure that'll work?" Lucy looked incredulously towards the blue-haired, gold eyed knight from Phantom Lord.

"No, but Raina and Lahar already went ahead to the other titan, so we don't have much of a choice really. What do you think, Alex?" Jason responded before looking to the bronze, green-haired gladiator, who had a polite, but nervous smile on her face. "Well, if Kara were here, she'd be elated to hear this plan which means if we don't die from this, she'll be jealous that we did it without her."

"That does not inspire confidence." Lucy sighed. "But then again, it does sound like something my friend would come up with." The former heiress thought back to her lawyer friend. "Let's do this quick! Alright, Taurus, we're ready!"

"Go get'em, Miss Lucy's Hot Bod!" Taurus the Celestial Bull Spirit screamed before he slammed his axe down. The earth shook around the three before a solid chunk of rock burst out of the ground like a boulder being shot out of a volcano.

"Stop saying that!" Lucy screamed while holding on to her Taurus Axe planted on to the flying boulder.

"Incoming!" Jason drew his blade as the boulder was reaching fast towards the back of the right titan's head.

Alexandra acted first, jumping high and doing a pulling motion with her left hand while it had a black aura around it. Jason and Lucy's metal gear was magnetized and yanked high into the air along with their users. The boulder kept flying and smashed into the side of the skull of the titan to their right. The impact of the hit caused the titan to topple slightly and as it tried to regain balance, the two Phantom Lord mages and Lucy landed on the shoulder. Without waiting for a second, they attacked the head of the ancient automaton while it was imbalanced, causing it to topple and fall right into the forcefield.

What was impressive was that on the other titan guardian, a shadow trailed up to it's shoulder and jumped out both Lahar and Riana who also used heavy attack to topple over the imbalanced machine and it started to fall in to the same path as the other one.

When both titans fell, their heads crashed into the forcefield at the same place, causing a large strain over the magical barrier. At the same time, up from above, Ignis was now diving towards the impact zone with both Lyon and Gray gathering magic in both their hands.

" **Ice Make: LONGINUS!** " The two yelled out before an elaborate and massive Ice Lance was summoned and thrown right at the impact zone of the two crashing heads. The force field seemed to hold up… for only a second before being unable to take in all those heavy hits simultaneously. The forcefield fell to pieces like a glass mosaic, signaling that it was no more.

The remaining people atop the titans began running, jumping over the heads and beyond the forcefield before a streak of red swooped down and flew back up, seemingly catching all five of them before continuing upward.

"There!" Lyon pointed to gray as everyone was resetting atop of Ignis' saddle. "I noticed that hole on the side of the tower! I was trying to get there!" What Lyon noticed was the hole that Jellal used to escape the Machina King previously before, and it just so happened to be the same room where Kloda and an unconscious Brain currently were in.

"No! Not now! We're so close!" The talking staff, which genuinely confused many, along with the fact that Brain was sprawled unconscious in a different side of the room, cried out as he saw the Wyvern descend into the room.

"There's Brain!" Lahar pointed and made a beeline for the fallen leader of Oracion Seis. Kloda, seeing that gathered energy in his maw, but Riana moved fast and kicked the staff some distance away.

As Raina made a motion to stop the security controls, as Lahar moved in to bring out cuffs for Brain, something else happened elsewhere.

Or rather, two things happened. Before they could finish, Hot Eye was defeated by Fero with a surprise falling boulder with Natsu, seconds later, Jellal had defeated Midnight in his own nightmare realm.

Those two were the last remaining Oracion Seis members, and with them both falling, all of Brain's markings vanished.

Lahar was finally close and made a motion to reach for Brain's hands. Lahar didn't expect something to reach out and catch his hand with the vice grip of a viper bite. He didn't expect Brain to get back up slowly, with no markings on his face, and his eyes looking to be almost filled to the brim with pools of blood.

Before Lahar could react, the hand that grabbed him applied enough pressure to cause Lahar to drop to his knees and the cuffs he was about to lock onto Brain. Even though he cried out in pain, it was muffled compared to the different sounding voice that came out of Brain's body. "Once upon a time there was a monster who slept in a deep cave."

Brain (?) stood up, seemingly taller than before with all of his tattoo markings gone from his face. His usually calm and stoic look was replaced with a wilder, more sadistic appearance as if he was another man all together. "The monster was fierce, attacking anything and getting whatever it could. It didn't take long for those with power to band up and attempt to fight the beast."

Lahar's concentration returned as he tried to use his free hand to get his pistol. However, the second he pointed, he was thrown into the air and smacked with a powerful backhand.

"But by a twist of fate, the waking monster was slayed by many foolish 'heroes'. They thought they had killed an evil monster wrecking havoc in their lands."

An oppressive amount of magic filled the air—covered the entire surface of the Nirvana Isle.

Those in the tower could only stare as Brain (?) threw away his coat and summoned a green jacket to cover his torso. With a hand placed outward like a hand trying to hold a globe and the other folded neatly behind his back, he smiled and continued with his story.

"They didn't realize that they had killed the only thing keeping a far worse abomination from waking up! There were two monsters in that cave, the waking one was doing all it could to keep a second monster, more powerful, more dangerous abomination from waking, and the fools killed the only thing keeping it asleep! The second monster awoke, and not a single one of them survive its onslaught!"

He slammed his outward hand into a fist. "I am Zero, the True Master of Oracion Seis, and much like the story I just spoke, allow me to just say you all just **royally fucked up**!"

* * *

It is the way of mortals to inflate facts when telling stories. They tend to downplay mistakes and overstate accomplishments. With this in mind, it would stand to reason that the story of the Machina King would be exaggerated like any other story.

This is a false assumption.

It is exaggerated in the _opposite_ direction. The accomplishments and powers of the Machina King described by historians and recorders were downplayed to prevent the nightmares of those who teach and learn of his legend from returning night after night. The mistakes and flaws were over blown in some desperate hopes that if you were to face this being of unstoppable force, you would not die like a screaming, pitiful child and at least die trying to fight that what only a legend of equal power could face and win.

But there it was, it's body puppeteered by an ex-member of the Magic Council and a force to be reckoned with to any that oppose the Oracion Seis.

Yet hope remained. The Griever's new opponents where that from the famed guild, Fairy Tail. A guild known for including some of the most skilled, powerful of mages as well as people capable of laughing in death's face.

If anyone could bravely say they would fight the Griever, head on, with confidence and competency, it would be none other than— "AAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEE! Why is it always meeeeeee!?"

Anyone else from Fairy Tail that wasn't Kain Reynolds.

The young coward was fleeing from the black machine like a character from a horror-slasher film that everyone knew would die from first appearance. Though the reason why he was surviving much longer than those people was because of his special magical armor which could increase his ability to run away.

Kain was able to zip around when several icicle spears fell from above, all with the intent to turn him into a kabob.

If there was one silver lining to this it was that Erza Scarlet was also chasing after The Griever as he was chasing after Kain. Another fact was that Erza had sent Wendy, Carla, and The Exemplar automaton down towards the path they were meant to go which was made easier for Kain leading their opponent in the opposite direction.

However, these facts were very easy to forget mostly due to the fact The Griever used both his ice and stone blade to create a maw of stone stalactites and frozen stalagmites. Kain avoided the attack easily, but the problem was that it cut off his escape.

The lawyer turned around, wishing more than his childhood version of himself that he was a posh-accented Jedi/Sass Master.

The Griever jumped with all of his limbs and blades stretched out, forcing Kain to use the Omni Tool to turn it into a bubble. The landing of the onyx machina caused a shockwave that caused the bubble to bounce off the wall and make Kain fall out like a skipped stone.

With every movement unleashing the roar of a powerful machine, the Machina King raced for the fallen red knight. The blades flew, yet something moved fast and parried all incoming blades from the initial attack. Erza in her speed armor with a blade that had an enchantment rune of power had saved her ally... for a few precious seconds. The Griever adapted fast, stepping forward and used his six blades to attack this new intercepter. While Erza was indeed a skilled blade user, even someone like her had trouble handling something with a very unconventional but still masterful style of fighting with six blades, there were even times the machina flipped to a hand stand and used four blades in his hind legs to attack her, throwing off the scarlet haired woman with this bizarre fighting style.

Erza, seeing her disadvantage in balance and raw power, backed, off picking up Kain as she flew back to rest the distance between her and her opponent. But the Machina King stabbed his flame and gravity blade in to the ground. Something shot into the ground and caused a crack to speed past Erza and erupt a massive wall of flames. This cut off her attempt to escape and allowed the Griever to catch up with all blades primed and ready once more. With little time left, Erza threw away Kain before was locked once more into a blade fight with the Griever.

That second throw snapped Kain out of his senses. The first sight he witnessed waking back up was Erza slowly being overwhelmed by the Griever.

Erza started to change her strategy and transformed into different armors whenever one of the different elemental blades came her way. However, the Machina King also changed his strategy, and started using feints, baiting Erza into one armor then slamming a limb into her from an unexpected angle.

The red haired S-class mage grunted in pain before toppling over. The Griever didn't hesitate to lift and empower the six elemental blades with the intent to bring it down on his opponent, yet in an instant, a golden lasso snaked around it's neck and tightened with a powerful pull. The Machina King's head was turned 180 degrees to see Kain using the Omni Tool to save his friend.

Inside his armor, Kain blinked. "Okay, not the intended result I was hoping for." As the Machina King started to move, the red rider dug his feet in and used all of his enhanced strength to pull the lasso harder.

The result was The Machina king, despite being heavy and resisting in his own way, being pulled closer to Kain. One instant later, the onyx machine stopped resisting and went with the pull with a jump, allowing it to launch itself closer to Kain.

"Didn't think that one all the way through!" Kain cried out slid under the jump and tried to pull hard on the lasso. This caused the large machine to flip mid jump, but even then it wasn't even bothered by the sudden switch and used the flip to stab two of it's blades towards Kain, throw it's stone and ice blade into the air to be caught by it's feet, and use it's two new free hands to stand in place of it's feet.

With that, it started to unleash a storm of slashes that Kain only avoided thanks to his enhanced speed. "I really didn't think this through!" Instincts kicked in and Kain reached a hand to his back and threw gum bombs right towards the hands of the Griever, causing sticky pink taffy to catch into the momentary legs of the black eight limbed monstrosity and allow Kain to back off to Erza.

"So umm, how are we going to beat this thing?" The young lawyer in armor asked while carefully eying the Griever struggling to move.

"Everything has a weakness Kain, even this powerful creature. In order for us to win, we need to work together." Erza said this before changing into an armor he hadn't seen yet. Her armor was bulkier than the usual style of armors she wore, with larger shoulder shields and styled almost like a Celtic viking, with a cylindrical helm with three horns, and there was this massive, bronze great sword with many grooves on one side—making Kain realize it was similarly designed like a sword breaker back in his world.

"I don't usually use this armor, the Forger Breaker. This armor is designed to destroy magical tools, but even for someone like me, it slows my movements greatly." Erza began as she wielded the large bronze blade with the grooves facing their opponent. However, at that moment, the Machina King stabbed his ice blade into the gum bombs, freezing them solid and making them no longer able to hold him for much longer. "But in exchange, this armor's power is perfect for destroying those elemental blades. I need your help to be my shield and give me opportunities to break them."

Kain nodded, looking back as the Machina King freed itself and looked back towards the two. The young man felt a shiver up his spine.

"Remember what I taught you!" Erza's voice cause Kain to stop shivering and stand straight up. "Your blade in front of you, a shield to cover where your body is facing, your feet firm, but ready to move!"

With each of her cries, Kain's stance shifted into one far more primed to fight. This was a good thing seeing as The Griever was now upon them. Kain made a move forward, allowing himself to turn the Omni Tool back into a shield as he blocked the green wind blade that was coming towards them. The green blade started to glow, but Erza sidestepped and swung the great sword not towards the Griever, but towards his wind sword with the groove side of the blade. It was caught and then the light of the blade was snuffed and the rising humming was abruptly cut.

The Griever, to his credit, attempted to move, but Kain moved first and turned the Omni Tool into cuffs and connected both his hand and the limb wielding the wind blade.

With the two of them working together, the bronze great sword seemed to be 'eating' the elemental blade and then Erza yanked the great sword, which made that green blade shatter like glass hit by a baseball while losing all of it's vibrant colors.

Both Erza and Kain backed off while the Griever stared at his now useless wind blade.

Realization hit Kain as he recalled each time anyone has attempted to adapt to the Griever's fighting style, only for him to counter back with greater success… "He's not going to let us destroy the other blades as easily, isn't he?"

Erza returned to a stance, "We must prevent him from preventing us."

Kain sighed as the griever's empty face turned to them. Even if he was dead, why did it feel like he was still being glared at harder than before?

"I really hope Wendy is doing much better than us."

* * *

When Wendy Marvel reached the end of the path, she admittedly was a little out of breath. She had to admit, an elaborate, circular, and giant doorway was something she could see with the general aesthetics of the place, but witnessing it still made her in awe that Nirvana really was an artistically advance culture.

"Well?" Carla's voice snapped the blue haired girl momentarily. Yet, when she looked back, she noticed Carla glaring at the mossy robot. "Hurry up and open the door! I doubt that coward can last even a minute against that monstrosity!"

"C-Carla," Wendy tried to say before looking up at the old Automaton. What was it called again? Exem..pl..pla? "Um, Pla?" Wendy shook her head when her mouth sputtered out that. However, the machine seemed more attentive towards her. "Can you please open the door?"

The Machine did so, stepping forward and having it's eyes glow a green color like that of the grass of a bright and windy day. The door made many clicking noises before it split in half, opening up by the sides.

Both Wendy and Carla were filled with anticipation when the doors opened. However, whatever they were expecting, they didn't expect to see a sleek, almost futuristic room that had several gravity rings around a giant magical orb that was both black and white. Furthermore, the giant black and white orb wasn't some kind of Lacrima, it looked more like a ball of energy. The strange thing about it was that it started to have pieces of it suddenly jerk out erratically, like something was trying to break out the orb, or it was doing it's best to twist and contort in any way that wasn't a perfect circle.

"Is this the core of Nirvana?" Carla asked while the three all walked in. Then the small white cat turned to the large machine. "Well go on, hurry up and shut if off!"

"Um, Carla? I think it only listens to me?" Wendy began before looking up to the Exemplar Automaton. "Umm, Pla—I mean." She shook her head at the wrong pronunciation again and fighting a blush, she tried again. "Can you put it off?"

The Automaton seemed to process Wendy's words before slowly pointing a finger towards her.

"Huh?"

"She ordered you to put this thing off, already you hunk of metal! Why aren't you doing it!?" Carla asked sharply but the Automaton seemed to still point at Wendy.

Or at least… Wendy realized that he wasn't exactly pointing at her, but her guild mark. It was then that the Cat Roubaul words came back to her, that it needed to be her to stop Nirvana. That's why Pla—why did she keep calling it that!?—That's why Mr. Robot was pointing at her. He couldn't stop it, it had to be her.

"H-How do I stop it?" Wendy croaked out, trying to gather courage even though the magical orb that was behaving out of control freaked her out.

Mr. Robot had it's arm transform and walked forward, closer to the magical core, which promted Wendy and Carla to do the same. When the long arm stopped transforming, the Exemplar's hand looked almost like a… a harp?

The robot started to pull on the strings, and a melodious tune echoed through the room. The erratic moving of the orb started to slow down but still seemed and looked unstable. Soon after, the Exemplar started to play a beautiful but lovely melody with the strings etched outwards from his hands. Wendy recognized the tune of this melody and recalled the cat Roubaul's last, desperate word before he was cut off being music.

It all clicked. The very song that Brain used to find Nirvana, it was the same tune as the melody the automaton was playing. That's why Cait Shelter wanted her to learn this song and dance so much, it wasn't just a fun culture tradition, they were preparing her to save them from Nirvana!

Wendy stepped forward. "Carla, to stop Nirvana, I need to sing again."

This was going to be it, all she needed to do to stop Nirvana was just to do what caused this madness in the first place. All she had to do was open her mouth, inhale deeply and—

Yelp as the ground shook violently.

There was a scream followed by an explosion. Wendy and Carla looked back to see Kain flying towards them, only to land near the entrance of the room. The crimson rider attempted to stand back up, only for the Griever to jump out of the darkness and with all his weight, slam one of his legs right into the chest plate of the young man, cuasing the place to shake and creating a miniature crater. Wendy and Carla noticed something different from the Griever: four of his blades were now shattered, leaving only the gravity and fire blades left on the onyx corpse. On the other half of it's arms, Erza was being lifted by her neck with two other limbs clamping hard on her left hand and right leg.

It looked bad then, but it was about to get worse. A powerful quake, this time coming from above the room, caused the roof to be torn open, and what fell through and crashed into the opposite side of the core room was Ignis, looking battered and weakened while holding his wings across his chest. As he let his wings fall, on his chest were even more battered and weakened members of the Alliance such as Lucy, Jason, Lahar, Raina, and Lyon.

This surprised and horrified both Wendy and Carla until something else came and fell from the sky, unlike Ignis though, it landed on both of his feet.

Brain (?) had returned, no longer wearing the same get up he appeared before and with eyes like pools of blood. In his hands, he was clutching on to the skulls of a weakened Gray and Alexandra, both seemingly too injured to do anything at their situation.

Then, the leader of Oracion Seis slowly turned towards Wendy.

"I apologize, Prodigal Daughter," Wendy tried to be brave, but just those words alone froze her into an almost catatonic state. "But your story ends here."

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **And so does this chapter.**

 **I apologize for the lateness in this chapter. Things have been very busy for me this month and some amount of Writer's Block didn't help at all.**

 **My Oracion Seis arc is one of my longest arcs so far, which is rather distressing considering I didn't expect it to be this long. Though that's what I get for trying to add more things to an arc that went on for a while even to usual Fairy Tail standards. Then there are the arcs that are even longer than this one…**

 **Well. Hopefully, they aren't bad because either the next chapter or the one after will finally and the Oracion Seis arc. And I'm looking forward because a new original Arc is coming soon! Those are always super fun to write.**

 **Hopefully, you guys don't mind me trying to give Erza a new Armor. Granted she has a lot of them, but I wanted to see if I could take my own spin into adding a new armor for Erza. Forge Breaker came to mind, and I had to give a reason as to why she never needed it until then.**

 **Anyway, hopefully the next chapter will come sooner, but then again, there are a lot of things I need to do this month too.**


	43. Chapter 43

What was the difference between a rave and a fight between two powerful mages? Well the latter is 200 percent more likely to include old men and is slightly less dangerous. Though both would be quite exciting and an amazing light show.

Goldmine was high. Not drunk, even though he would currently like to be, he was a good hundred feet up in the air, ridding on a thrown boulder that was launched up there by one of his friend's many powerful attacks.

The guild master of Quatro Cerberus looked back down and started to run down the boulder, a golden aura flying beside him and taking the form of a giant eagle. At the end of the boulder, the former teammate of Makarov leapt with into the open blue, and in range of multiple magical blasts which could very easily be mistaken for lasers. The giant eagle was able to swoop in and allow Goldmine to avoid the blasts that kept flying and seemed to politely disagree with a large cliff's existence some distance behind the former Fairy Tail Alumni.

Goldmine held on to his hat and looked down on his friend. "You know, Makky, everyone always called me the wild one, but why was I the most responsible one in the team?"

His friend currently under mind control didn't respond to that rhetorical question. Instead, his actual response was to make several fast hand motions with his glowing, giant hands, which instantly translated into over a dozen magic circles surrounding and keeping up with Goldmine mid air.

Makarov slammed his hands together as the magic circles all compressed to where Goldmine was. However, before the attack could connect, there was a flash of gold before an orb of white magic energy entrapped the alumni from Fairy Tail. That same orb lasted a long amount of time, a half second to be precise, before it shattered like glass and Goldmine landed on the ground. This time there was a giant, golden three headed dog standing behind the other guild master.

" **Gilded Aura: Cerberus.** " Goldmine threw his hand out as all three dog heads gave an impressive roar towards the giant of master. "Man, this really is more annoying than the first time. You didn't know any of those really fancy light spells back then, not to mention all I had to do was beat up Jumanda Hagu and you were pretty good- well sorta anyway."

However, while Goldmine was having this one sided dialogue, Makarov was gathering a large amount of magic energy that would do more than just destroy a cliff or two.

Goldmine sighed and stepped forward. "Sorry, Makky, it took a lot longer to get used to your patterns than usual. We're not as young as we used to be."

After that, Goldmine blasted forward with his soul following not too far from him. Makarov, using his body manipulation magic, threw his giants hands backward which then rocketed outward and stretched with all the tension of pulled rubber at it's very limits.

Goldmine knew that attack. He clicked his tongue as he recalled how powerful it was. This next few moments would be hell—

With a pop, the stretched giant's hands came in with speeds so fast, it looked more like there were multiple giant fists coming in than two. Even one of those punches seemed more than capable to make someone like Goldmine into a pancake.

But that's just speculation. Before the barrage of punches came in, the Golden Cerberus had all six of it's eyes glow. This allowed Goldmine to avoid every single punch that was no doubt going to change geography maps for years to come around that area.

Slowly but surely, Goldmine closed the distance. Makarov stopped his assault and raised back one fist that started to get wrapped around in light and several other elements. Goldmine, seeing this, stopped his advance, strengthened his stance and threw his own hand back as the cerberus behind him howled and roared with power.

The two old friends stared each other down, before…

Makarov made the first move, sending that empowered punch right for the master of Quatro Cerberus.

Or at least, it should have. Faster than a blink, Goldmine vanished before the punch was thrown and uppercutted his giant friend in the chin, causing Makarov to release the stockpiled magic which would have no doubt caused a massive explosion. Makarov fell with a boom and Goldmine's Cerberus Soul was quick to pin the giant down.

Though even though he was down, Makarov still wasn't out as his magical aura spiked again for a counter attack— "WAKE UP ALREADY, BASTARD!" Goldmine yelled with a coated fist of his own magic and punched Makarov right in the forehead.

The golden aura overwrote the orange aura over Makarov's eyes, and soon it returned to normal. Makarov was freed from the mind control—

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BASTARD, OLD FART!?" And the first thing after being freed from mind control? A knee jerk reaction to punch his friend in the face, which for a giant was just him swatting the man away for calling him old.

Goldmine was knocked through some trees that had managed to survive their fight until that very moment. Yet Goldmine got back up with little effort or pain from the attack and shouted back, "Hey! That's the thanks I get for snapping you out of it a second time!?"

Makarov shrunk back to his normal size and put a hand on his head. "Snapping me out off…?" The small sized Wizard Saint then had his eyes snap open when all the memories came back to him.

With realization over him, Makarov slammed the ground he was on, creating a small crater and unleashing a curse. "Damn! Not again!"

Goldmine sighed once more, seeing his old friend in a sad state. He moved closer to his smaller friend and sat next to him.

Makarov felt something cold and metal touch his head. He looked up to see Goldmine holding up a cool flask. The glasses wearing guild master only gave a small smirk. "I took one of these from Bob's place before we left. I figured you'd be needing one after I snapped you out of it."

The third master of Fairy Tail slowly took the flask, opened it, and had the sent of good smelling alcohol hit his nose. Seeing what it was, Makarov calmed down and started drinking the contents.

After his first gulp, he wiped his mouth and sighed. "Damn, a second time?" His complaint was far softer but he looked over to Goldmine. "Looks like I owe you one, you old junkyard dog."

Goldmine laughed before patting the smaller man's back. "You owe me more than that, baldy."

"I'm not bald dammit!" Makarov shouted before putting a hand on his head. "Still, it's going to be hard to face Team Valiant after almost killing them."

"What about me, ya baldy?"

"What _about_ you, old mutt?"

Goldmine gave a light punch to his friend's shoulder. "Hey, at least I age like fine wine. You and the others have aged like spoiled cheese."

"Ha!" Makarov scoffed, barely phased by the love tap. "I'll be sure to tell Porlyusica that!"

Instead of worried, Goldmine smirked in return. "That'll require you to actually talk and face her."

The last point went to Goldmine as Makarov winced at the idea of talking directly to their old temperamental teammate. He was about to make another drink before he and Goldmine gave a small pause. "By the way, are you going to deal with that thing about to attack us?"

Goldmine rolled his eyes as Makarov continued to drink without a care in the world. There was indeed an attacker behind the two Wizard Saints as it made a mad dash for the two of them, only for Goldmine to catch a limb before it could connect to either him or Makarov.

However, the limb he caught was not exactly a limb but the neck of a purple snake.

"Hmm?" Both men turned back to look at the snake. Their attacker caught their attention much like it was caught in Goldmine's grasp.

"Hey… this snake…" Goldmine continued to speak while the snake gave a futile attempt to escape or attack the guild master's hold. "It's not actually a snake?"

"That is a complex curse." Makarov put away the flask for a moment and showed his palm to their captive. "Here, let me undo it."

With a wave of his hand, the form of the snake shattered like glass, leaving behind the image of a slightly middle-weight girl with purple hair wearing a white dress over her body.

Goldmine then let the girl down on the dirt with all the care of a good parent. "Well at least she still has some clothes after the spell broke, so there's that. Who is she though?"

"There's something else." Makarov spoke out. "When I undid that curse, I found it was cast on her for nearly two decades. The poor child has probably lived longer as a snake than a human."

"Hmm, could the doc be responsible for this? Nah, it doesn't seem like his style. It could have also been living here this whole time." Goldmine, while being a social butterfly, wasn't always that observant with details. He failed to recall that the purple snake just so happened to look like the same snake in the picture with Cobra. Due to the fact he never really saw the creature, this fact slipped his mind, and he didn't even realize he had just turned the pet of Cobra back into a human.

Goldmine then turned to Makarov. "Ah that reminds me, we should probably be helping out the others. I spent waaaaayyy too much time trying to snap you out of it."

Makarov wiped his mouth, closed the flask, and stood up. "Where are they anyway?"

Goldmine simply pointed to the large floating city that was currently moving away from the both of them. "You serious?"

"Huh, in my defense, I simply thought it was the alcohol acting faster than usual." Makarov used his magic to summon back his Wizard Saint Uniform. "Now then, it's time to pay back the good doctor for making me attack my own children."

Before the two Wizard Saints could enter the fray, they were distracted by something else being cast over their heads.

* * *

I know I like to joke about the whole, 'Crisis of the Week' thing I have going on ever since I came to Earthland, but it's another thing completely when a joke like that is starting to look more like a fact of life than a sarcastic observation.

As much as I love my friends I've met here, I'm pretty much convinced I'm not going to live to see the end of the next year at the rate I'm currently going. I mean—look at us right now: Erza and I are pinned down by the a General Grievous knockoff after trying to break his swords and beat him, the other half of us consisting of Gray and Lucy that were supposed to get to Brain, but somehow the ill bastard defeated all of them, including Ignis and was now heading towards a scared witless Wendy!

I digress. My mind may still be seeing triple versions of everything, but if I'm somewhat coherent enough to still complain like a bitch, then moving my hand under this thing that's almost crushing my lungs shouldn't be too hard. Just gotta move it a little more to my back… where I keep that pouch of goodies...

Things is though, while I hope whatever I'm coming up with isn't a brain-damaged hallucination, I also need someone else to get attention away from Brain and the Griever.

"… ends here." Brain, who looks even weirder to me—probably still having my head ringing—spoke out to a horrified Wendy.

Which also means I no longer have a choice in the matter.

The smallest moment went to a futile prayer before I moved my hand and threw a gum bomb right at the face of the Griever with it's attention elsewhere. There was no way I was done as I threw another ball, this time a Cracker Sphere, as fast as I could towards Brain so it would explode light and sound with his advance senses—that I really hoped he had. I mean, those big baddies are usually super human, right?

If I had one thing going my way, it was the fact that Erza was also playing possum along with me. The moment I made my distraction, she re-summoned her sword breaker great sword and made a cleave strong enough to shatter all three limbs restraining her. With all the skill I expected of her, she kicked off the Griever, which freed me. As I got out of the way, Erza transformed back into her Heaven's Wheel armor and made a mad dash towards Brain while he was still rubbing his eyes.

I spotted her about to unleash her strike, but Brain raised his head back up… were his eyes always blood red?

In a burst of magic that looked more like a wall of ghostly souls, Brain blasted Erza into a wall and turned those crimson eyes towards me.

A little after, I felt a shift of weight nearby me. My instincts knew what that was as I forced my body to leap out of the way from the Griever's gravity field. Even with half it's arms and blades gone, it still looked scarier than before! How the heck was that still a thing!?

The onyx colored Machina King went on the attack, trying to hit me with his stone blade and gravity fields. In one exchange, I was caught without being able to move out of the way. With little options left, I made the Omni Tool into a shield before the gravity blade could do an impressive physical impossibility in my world by both cutting and crushing me in one swoop. To my ever lasting regret and already dead hope, I stopped being cut in half, but now, I could feel the weight of like a hundred monster trucks barreling down on me. I fell to my knees as I buckled under the pressure and the idea even with super powers, I was as useful as a white crayon being used on an empty sheet of paper.

"You mages hired by the council are a tenacious bunch." I heard Brain speak out. "I'd be impressed if I wasn't so annoyed."

I spotted Carla grab on to Wendy's hand and take her away from Brain's area. When she did that, Brain's attention was brought back to her and this time I couldn't do much of anything!

"Kain!" Thankfully, Erza was still around as she had gotten out of the wall she was blasted into and was able to stab her great sword into the left shoulder blade of the Machina King. The anti-sword dug through the Griever's usually thick armor, obviously battered from all the attacks previously tanked adding on to the fact Erza's new blade was specifically designed to break magical steel. However, it didn't dig deep enough as he activated the gravity blade once more, shooting both Erza and me up into the air before she could stab the great sword even further.

"Look out!" Even though I didn't turn to Wendy, I knew it was her voice and I knew what she meant. Without even waiting, I activated the winds of the armor and grabbed Erza out of the way of a pillar of dark souls that missed us and created another hole in the roof.

I looked down and saw Brain now turning his attention to Wendy. I felt Erza move under my arm, which in that moment of trust and instinct, I threw Erza back at the Griever while I sped between Wendy and Brain.

"Wendy, get to a safer zone!" I screamed as a summoned a red blade and charged right for—oh shoot, I'm charing right for the leader of the Oracion Seis!

* * *

Wendy felt another tug on her hand and looked back down to Carla. "You heard him, child. We need to get back!"

"B-But!" The small girl tried to say as she looked between Erza, who was hit away as she attempted to finishing her her cleave with the anti-sword. She looked back when she heard blasts and saw Kain zipping around the area, picking up the others and getting Brain with red eyes to focus solely on him. Yet Wendy eyed the downed members— _memories of Bella Solaris, telling her to run and never seeing her again_ —and she pulled her hand away from Carla. "Carla, we need to help them!"

Wendy made a dash for the injured members. This was noticed by Brain (?) as he turned and saw the little one running.

"It's time to destroy the sealers of Nirvana!"

"Like hell, I'll let you!"

As soon as Brain (?) screamed that, Kain took that moment to wrap his arms around the chest of the leader of Oracion Seis and fly out of the hole that he made an entrance to.

Wendy was still able to reach those who Brain had defeated first. She could tell they were all amazing and brave people in their own right, but the problem was that she didn't have that much practice with her healing magic yet. She could heal people, but by maybe the first or second one, she wouldn't think to have that much stamina and energy left.

There was a heavy shake of the room followed by an unearthly wail coming from above, signaling that Kain's distraction wasn't going to last much longer.

"Wendy, move out of the way!" A scream from the opposite side of the room forced Wendy and Carla to look back, only to see a row of spiked boulders heading their way due to the Griever stabbing his stone blade and Erza accidentally dodging the attack meant for her.

The blue haired girl panicked before something moved in to rescue her once more. This time it was The Exemplar Guardian. The bot with grass mold over it started to shine and a powerful greenish blue dome shield covered the group that withstood the attack of the Griever. Afterward, Wendy recalled that the automaton listened to her every command. She pointed towards the Griever that was somehow still fighting Erza even with half of it's arms gone. "Help Erza stop the Griever!"

In response to her command, the eyes of the rusted and moldy bot started to glow. The Griever moved his head fast despite the great sword still lodged to his shoulder blade. He made a move but was stopped as Erza threw one of her normal blades to force the Griever to block her attack. The moment to dodge was wasted as the Exemplar seemed to know a weak spot and fired a concentrated eye laser right through the torso of the The Griever, aiming for where it's mechanical heart would have been.

The nightmarish machine finally fell to it's knees. The moving metal seemed to slow to a stop and it fell forward—then twisted its body mid fall, its gears grinding louder and faster than before. The corpse moved with what seemed to be the last of its magic, grabbing the blade and tossing right back at the other humanoid robot. The great sword pierced through The Exemplar Shield and stabbed right through the left arm of the robot. With that last action, the fearsome Machina King at last fell.

"Aahh!" Wendy looked over as the Exemplar Guardian also fell, the stub where its robotic, sail like arm was now gone and the lights in it's eyes seemed to be flickering. Wendy went up to the robot, but recalled her magic could only work on people, not machines. "P-Please be alright!"

"Wendy!" Erza ran over towards the girl. "Are you alright?"

"I-I can't stop Nirvana without him!" The girl pleaded as looked over to Erza, as if expecting a way for her to fix this.

Erza seemed to actually think before there was a huge spike of oppressive magical power followed by a scream that obviously belonged to Kain.

That seemed to force the S-class mage's hand. "Start with Jason Dracoblood, the blue haired knight. He's a healer like you! And if you both can't heal everyone fully, at least until they're good enough!"

With that, she flew upward into the air, hoping that is wasn't too late to save her friend.

* * *

(This is too easy.) Zero mused to himself as he found himself flying back out of the core room by the ant in precious armor. He raised both his hands and then brought them down hard. The result was the little scum bag hitting the floor with such force that a crater appeared when contact was made.

Zero levitated in the air before one teleport later, he was right next to the young man attempting to get back up. With a stomp of his leg to the plated helmet, Zero reacquainted the loser to the ground.

(Hmm why does this worm feel familiar?) Having enough fun pinning him down, Zero kicked the boy some distance away. Even after that, the glutton for punishment stood up, albeit a little wobbly and stared down the powerful personality.

Zero watched as the worm tried to get in close and attack him. His speed was nothing to scoff at, for sure, but dealing with the likes of Racer allowed him to understand the timing of most speedsters. Zero easily caught a high speed punch meant for his face and locked his grip down on the worm's fist. Then, he proceeded to turn him into a rag doll by slamming him left and right. This almost cartoonish beat down made Zero laugh. Oh how long has it been since he had this sensation? This—the cool night air, the way the screams of pain were akin to musical notes of an emotional orchestra, and the way his overwhelming power made words like 'impossible' seem untouchable to him!

He really couldn't help but laugh at it all, even more so when he saw the soon-to-be blood stain summon a blade in his arm and attempted to stab him in his face while mid air. The monster of Oracion Seis only smiled wider and dodged the slow moving blade by pushing his hand forward and unleashing a wave of powerful magic that overwhelmed the armored brat.

The way the attack made the worm scream in pain and sent him crashing through a collapsing ruin made Zero sigh in joy, happy to feel alive.

It was then that Zero heard the sound of a groan and a gasp. He turned back towards the rubble to see the worm somehow still alive from the beating he was given. Zero wondered how that brat was still even alive.

He began to gather magic in the palm of his hand with the intent to erase the cockroach from the face of the planet. Instead he snapped his head up and jumped out of the way a wide sword slash that attempted to cut him in half.

"Ahh, Titania, was it?" The destructive personality of Brain gave a bow from atop of left over house ruins. "Besides the Wizard Saints, you and Alexandra where some of the mages I warned my members against—so imagine my disappointment at how easily it was to actually defeat the latter. Hopefully, you won't make the same mistake the Southern Captain did and protect her dead weight allies. She might have had a chance if she just let me destroy some of them before our battle could begin."

At that, Erza tensed. Alexandra was her equal when they last fought, perhaps she would have even lost with how the bronze gladiator's magic countered many of her main abilities, but at the same time it gave her some hope. Alexandra had to protect, while she could fight Brain nearly unabated. Though she was also exhausted from her battle with the Griever. "You will fall this night, Brain!"

It was as if somehow, somewhere, the sound of glass shattering could be heard by after an abrupt silence. The leader of Oracion Seis lost his jovial look and for a moment of eternity, his eyes stilled. " ...Brain? I. AM. NOT. BRAIN!"

It was the last second before the bomb clock hit zero. They thought the man named Zero was powerful? Allow him to correct that understatement in the bloodiest way possible.

Titania wasn't expecting a near instant teleport, followed by a burst of magical power that almost made her lose consciousness. It was too bad that he was nowhere near done after his first attack.

"Brain wasn't the one who lived in a damned state of stasis that was neither and both life and death! He wasn't the one trapped within the confides of his own mind!" He charged after Erza as she tried to change tactics, but that went as well as the idea that furniture in Fairy Tail's guild would last more than a week before needing replacement. The S-Class mage of Fairy Tail struggled greatly and despite her attempts to change armor, none of them seemed to help in keeping up with Zero's assault.

"He wasn't the one watching everything around his life, but not being able to interact with it!" Somehow, Zero's power and speed grew, and Erza was losing, if not already throwing away her hopes she might have had a chance in beating her opponent. "It was like tying a prisoner dying of thirst a few precious millimeters away from a fountain FOR ALMOST 35 YEARS!"

In one attempt, Erza was forced to change into her Adamanite armor and wasting no time, she placed her shields together and braced for impact. The scary thing though was the expected attack never came.

What did come were small tendrils slipping through the cracks of her shield, and suddenly pushing both giant tower shields away, leaving the S-class mage face first with something akin to a demon of wrath. Erza, even though staring right at him, was distracted enough for one moment to react to that fist coming in close to her.

Erza fell like a falling star right through one of the houses. To her credit as Fairy Tail's S-class mage, she was able to roll with the impact and slide into her Lightning Empress armor and hold her slightly twitching arm towards her opponent who walked through the dust cloud without a sense of attention to the destruction he caused.

Instead, there was a burning hatred in Brain's new red eyes that felt like they were looking right through the famed mage of Fairy Tail. "My name, is Zero. And I am never giving this body back to Brain."

Erza was slightly confused, but at the same time this new name felt as if it was explaining this strange change than from what she knew about the Oracion Seis leader. Almost like a second personality? Was someone that dangerous hiding an even deadlier personality? Her questions had to be answered later because right now, she had to hold the line until Wendy could heal the others, or if Kain could regain consciousness again. But just a few seconds in, it was obvious Bra—Zero, was far more powerful than she expected to face. What she did know was that calling him Brain instead of Zero would no doubt cause another dangerous burst of anger and magic.

"Hey, Brain!"

And if possible, a vein appeared on the towering man's forehead, he turned around, seeing a group of people standing atop of a building with the tower shadow hiding most of their figure.

However, Erza and a recently awakened Kain then watched three figures attack Zero with a flurry of light, fire, and a giant fist like blast. Zero made a motion with his palm and with one swipe, used a fast wave of his dark, ghostly magic to swat away all incoming attacks going his way. He counter attacked and sent a malevolent and giant soul monster to charge right for the newcomers, only for them to easily avoid the rampaging beast.

Out of the shadow were people Erza least expected: Genji of Phantom Lord, Happy, and Natsu, seeming fine and well despite being roughed up, and the person who she never would have even fathomed to have come to her rescue, Jellal Fernandez. No words could explain the emotions of what she was feeling at that moment, except that it was anything but singular. To see his face, and seemingly teaming up with Natsu of all people, confusion was slowly rising out of her other emotions.

"Natsu!?" Kain woke up to the presence of the pink haired dragon slayer and got back up. "What are you doing with Jellal?!"

"I've betrayed Oracion Seis. I cannot allow them to destroy the Magic Council and engage in a war over Fiore." The man answered himself before turning his eyes towards Zero. "Though, you seem different from we last met, Brain."

At the name of Brain, Zero's magic spiked up tremendously. The man looked ready to explode both metaphorically and literally. "Oh for crying out loud! How many blasted times to I gotta say that I'm Zero! The true owner of this body, the true leader of Oracion Seis! NOT BRAIN!"

"We don't care what you call yourself!" Off all times to hear Gray's voice, this surely was one of the good times to hear such a thing as he, along with Ignis and the other alliance members beaten by Zero, flew out of the hole that dropped them into the core of Nirvana.

"You're going down, hard!" Gray finished off as they all jumped out, all readying their magic to fight against the leader of Oracion Seis.

"Fools! All of you!" Zero cried out before unleashing an amazing amount of power that caused his hair to start to flow upward. "You think I can't beat all of you!? You're all more injured than before!"

It was at that moment, a large shadow casted over the group. Everyone looked up to see something they were not expecting: a giant, flying ship in the shape of a pegasus.

" _Ahoy everyone down below!_ " A telepathic link resounded in the minds of all listening. It was a voice that belonged to a certain member of Blue Pegasus. " _I see_ _you've all done well while we've been away."_

" _H-Hibiki?_ " Kain's voice reached the link while he slowly got back and gawked at the sudden robot, flying ship unicorn. Ignoring how weird that looked, adding into everything else that happened, another emotion shot out of the young man while he was still recovering from Zero's beat down. _"Where the hell have you been!?_ _And what the heck is that thing!?_ _"_

" _It's a long story:_ _before we left, I called Master Bob and asked him to send over this beauty you see here: The Christina, the pride and joy of Blue Pegasus! And we didn't just bring this, you'll never guess who we picked up on our way up here._ "

Something else distracted everyone that seemed to have come straight from the tower. Many thought it was some leftover defense of Nirvana, but instead, it was revealed to be Zero/Brain's staff, Kloda, flying over to Zero. As he arrived, the staff quickly bowed in shame. "Forgive me sir! I don't know how but—"

Whatever he was about to say wouldn't finish. Two things jumped out of the flying fake pegasus. The two lights fell fast; one white and one gold both landed with gentle, but powerful presence. Seeing both of them enter into the fight caused smiles to appear for everyone in the alliance and made even Zero have his crimson eyes widen in hesitation.

"You brats are lucky _._ " Goldmine swung his arm with a sigh before fixing his hat. "The same attack I used on Hagu worked directly on Makky here too."

"Dr. Ockado," Fairy Tail's Team Valiant couldn't help but smile at the familiar voice and face that no longer showed an ounce of brainwashing while Zero couldn't help but grit his teeth. "I personally want to express my complaints for what you put me through."

"Gramps!" Natsu shouted as he looked up towards the flying vehicle. "You're back to normal!" It was easy for Fairy Tail to feel relieved when seeing their master freed, and everyone else was comforted to know that they now had two more mages on the level of Wizard Saints back in the fight.

Without taking his eyes of Zero, Makarov spoke out with a far more gentle voice, "You brats went through a lot. I'm sorry but I'm also proud of all of you."

" _For the eldest in our group, they sure got excited as kids, huh Field Commander?_ "

" _I'm a little surprised that Jellal Fernandes is also there seemingly standing with us than against us. However,_ _it's high time this came to an end, Dr. Ockado, we've captured all of your Oracion Seis mages, surrender to the Magic Council. You have no other options left._ "

After William Tovar made a comment, Tarsus Steelsoul spoke in the link. There was a brief shout out from the rest of the members, all having some quick conversations with those onboard and down below. Among them was Kara of Phantom Lord missing out all the 'fun' fights, Ren asking what happened since he was last with the group, and others also questioning why Jellal was indeed with them, only to be met with strange silence.

Zero, surrounded by many mages which included the dangerous duo of Makarov and Goldmine, losing all his allies of Oracion Seis, having no more access to Nirvana's defense system, and worst of all, being ignored as if he wasn't even there caused him to scream with a burst of magic.

"You dare ignore me?!" He shrieked to the top of his lungs which stiffened everyone into a fighting position that surrounded Zero in all ends, even above him. "I will—"

Instead of more threats, blood started to cough out of Zero's mouth. A horrible pain caused the powerful personality to fall to his knees while Kloda looked on with worry. "Master Zero! The body you have...!"

(What!?) Zero's thoughts screamed. (I saw him make those seals to prevent this sickness! Why is it failing!?)

The pain suddenly multiplied, forcing Zero to lurch forward, using one of his hands to keep him from falling face on the ground with his other hand to somehow mitigate his bloody coughs.

Zero could feel his enemies magic slowly fading while they all circled closer to him.

" _It's over, Dr, Ockado. You lose._ " Tarsus' link spread throughout the area.

It practically boiled the blood of Zero hearing words he refused to believe were true. (No. No! NO! This is not the way, the true master of Oracion Seis will go!)

(Stop whining for a moment and then you can do something about it.)

Time slowed down while Zero's mind moved at speeds Racer would have been alarmed at. (Y-You!)

(Hello, Zero. Now you know how those coughing fits feel.)

(How dare you, Brain! These-These pieces of vile dirt lower than the worst of shit are going to beat us without barely a fight! And it's all your fault! You kept me bound in your mind!)

(All you offered before and even now are still the same: mindless violence. That has never been my goal and we both know given the chance that we would kill each other. I simply acted first and trapped you away before you could ruin everything I worked for.)

(Damn you and your plans! You stole my right to live!)

(Enough! We can circle jerk ourselves like we used to later. Now? For once in our shared life, we need to work together to get out of this.)

(And why should I help you? You took my body for decades!)

Zero was met with a very ominous silence as his response. Even though their thoughts were moving so fast, it felt like an eternity before Brain answered his accusation.

(You know why. I was memory proofed in Level 0… you, a second personality, a second soul even… had his own memories protected in my seals. Through your memories, we both know what is behind that door. What the Magic Council is hiding from everyone—even themselves when it is staring right back at them.)

For the first time, both personalities were silent and in an impossible state of agreement.

(Zero, even if you seal me away or kill me. Do you really want that life knowing about that-that _**thing**_ those utter fools cling to like a life line?)

(… Just tell me what you've planned, Brain.)

(Grab on to Kloda, quick!)

And Zero did, snapping everyone back into defensive stances. Zero stood back up and suddenly pointed the end of Kloda's staff towards his stomach.

"I'd rather die than be captured by all of you!" In a move that no one was expecting, Zero stabbed Kloda through his stomach. He ended up coughing up even more blood and then fell to his knees with his eye balls rolling upward.

Every mage except Kain could feel the magic energy pretty much vanish from the master of Oracion Seis even though his body still remained kneeling.

The people who had fought almost every bloody hour since this day first began… could only stare at the rather anticlimactic end to this all.

Well… almost everyone.

"What the heck! I wanted to kick his butt!" Natsu stomped his foot with bits of fire coming out his mouth.

"Natsu, you battle hungry neanderthal," Kain now standing up and walking up to him. "You are the only one who wanted that."

"But I totally could have beaten him myself! I can't believe it was that easy!" The Dragon slayer screamed out.

Gray was the first to get mad, for the wrong reasons. "Easy?! Hey, where the heck even were you a while ago after we beat the Oracion Seis members!?"

"That was different!"

"Enough, you two idiots!" Makarov shouted before the ice and fire mage froze to silence. He put a hand on his head and sighed. "The first thing when my memory comes back is hearing you two fight again. I'm not even guild master anymore dang it."

Goldmine gave a soft chuckle at his friend's annoyance.

However, the kind air was cut short when Lahar raised a gun, Riana of the White Tiger Division pointed her blade, and Doranbolt teleported with William and Tarsus to surround Jellal Fernandes.

"Jellal Fernandes," Tarsus Steelsoul began after silence set foot once more. "You're under arrest for multiple S-class crimes. Will you resist as well?"

There was a quiet but noticeable rise of magical power coming from those directly from the Magic Council. Natsu and Erza could only stare with strange amount of silence as Jellal looked back at the large, armored Rune Knight.

Jellal raised both of his arms. "I surrender." He spoke those two words quietly.

At that, Tarsus stepped in, and cuffed the blue haired mage's hands to his back. The magical casts around him vanished, and Jellal winced in pain but still managed to keep himself standing.

Everyone wanted to know what was going on and wondered why Jellal was with them in the first place. However, there was a sudden humming and a violent shake that many recognized to come from the center core of Nirvana.

"Wendy! Is she alright?" Kain spoke as he took a step forward towards the core.

"She's fine." Gray was first to say. "She woke us all up, healed the worst of our wounds, and after Alexandra over there helped with the broken and mossy automaton, we left her down there so she could shut off Nirvana for good."

"Soooo… is that it?" Jason Dracoblood of Phantom lord asked as he looked around. "Did we win?"

Tarsus Steelsoul, the Rune Knight Field Commander, looked around, seeing everyone but Wendy in their group. "I suppose we—"

He was interrupted when the sound of a heart beat echoed with all the force of a scream being bounced around in a valley.

Around Zero's skin, new runes appeared, no longer a bunch of straight lines, more circular, more mystical, more ancient styled lines marked across his skin. His eyes snapped open, with his right eye being blood red and the other eyes being an almost empty white.

He slammed his hand into the ground. " **ƷƟƱ**!" around a hundred multi-colored snakes exploded from the leader of the Oracion Seis's area and all of them attacking everyone in the vicinity faster than they could put their guards back up. The many snakes coiled around the alliance members and quickly trapped all of them in cocoon like pods of frozen snake symbols.

Up above, Jura, Kara, and the remaining Blue Pegasus members looked down with worry.

"Brain is still alive!? Was that suicide attempt a feint to let us lower our guards?!" Jura cried out.

Ichiya pointed to Hibiki and Ren with a pose. "You two, stay in the ship, the rest of us will go down—"

Sadly for those in the Christina ship, massive versions of the snake spell Dr. Ockado used on the others. Everyone in the ship attempted to gather magic, but to their surprise, an uncountable number of snakes broke through the glass and swarmed all the drivers before they could even gather magic. Soon, even the Christina was wrapped in a much larger snake seal much like everyone else.

And just like that… the entire Alliance was defeated in one turn about move…

Laughter filled the empty air as the one who had shown an impressive display of power could only cackle and feel like a brand new man.

"This," As the first word escaped his mouth, one could almost swear there were two similar voices speaking at the same time. "This is amazing! All those experiments, all that time researching and I was right! This power is AMAZING!"

The man pulled out Kloda, as he did so, not an ounce of blood was spilled from the pull and markings covered his entire stomach.

Kloda, who seemed to regain sentience, looked up to his master in surprise. "Master Zero?! Y-You—this power!?"

"Wonderful isn't it, Kloda?" At that, Zero flexed, and in the nearby area, more debris shattered into even smaller rocks. "It's called the Second Origin. After years of studying the Ethernano, I found out human beings have another container for magic that's almost never touched upon. I remember even telling Jellal about this." Zero spoke as he looked over to the seal where the former councilman was.

"W-Wait, sir, if you were capable of this much power with it, why didn't you use it sooner? Why not use it all of the Oracion Seis members?!" The staff asked in shock.

"Because it was a last resort of mine." Zero's tone suddenly sounded more like Brain's than his own. "The true reason why the Second Origin was never accessed until today was because in theory, it needed time magic to access—that is near impossible to find. I was only able to do so due to certain circumstances." Zero paused as he looked away from Kloda.

"I have a job for you, Kloda."

The staff couldn't have straightened up fast enough. "Y-Yes sir?"

"Go back down to the core and stop the emissary of Nirvana's makers." Zero stepped forward as two of his seals were starting to break. "Stop her and activate Nirvana."

Kloda followed the word of his master without a second thought, snaking through one of the holes.

Meanwhile, Zero watched as two of his seals exploded, leaving a very pissed off Goldmine and Makarov.

Zero, against two powerful and experienced mages, only stepped forward without a trace of fear. "This power is amazing. Before, all I could do was pin you two against each other in hopes that you'd both take each other out. Now? I have enough confidence to take both of you on at the same time." After saying that, Zero unleashed a wave of power that made his oppressive aura from before look like an abysmal joke.

However, Makarov and Goldmine stepped forward, both unleashing powerful auras of their own.

"It doesn't matter how much power you have, good Dr. Ocakado," Makarov cried out as he swung his hand out. "You're not going to win against the two of us."

Anyone other sane person would fear to fight Makarov, one of the long time Wizard Saints along with his companion of similar level and longtime teammate. However, Zero only laughed at the notion that was placed before him. "Two on one? Why, didn't you know?"

Zero's eyes both turned completely red and soon his shadow started to move without the large man making any move himself. It grabbed onto the floor, entering into three dimensions before it stood up, the shadow fading and another person with the same exact face, but darker skin and white eyes stood beside Zero.

Brain and Zero spoke as one. "Now, it's two on two!"

* * *

Down below, Kloda spotted Wendy and Carla looking at the robotic Exemplar. While everyone was above, the Exemplar had inscribed many old runes across the core of Nirvana and seemed to finish.

Wendy seemed determined as she stood atop a rune that looked much like her guild mark.

Kloda panicked as he saw the girl about to start the sealing process. However, he knew he could do very little to actually stop them at his state. What was Master Zero thinking?! All he could do was control The Machina King and he already felt it being…

Wait.

The body of the Machina King was right there…

Meanwhile, Wendy and Carla watched as the moving black core of Nirvana raged against the runes written by the Exemplar Automaton. As it finished, it stared at Wendy and slowly but gently motioned it's hand towards the orb as the fixed arm turned back into a harp.

Wendy began to inhale, but instead of hearing the sound of a melody, she heard the sound of steel clanging on the ground.

She turned around, seeing the body of the Machina King rising once more, but this time with orange lights coming out of it's sockets. There was another glow of orange, coming from the hole in it's torso.

"I refuse to let you seal Nirvana once more!" Kloda's voice begain as it rose its blade, only to bring it back down to avoid an optic blast from The Exemplar. The mossy robot didn't hesitate to make a move towards the other ancient robot. All the while, Wendy made a move—

"Wendy, you must sing! Stop Nirvana's core, before something else tries to stop you!" Carla shouted as the two old robots began beating each other up.

The blue haired girl was nervous. Whenever she was taught to sing and dance, it was because it was under much kinder circumstances. She really didn't want to sing, if she could even sing well enough under pressure-

 _"you're going to prove yourself in the future."_

Her voice had a strange calming affect, even though she was no longer there. Wendy breathed in deeply. Many people had protected and saved her for this moment. It's time she returned the favor.

And then, she began to sing.

"NO!" Kloda cried out as he pushed the Exemplar out of the way and stabbed the gravity blade and the stone blade into the ground. The combined magic of the two caused the ground beneath the magical core to shoot upward, away from Wendy and back up into the surface of the isle... and past even that.

Carla acted fast, chasing after the core by picking up Wendy and flying after the moving core and the runes as it reached higher in the sky.

Kloda made a motion to follow after them, but the Exemplar tackled the opposing machine down with fiercer resistance.

Up above, Carla and Wendy flew after the now floating platform that seemed to suspend itself mid air above the already elevated sky isle. The core started to trash around, even seemingly cracking the floating runes the Exemplar put up. Wendy inhaled and began singing once more, which slowed down the core and caused the runes to start glowing even brighter.

Down below, Zero, Brain, Makarov, and Goldmine all spotted the core shoot up higher than where they were.

"Don't let her finish that!" Brain cried out as he made a large bound to the sky with intent to blast the little girl and cat out of the sky.

However, he saw a gold light shine like the sun behind him. Brain looked back before he was smashed down by a golden bear and Goldmine's kick. Brain landed on the platform with a deafening crack as the floor beneath him became a crater, yet even then he looked as if he was more angry than hurt. Brain then made a teleport spell, blinking away from his existence then appearing right behind the singing girl and the flying cat.

Yet, the moment he appeared, he was kicked down again due to Goldmine with his gold soul taking the form of some ghostly, humanoid figure with armor reminiscent of Chinese dark armor that held no head, but a lantern on one hand and Chinese sword in it's right one.

"Hey, pick on someone your on power level, brat." Goldmine spoke out as he stepped towards Brain.

The calmer personality looked up and saw that one of the runes made by the Exemplar were attaching itself into the core of Nirvana and as it did, the core started to shrink.

Brain, looked back at Goldmine and that new soul that he didn't recognize. Brain acted fast, " **Confusion Burst!** " A yellow orb of energy the size of a house sped fast towards Goldmine.

However, the Quatro Cerberus Guild Master looked up, and spoke out, " **Gilded Aura:** **Jīng guǐ**!"

The attack of Brain, with speed that almost no one expected, circled fast behind Goldmine with the intent to take the guild master by surprise. Yet Goldmine knew that this attack was a feint from the start. The old teammate of Makarov noticed Brain vanish after he called out the attack; he knew he was going for Wendy a second time. Luckily for Goldmine, his special spell, Jīng guǐ, was based of an exotic creature that could track and catch teleport based magic, and Brain didn't realize it.

Goldmine's soul pointed it's lantern towards an area above Wendy. As it did, it reared it's blade behind Goldmine. Then, in less than a second, Brain appeared, attempting to get to Wendy faster than before. However, The lantern of the Jīng guǐ glowed and Goldmine appeared the same moment as Brain, right in between him and Wendy.

Brain was caught off guard, but that didn't stop Goldmine from making his soul slash at the stupefied Brain, canceling his attack and sending plummeting down like a meteor.

Meanwhile in their previous fighting spot, Zero raised his fist and jumped for Makarov. The third master of Fairy Tail raised a pillar white magic to meet the punch of the master of Oracion Seis.

The result was a powerful shockwave that blew away the area and caused the white pillar to crack under the force of the attack.

"Out of my way, you rotting, old worm! Nirvana is mine!" Zero exclaimed as he removed his fist and put both his hands together. Both hands were empowered with a see through skull of a screaming soul and he brought it down on the pillar of light, shattering it into pieces—and seeing Makarov preparing over a dozen, different elemental magical circles behind it?

" **ELEMENTUM: TEMPESTAS RUPTOR!** " Makrov shouted as all magic circles he primed fired a torrent of element that exploded towards Zero in the form of a beam. The wilder personality put up a barrier of his own. However, it melted like butter and soon, he was sent flying from the force of the attack.

Both Zero and Brain ended up crashing into each other from their respective opponents' attack.

Makarov and Goldmine moved like bullets towards the two, giving them no intention of recovery while they were injured. Makarov gathered energy as he speed, small pieces of light gathered in both his fists while from above, Goldmine switched back to his Cerberus Aura, with all three heads glaring at the two downed targets.

They got within range of their attacks—and that's when both Zero and Brain had their eyes snap open with smirks on both of their faces. They both moved fast, slamming one hand each into the ground where a magic circle appeared and spread beneath them faster than the two former teammates could expect.

It exploded with light that engulfed the Third Master and the founder of Quatro Cerberus before they could reach Zero and Brain.

When the light died down, both Makarov and Goldmine had found themselves in a plaza of a large city. The two looked around, those people who were still up at night stared in surprise at the two men who had appeared out of thin air.

"Goldmine, we're in Crocus!" Makarov shouted as he recognized the familiar scenery.

"Damn it! Instead of him, they teleported us out!" Goldmine shifted his soul, turning it into a large, eight legged horse. " **Gilded Aura: Sleipner!** " He hopped on top of his own soul while Makarov jumped and landed behind him. The golden aura beast made a neigh before it galavanted out of the Capital of Fiore with amazing speed, even running into the sky of all things.

As some people watched the two men fly into the distance on an eight legged horse, a certain group of people managed to spot them.

"Wait, was that Master Makarov?!" Alzack Connell cried out and pointed to where their missing master previously was.

"And that other man: that was Master Goldmine!" Biclow mentioned as well as he looked in the direction both of them left.

"W-What were they doing here!? Was Master with Goldmine all this time? And why did they look so frantic?!" Evergreen was obviously confused as to how their sudden hunt for there missing master had a turn that no one was expecting.

"Everyone, calm down. We've spotted Master Makarov, we can't lose him now!" Freed Justine kept everyone back in order. "After him, or else the trail will get cold again!"

The team hunting for their missing master, bolted after the two in their own way.

However, even at the speed of which they were going, the two masters wouldn't make it back in time to the Worthwood Sea.

* * *

Back on Nirvana, Brain and Zero stood back up, no longer seeing their opponents.

"Even with all that power, they were still beating us!?" Zero stomped in anger, causing whatever building near them to shatter from the pressure alone.

Brain dusted himself off. "Master Makarov and Goldmine have more years of experience under their belt. They know how to fight those with even or better power than them." He then looked up and glared. "Now then, there was a sealing I need to stop. I won't risk teleporting on the off chance Goldmine can still track me after tagging me twice with that spell of his."

Carla panicked as she saw the light and her heart started to beat even harder when she sensed Makarov and Goldmine disappear. A part of her knew that there was no way the Oracion Seis could so easily get rid of Makarov and Goldmine when they were winning, but she did recognize they did something to incapacitate them. If she thought it was bad then, she realized one of the two leaders was looking directly at her. Only around fifty percent of the seals were absorbed into the core! They needed more time!

Brain made a leap that could go over a skyscraper in a single bound right for Wendy.

Carla closed her eyes, thinking this might be the end—

" **STAY AWAY FROM HER!** "

* * *

Previously, as the Core rose from the inner level of Nirvana, the seals of the alliance all started to shake. One of them, started heat up until a familiar pink haired dragon slayer punched out of his circular prison.

"Gah! Who did that!? I'll kick their butt!"

A second later, an orb seal not too far from the dragon slayer cracked and shattered into pieces, revealing a slightly confused armored wyvern rider.

"Ugh, my head..." Kain was really wishing he was just having a hangover, it would have made so much more sense. Unfortunately, he was having that throbbing headache sober. Whoop-de-do.

"Huh, why do I hear singing… Whoa!?" Natsu was distracted for a second and looked up. Kain did so as well and they both saw the core of Nirvana high up in the sky. They looked up just in time to see Goldmine strike Brain down away from a singing Wendy.

They were also distracted by a wave of elemental magic coming from the opposite end of Nirvana. Natsu could tell that was the third master's magic and the two wordlessly watched as Goldmine and Makarov made a dash for their opponents… then get caught in a last second trap.

"Those bastards! They totally cheated!" Natsu shouted, though they were too far to be heard.

However, the two noticed Brain getting ready to attack Wendy once more. The two acted fast, and with Happy still out of it, Kain grabbed on to Natsu and flew as fast as he could to intercept Brain. As they saw flew, they saw Brain inching closer towards Wendy and Carla.

And there was no way that they'd let that attack connect!

" **STAY AWAY FROM HER!** "

Two voices powered through the sky that came from below. Brain, instinctively learning his lesson from Goldmine, summoned an orbed shield around him. However, something flew past and right in front of him, revealing it to be…

"Now, Natsu!"

A Flash of pink and red punched the shield with amazing force that smashed it back down from where Brain started. Brain undid his orb and looked absolutely livid that there were **still** people to defend the sealers of Nirvana!

"Where are you cockroaches coming from!? I sealed the rest of you away to be brainwashed by Nirvana later!" Brain unleashed his aura, showing an impressive power display that was akin to Zero's. Speaking of his more violent counter part, Zero walked up to his calmer counterpart, eyeing his two new, or old, opponents.

It was the dragon slayer of Fairy Tail and the red armored boy. Both of them were standing in fighting positions, and facing down the leaders of Oracion Seis with fearsome glares.

Natsu slammed a fist into his chest. "That dumb seal won't work on me! I burned through it! And magic doesn't work well on Kain!"

"Kinda wishing we had time to free the others though… or that we weren't so distracted..." The armored young man off handedly commented.

"And what makes you think the two of you can stop us now? One of you barely even touched me before this power up." Zero aimed his sight at Kain in particular.

"We can take you both on!" Natsu pounded his fists together that lit a flame.

Kain on the other hand was hesitant, but at a quick glance behind him, his attitude changed. "That, and for us to win, we just have to hold both of you off until Wendy finishes the seal!"

The two personalities from the same body had their eyes snapped open when they looked up to see the core of Nirvana shrink even smaller.

Brain and Zero needed to stop the permanent sealing of Nirvana while Kain and Natsu had to hold off two potential Wizard Saint level threats long enough for Wendy to finish.

Natsu and Kain charged, the former igniting his white flame while the latter activated his wings. Brain And Zero unleashed war cries to meet their obstacles and plow them down.

The clock was ticking.

It was the final count down to the war for Nirvana.

And it's last leg began with anything but a whimper. Natsu attacked first, aiming for Zero who only smiled and caught his enflamed fist before backhanding him through several buildings.

Kain was a little more cautious, throwing flashbangs right at Brain, who with a swipe of his hand, made all those toys vanish into thin air. In response, Kain slashed several sword beams only for Brain to push a palm out and motion two fingers upward. The result was a beam of green, yellow, and red energy exploding upward beneath the beam and hitting the armored Wyvern Rider away.

Brain looked over to Zero. "These two are far weaker. Hold them off while I finish the girl and the cat off."

"Don't turn your back on me!" Natsu screamed as he flew towards Brain with fist first. He unleashed several punches that even Brain could easily avoid. After avoiding a punch, Brain threw his own punch, making Natsu buckle backward only to get punched by Zero, who laughed at how easy this new fight was. He then followed it up with an uppercut that made Natsu go high into the sky. Then fall back into the ground.

However, that didn't stop him for long as Natsu got back up and ignite white flames once more, this time enveloping his body. " **Ivory Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!** "

A stream of white flames jettisoned towards the two with the same face. They both sensed this attack would actually hurt them, in retaliation the two gathered magic in their hands and swung their arm downward from above. " **Espada: Blood!** " " **Espeda: Dark!** "

Two energy pillars, one red and one dark green tore through Natsu's attacks and exploded, sending Natsu back by quite a bit and making him land like a skipped stone.

There was a hum in the air that forced Brain and Zero to look back up. As they did, they saw the orb of Nirvana Shrinking smaller than even the girl singing to it! It was almost all gone!

Brain no longer could take it. This time he charged his attack then he teleported, risking the off chance Goldmine would appear. Goldmine didn't appear, much to Brain's relief thenunleashed a powerful wave of dark energy in the direction he was facing. An explosion was the result of the powerful beam that filled the sky.

However, something was wrong for Brain, he could still sense the girl's magic! But that was impossible, he sent that attack head on—wait. The smoke that was clearing, why did he see… red…

Brain screamed in frustration as he used his magic to blow away the dust. He was hoping to see the dead corpse of a little girl, not a red wyvern rider, with dusty, cracked, and weakened armor. The surprising fact was that behind Kain, his left arm was pointed back, with his hand swallowed in a small, golden orb.

"Y-You won't get her." Kain managed to gasp out as his armor kept him in the sky. It appeared that Kain used the Omni Tool to cover around Wendy while she was still singing. Inside, both Carla and Wendy were confused, but the Cait Shelter Mage just had this feeling she needed to continue singing.

"I... won't... let you..." The armored rider gasped.

A bright light came from below, showing that the symbol of Cait Shelter was slowly floating upwards to the core. It was the last rune from the Exemplar, meaning that the seal was almost complete!

For a moment, Brain was much like Zero in that his eyes only saw red. He punched Kain in the face, only for the armored rider to stand(fly) his ground. "If you want... the shield to go down, you're ...going to have to get through... me."

"That's not a threat, that's an invitation!" Brain shouted as he then began punch, kick, blast—whatever combat attack possible.

Keep in mind his attack were around Wizard Saint level. While Kain's armor did nullify certain magics, that didn't mean he couldn't feel like he was being punched with the weight of an elephant with each strike and even with his armor taking in the magical blasts, there was still an added impact to each heavy blow. Kain, to some of his credit, tried to defend himself, but considering he was locked in place, and had only one free arm while even having all of his skills barely did anything to Brain before hand, the result would have been the same without him trying to resist.

Natsu woke up from where he was knocked down and sensed the increasing spike of magic. He looked up and stared in horror to see his friend taking in powerful hits just to protect Wendy.

"WHY!? WON'T!? YOU!? FALL!?" After each scream, Brain's attack got more intensive, more powerful, but somehow, some way, Kain took them all on.

"Tr-Trust me," Kain managed to cough out. "I'm bloody wondering the same thing!"

Brain forsook all normal forms of attacks and simply went straight for magic powered strangulation by using both his hands to vice grip around Kain's way too vulnerable neck. The armored wyvern rider struggled and gasped under the strangle. He attempted to use his free hand to summon a blade and strike at Brain, only for him to release one hand to capture the wrist and crush it with enough force to make Kain let go of his blade that harmlessly fell into the ground.

"Kain!" Natsu forced himself up and started to make a beeline for his friend.

Zero looked back at Natsu and, after intercepting him, kicked him in the face. "This is what awaits all those who are weak! To be crushed by overwhelming power!"

Natsu didn't care about that, he needed to save his friend! He won't let him die… he…

 _If it wasn't for you, Bella would still be alive!_

A-After he beat this jerk, he would get to Brain and save…

 _YOU! IT'S YOUR FAULT EVE'S DEAD!_

The though of another death brought something to Natsu Dragneel that he never really felt. Was all of this... his fault? Come to think of it, Lucy and Kain were really worried about this mission going in, while he was just really excited to fight strong opponents. Even after beating up some of the assholes that were killing animals, he still couldn't help but want to fight and beat someone strong, even though just moments ago he was told that he needed to be careful in this mission. Then, when the base fell and Wendy was captured and that Rune Knight lady was killed. A lot of people blamed him on it. It wasn't fair, and he thought they were just being jerks. But maybe some of it got to him without noticing? And Natsu knew it wasn't his fault for Eve and Sherry, but then again, maybe things might have been different if he listened? And now that he was thinking about it, him rushing into things got Richard knocked out pretty quick...

All those mistakes, Natsu never really thought about it being his fault. But seeing Kain take on hits that he knew would have killed him a hundred times over without his armor just to protect Wendy? Natsu couldn't help but feel… guilt.

That word, guilt.

It triggered a recent memory.

* * *

Back in Sun Village, Atlas Flame had just finished another tale of both Igneel and his youth. Natsu and Happy were laughing to the best capacity of their lungs after hearing that embarrassing tale involving sprites, a clown bear, and hunger.

"And the worst part of it all," The dragon comprised of flames continued after their laughter died a bit, or rather when their lungs needed a break. "Igneel was moping for maybe a whole year about that event."

"Huh," Natsu looked up in surprise. "I never figured Igneel would mope."

The two visitors could tell there was a sudden shift in tone as Atlas Falme stilled from the simple comment. "Igneel moped more than any dragon or living being I've met. The thing was though, I don't blame him, especially with how many responsibilities he had. He never showed it to anyone. I only found out about it because I knew there were these moments where his smile seemed a little more forced along with his confident bursts."

This made the dragon slayer raise his brow in confusion. Why did Atlas Flame willing shift the topic to something far more sensitive? "Why are you telling me this?"

Atlas turned to Natsu. For a second, the young man almost regretted asking out loud. However, it wasn't really cause for alarm as Atlas answered, "I see Igneel so much in you, but I'm afraid you also might make the same mistakes he did that, even for someone as powerful as him, led him to having his heart broken and soul stolen."

There was a quiet in the air as Atlas implied that tragedy again. "Natsu, promise me that when you do make a mistake, don't let it consume you. Don't dwell on what could have been or what you should have done, because thinking of 'what if's' never helps. But most of all, have enough power to forgive yourself for making those mistakes. I wish Igneel did that more often. I wish I told him when I still had the chance to." Atlas looked up to the sky after saying that, as if trying to see something that was no longer there.

He looked back down and asked a favor of his friend's foster son. "Over all, don't let your guilt blind you from what must be done and still save what you still have."

* * *

"Dad..." Natsu gritted his teeth and forced himself back up. "You had great friends too, huh?"

Something was changing, inside Natsu. He just knew that he couldn't let his friend just die like this. He might have failed before, he might have reacted wrong before. But, now? He couldn't let more people pay for his mistakes. He'd right this wrong, and accept all it's faults.

Zero didn't seem to care as he swaggered forward, and placed a palm gathering energy right in front of Natsu's head while it still hung low. "What luck, you get to die with your friend!"

A blast of dark souls engulfed Natsu in point blank range—that suddenly was engulfed into a massive burst of white flames.

Zero looked in confusion before a fist found his cheek and slammed him with enough force like he did with Natsu so long ago.

Brain sensed the massive power spike coming from behind him, which forced him into turning around. He was greeted with the sight of white fire and an incoming left hook for his troubles.

BAM!

Brain flew like a meteor, crashed like one too even though he was hit into and through the large control tower.

Seeing as he was no longer struggling for air, Kain gasped to breathe in as much oxygen as he could. He was still hurt, but his armor was slowly forming back to normal. To his surprise, he saw Natsu who landed back on the ground. As the fires dimmed, the steam and pressure around him didn't. He even had red looking scales over his skin, reminding him of the time he had found him a little after Jellal had used the Elf Blade on him. And not just appearance, the ground seemed to be glowing hot just by Natsu simply standing.

Kain heard of it before, Dragon Force, he saw Gajeel use it before, but this time, with Natsu, he was not only putting off more power, but he had a secondary magic amplifier with his white flame mode. Those two power boosts were giving Natsu enough power to take on both Leaders of Oracion Seis by himself?

"N-Natsu?" Kain whispered as the dragon slayer looked up… and smiled.

"Yo, Kain! You alright!?"

"… I will never ever make fun of deus ex machina power ups again for as long as I live." Anyone could argue or insult Kain over such a little comment. But considering how badly he was being beaten up by powerful opponents, having a shonen protagonist for a friend with miracle power ups made him a lot more grateful than any other person in the cosmos.

Zero reappeared, gathering an intense amount of magic before blasting Natsu's back. Only for the empowered dragon slayer to turn, inhale, and unleash a spew of white flames that almost looked like a laser.

Kain turned around as he heard something cracking, he looked back to see Brain heading right for him. However, the young man blinked and then saw Natsu, somehow closing the distance between them like teleportation, and throwing Brain overhead down to where Zero had fallen.

The boy from another world was so in awe at all the DBZ level stuff happening that he was distracted when a large light surrounded him. The Cait Shelter Symbol now floated just beside the now small core of Nirvana. The symbol itself seemed to come to life, acting like a regular cat as it moved towards the core and placed a palm on it. With the Runic cat placing a palm on the orb, the core of Nirvana moved to life. It wasn't like the trashing from before, it was kind of like a real ball, spinning and seeming almost playful and inviting. As the last rune continued to touch the orb, the black core slowly started to turn white from the outside moving inward.

"No! It's about to be sealed!" Brain shouted as he got back up.

Zero got up as well, but looked at Natsu in his dragon force mode walking over towards the two of them. "Who cares about that!? That worm, how dare he make me look like a fool!? I am the one who stands above all beings!"

"Will you shut up about your stupid obsession with being the best!?" Brain looked to Zero. "If Nirvana falls, everything we planned will be for nothing!"

"It was **your** plans! Not a single thing was ever mine!" Zero pointed at Brain with all the condemnation of a judge. "And you stole it all from me!"

Brain was silent for a moment. He looked directly into Zero's eyes and his gaze seemed to soften. "I did steal it all from you, didn't I? I'm sorry."

Zero's anger momentarily left him as he saw the serious look in Brain's eyes.

"I have a deal to make with you," He threw an open palm out. "Accept it, and I can make sure you get whatever you want, even a new life without me."

Zero narrowed his eyes. "What are you plotting this time, Brain?"

"Not really a plot this time, I'm just… really tired of arguing with you." The white eyed man looked up to the sky, seeing the finishing touches on the core as it started to face. "I remember fearing you my whole life… but I don't ever recall hating you, no matter how many times we argued and fought."

Zero was silent, but seeing Natsu come closer, with all the confidence that a worm like him shouldn't have, couldn't make him grab back on to Brain's hand fast enough.

As they connected, a flash of black light exploded from where the two were. When the light died down, there was now only one body instead of two. He wore the same green uniform that Zero had, had the skin tone of Brain, and this time neither eyes were red or white, they were both black with red pupils.

Natsu didn't hesitate and unleashed an empowered version of Fire Dragon's Iron Fist. The attack was impressive, but his opponent was able to catch the fist with an energy of black and red colored spectered ghosts. Natsu powered through and threw his other hand which the new form of both Zero and Brain caught.

The two then pushed forward as their massive magical powers collided, causing different magical sources to clash much like it would in DBZ auras.

Kain, seeing the new powered up version of Brain and Zero only stared and reacted the only way he could. "I take back my take back. Miracle power ups are bullshit, especially if you give one to the bad guy too!" He turned back to the orb. "Wendy, I don't think you can hear me in there, but can you some how hurry up with the seal!?"

It seemed like Fate was about to give the displaced young man a freebie as the core started to hum. It wasn't like it's wild trashing before, it was almost like… it was also singing in tune with Wendy's music.

Zero and Brain saw this, the seal, which Kain would complain was being stupidly slow, was starting to finalize. He stepped forward, which surprised Natsu, and threw him up into the air. He was thrown into an angle that if Natsu was to move, Kain, Wendy, and Carla would all be in the line of fire.

" **Omega Alpha!** " Brain and Zero's two voices shouted out loud as the two magics appeared on different hands, " **Crossed Spell...** "

Natsu saw this and he could feel that his friends were in the line of fire. Brain and Zero were planning to end this all in one move. The dragon slayer would not let this happen! " **Ivory Force: Dragon's…**

" **DUALITY BURST!** "

" **ROAR!** "

Fire and darkness shot out like beams and clashed with one another. The battle of beams would have been epic if Kain was not so distracted at how familiar this all looked.

Then, the lawyer of Fairy Tail felt it, he turned around to see the last rune disappearing and the core of Nirvana, no smaller than a base ball, float towards Wendy. Kain undid the orb and Wendy was seen still singing, though her tempo was faster and it seemed like she too was almost finished.

Wendy put her hands out and the orb of Nirvana levitated slowly to her hands.

Brain and Zero saw this and unleashed even more power into their attack. This was the last push needed. Zero and Brain, in one united mine pushed with all their strength, blasting back Natsu's Dragon Force empowered roar.

But Wendy had stopped singing. Instead, she held a small, white orb in her hands that seemed to hum with ancient magic. In that moment, Wendy turned, her eyes filled with courage and moving with purpose. She pushed her hands out towards the other pink haired Dragon Slayer. "Natsu!"

She threw last remnants of Nirvana's core right to Natsu that phased right into him and gave him a tremendous boost of magic. Natsu felt reinvigorated and unleashed every ounce of his magic and he overpowered the attack of the two leaders of Oracion Seis.

Brain and Zero, even in their united form could only scream as the dragon flames consumed him for the last time with a massive explosion.

"D-Did we win?!" Wendy asked as she looked at the result of the explosion while Kain dove in after Natsu.

As the dust settled, Brain lay there… unmoving… and no visible sign of getting back up.

"HA!" Natsu managed to scream out. "I told you he was easy to beat!"

Inside his helmet, Kain twitched. "Uh hey, Natsu, should I warn you I was running completely on adrenaline and pure will especially after that beat down I had to withstand from Brain? … Yeah, everything's going blac..." In a flash of red, Kain reverted back to normal and fell from the height he and Natsu were.

Natsu yelled until he felt something stop the momentum of his fall, it took him only a second to realize it was The Exemplar Guardian, beaten, slightly singed, and dented, but able to pick up both him and the falling Kain.

With Brain down, the seals surrounding everyone else in the Alliance finally fell. Everyone seemed to come back into their senses…

And then…

There was a deafening crack that was heard all through out the floating Isle.

Hibiki, from the Christina, sent out an urgent link. "Everyone, scans are showing that Nirvana has lost all ounce of magic, this entire Isle is about to fall back down! Everyone get on board!"

That was everyone's cue to pick up every last member of the Oracion Seis, and members of the Alliance and high tail it out of Nirvana as it crashed back down into the WorthWood sea, all of it's ancient ruins smashing like glass into the large forest.

But with their escape, it marked the end of a long, and arduous battle.

The Oracion Seis had finally been defeated.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Well then—this chapter was so hard to write!**

 **Writer's block (Again, I knew what was planned, I just couldn't find a proper way to write it or I couldn't get into writing it.) is such an annoyance!**

 **Anyway, I'll keep the notes for this chapter short, because there's a lot I wanna talk about in the next chapter which is the Epilogue of The Nirvana Arc! (IT FEELS GOOD TO BE (almost) DONE WITH THIS ARC! WHY WAS IT SO HARD TO TRY AND GIVE VILLAINS THIER DUE!?)**

 **Thanks for reading this story. I hope you all have a wonderful day.**


	44. Chapter 44

"So, you don't remember anything from your time as a snake, or before you became one?" Goldmine watched the purple haired girl sitting on the bed slowly shake her head and look down on the blanket she was given. "Hey, don't feel bad about it. Is there anything you do remember?"

The girl seemed to struggle for a moment before uttering a word, "K-Kinana..."

"Kinana, huh? A beautiful name for a beauty such as you." Goldmine smiled after delivering that line. All his youth listening to Bob's old flirting must have rubbed off.

Sadly, it seemed Kinana was still a little overwhelmed, gaining her human form after so long must have been… well being born but having some remnants of another life, like reincarnation or something.

Odd, why did that reincarnation word feel so… mundane and overused?

Goldmine looked back at Kinana and spoke a little softer. "Hey, don't worry about it. The beds here in Cait Shelter are pretty comfy. Just rest up and enjoy a nice good sleep."

Kinana didn't say much, but did easily fall back to bed.

Goldmine let go of his smile as he gave a silent sigh. He walked out of the stone and wooden house and back into Cait Shelter. It still caught him by surprise that Cait Shelter wasn't just a guild, it was also an entire small village.

After escaping from the ruined Nirvana, those of the Alliance found themselves nearby the guild that technically started it all. Brain must have sent Nirvana towards Cait Shelter in case people other than Wendy were able to seal up the now fallen super city.

Goldmine glanced around, passed the nice people of the quaint place, and spotted Makarov in the middle of an important call.

"I can't believe I was gone for a month!?" Makarov shouted as he looked at the Lacrima Orb that was projecting Laxus' face.

"You annoying, old man," Laxus scoffed from the other end of call. "How could you screw up that badly?!"

"Shut it, brat! I already told you what happened before I was ambushed, it was out of my control!" Makarov shook his fist.

"This coming from the man who drilled me to pay attention to everything around me in a fight by forcing me to a blindfold for seven days straight?!" Laxus shouted back. Justine Freed tried to calm the two from a shouting match but wasn't doing all that well.

"Oh!" A voice behind Laxus made the Fourth Master of Fairy Tail look back and have his eyes suddenly widen. "Makky, there you are!"

Makarov's anger died o fast that he ended up swallowing the spit he was about to shout out. "Il-Illana!?"

"I thought I'd visit the old, guild!" The old but gentle woman stepped forward and Laxus didn't even do anything to stop her. "I left a message, but you never answered back."

"W-Well, I-uh-well-you see..." Makarov stammered out some kind of response, trying to find a way he could ease in a situation with Laxus' grandmother.

"Heyo!" To Makarov's horror, Goldmine came in and slung an arm around his small friend with a smile the former master of Fairy Tail swore was akin to the face of evil. "Sup, Illy! Wasn't expecting to see you!"

"Oh, Sticks! Good to see ya, dawg!" The old woman spoke out in an attempt in slang that made Laxus pinch the bridge of his nose.

Makarov and Laxus were not religious men, but they both silently prayed for the strength for this next conversation.

Speaking of conversation, while a hard one was about to begin, two other people were reaching the end of a very difficult conversation.

"And that is my report," Lahar, holding up a special communication Lacrima ended. "In total, we have three casualties, loss of our foot base in the Worthwood Sea, but Have captured and subdued all members of the Oracion Seis, including Dr. Bryan Ocakado, who is known as Brain, and Jellal Fernades, the ex-councilman."

"Excellent work, Captain Lahar Vondarun." A voice behind the screen began. "This is a huge success, and a testament to the Magic Council's new Era!"

Lahar blinked at the choice of words. "Sir, I just reported all of our casualties, we've lost one of our division leaders, Sola—"

"Bah, three people for seven S-class threats!? It's the trade of a century! You and the rest of your officers will be commended for your hard work."

Doranbolt, who was standing behind Lahar began to snap his eyes forward. "What!? How could you say—"

He started screaming, but Lahar threw his hand out to motion him to stop. "When will the reinforcements come to pick up the criminals?"

Their superior officer eyed Lahar as the screen wasn't wide enough to see Doranbolt in it. "It'll be there in one click."

And then the call was abruptly ended.

Doranbolt looked to Lahar with obvious disdain. "Look, we never even met her before today, but she was a division leader like the rest of us! How could the council even treat some of it's best officers like pawns!?"

"The council is made for the good of Ishgar." Lahar spoke with a soft yet firm tone. "We all knew the dangers when we agreed to this mission. A victory like this is still in the complete success area."

"I mean, we all did win, but still!" Doranbolt tried to say before Lahar raised his hand out in a stop motion. His face showed a something more observant, but not cruel enough to be a glare.

"Doranbolt, you don't usually voice out like this."

The teleporting mage blinked at the odd statement. "We almost died or would have been permanently brainwashed because of Brain's last ditch effort. It was pure luck we had some people break out at the last second, so excuse me if I'm a little antsy!"

Lahar's stare remained undisturbed. "Doranbolt, I never asked because of the urgency of the mission. How are you feeling?"

"What are you on about?"

"You ate a Rhodonite drug, Doranbolt." Lahar spoke fast, preventing Doranbolt from continuing. "The drug may boast a temporary boost in magic and dull pain sensory, but it's illegal because of how addictive it is and how dangerous it is to the body. You saw the criminal, Erigor, who obviously took more drugs in a mad attempt to grab power. He was near catatonic when you found him, Doranbolt. Rhodonite drugs are dangerous to the mind as well as the magic power and body."

Lahar stepped closer to his co-captain and looked him in the eye. "Are you sure it's out of your system?"

"Y-Yeah, I only needed it once, I swear!" The teleport mage quickly spurted out while putting his hands out in front of him.

The glasses wearing mage leered at his fellow co-worker before sighing. "Fine. I'll have you do a blood test when we get back. Just continue patrolling the cages of the Oracion Seis and Jellal we have here."

Doranbolt looked towards their right where there were seven house sized, white cubes designed to monetarily hold in criminals of high magical power. Each one housed all the high class criminals, and in one particular one...

"I would like to see the master of Cait Shelter."

Even though he was behind a specialized Jutsu Shiki barrier that nullified his strength, limited his sight and cut off access to his magic, Brain was oddly calm as he looked up to the two 'guards' watching his every move.

"You are in no position to make any demands." Jura spoke with authority as he continued his glare towards the cuffed man.

"I'm in no position to do anything," Brain seemed to correct. "But I refuse to let circumstance dictate my actions. If it makes either of you feel more at ease, I simply meet and talk with him. He has piqued my curiosity by a large amount."

Tarsus, who was across from Jura, also remained stoic. "Haven't you heard the phrase, curiosity killed the cat?"

The exaggerated gasp from Brain in response to that phrase showed how he felt about it. "Why, Field Commander! Don't you know the pursuit of knowledge is what prevents tyrants from forming? I was a professor before being hired by the council, and I always encouraged my students to never stop their pursuit of knowledge."

"A noble sentiment, even though it is coming from one such as you." Jura noted. "However, we will not listen to your request."

Brain seemed silent, but his smile returned with something mischievous. Jura and Tarsus leered towards the man, but Brain simply remained calm. "Well then, considering the worst that's awaiting me, it's time to begin my final teaching session. We all are aware of Cait Shelter being the ancestors of the Maker of Nirvana, correct?"

"Dr. Ockado, if you will not silence yourself, I will get Captain Lahar to include a mute function in your cell." Tarsus spoke fast.

Brain didn't seem to take him seriously as he went on. "But even though Nirvana has been around for little over 400 hundred years, why is Cait Shelter a guild that's barely ten years old?"

"What are you talking about?" Jura stepped forward. "Those two facts have no connection."

"They do when you've spent years on a minor in magi-geology, even writing a college thesis on how the ethernano of specific areas like the Zeus Range and The Worthwood Sea prevent normal humans and even some mages living under those conditions. So imagine my surprise when working for the council that a guild has registered from a place as inhospitable as the Worthwood Sea, when there have been almost no records of people living in the area for several centuries, despite some eccentrics like Master Bob making a summer home here."

Brain's statement caught the two men off guard. Good, his plan in getting the two men interested by letting them see what he saw was working.

Tarsus seemed to shake his head. "This place seems thriving enough and small enough. It's not unheard off considering that some Cait Shelter Mages must have used their magic to help make land."

"I thought that too," Brain responded. "But something didn't make a lot of sense: why was a guild, practically a small village by itself, applying to be one in the middle of nowhere when all guilds want to be stationed in a main city to gain exposure, money, and acclaim? A Phantom Lord Branch can be seen every other four cities in Fiore, while Fairy Tail is acclaimed because of Magnolia being one of Fiore's biggest cities. Guilds build themselves in cities so they can grow in riches, acclaim and so on. Then why would Cait Shelter make itself a guild in the middle of nowhere where almost no one would ever hear or could hire them easily?"

That did catch both men's attention. Guilds were made for many reasons, but even so, they were usually built in large cities to help sustain and keep that guild alive and well. Even if Cait Shelter could supply their own necessities, what was the point of making a guild that they didn't really need?

"Whatever reason is their own," Tarsus began. "It's not our job to learn their private matters."

Brain scoffed. Half of him wanted to make a comment on how the Magic Council heads make control freaks look easy going and carefree. "Alright, what if I were to tell you, before I quit, I sent a letter to the head of Cait Shelter?"

The leader of Oracion Seis fought the urge to smile wider as he saw both of those stoic men had looks of surprise on their faces.

But he did give out a soft laugh. "It's nothing life shaking, I assure you. This was long before I began my 'illegal' actions though I was still in the process of planning them. After hearing about Cait Shelter, and still being interested in Magic Ecology, the letter was a simple request to meet with them and ask how they settled due to the stagnate climates and wild and sometimes violent creatures that lived there. Imagine my surprise when they politely turned me down. I thought nothing of it, maybe them being reclusive, but as time went on, I've learned that they do a lot to prevent themselves be known by others. Even when some council men went to do a routine check up, they almost looked like the text book definition of average." The leader of Oracion Seis paused, allowing the two to soak in those odd facts that were building up. "No matter what, Cait Shelter just seemed to simply exist for the sake of existing. It took me a little more digging before realizing they had some connection to the ancestors of Nirvana."

"That's enough, Dr. Ockado." Tarsus spoke out. "We've let you talk far more than you were allowed. Say one more word, and I will have Lahar silence you."

"One more word is all I need: Cait Shelter is hiding more secrets than both of you think."

Jura leered at the man. "That was more than one word."

Brain showed no signs of being apologetic for cheating at his word. "True, but I am done talking for now. You may get Captain Lahar to silence me if you so wish, Field Commander." Brain, leaned into his wall, relaxing as he sat down.

Tarsus walked out of the cube with Jura still eyeing Brain carefully. "Captain Lahar! I have a request for you!"

Brain could tell in both men's faces, this new knowledge was troubling them. He supposed if something, he didn't completely lose. Still, who was this mysterious master of Cait Shelter?

* * *

They couldn't really believe it, especially when he was the one who brought them both here.

Natsu Dragneel was now prostrated on the ground with his forehead pressed down on the floor towards both William Tovar and Ren Akatsuki.

"Uuhh, say that again?" Ren, who briefly looked over towards the other brown haired, blue eyed Rune Knight, looked back down to Natsu.

"I said!" Natsu didn't raise his head, but he screamed to the floor so both could hear him. "I'm sorry! I made a mistake and your friends are gone… I'm sorry about that!"

The Rune Knight ended up putting a hand behind his neck. "Hey… raise your head up. This is hard to take in." William watched as Natsu did raise his head, but nothing else. "Look, I did hate and blame you for the initial beating we got, but Field Commander was right, we didn't do anything at all to stop you and just went off in the wrong direction to try and fix that. So, I forgive you and I also ask for forgiveness for being too hard on ya." He clicked his tongue. "I also really can't hate ya if you're going this far for forgiveness."

Ren inhaled deeply. "I also owe you an apology Natsu Dragneel. When Nirvana overcame me, you and Genji Hako of Phantom Lord both snapped me out of it and still were able to successful fill the mission." As he said this, Natsu got back up on his knees, yet still continued to listen. "I forgive you and I also ask for your forgiveness."

Natsu got back up, a smile on his face. "Apologies accepted!"

"You forgive us that easy huh? Damn, now I feel worse for holding a grudge against you." William folded his arms and gave a soft laugh.

"You better punk, you only got me by surprise with that sucker punch! I'll beat you next time with a hand tied behind my back!"

"What the hell—that's what works you up!?"

Ren couldn't help but laugh at that interaction. Sure, losing Eve still and would hurt for a while.

...But it could have been worse, meeting some new friends didn't seem so bad to focus on for now.

* * *

A group that consisted of Phantom Lord's Team Jupiter met with Evergreen, Bickslow, Alzack, and Bisca inside one of the huts of Cait Shelter's place.

"I knew I recognized you two!" Kara, the one dressed similarly to that of a valkyrie pointed enthusiastically towards the two gunmen of Fairy Tail. "You were the duo atop that mountain! You guys were sure annoying up there."

Bisca laughed nervously. "Well, it was a good vantage point with a large majority of our long range mages. But my team was definitely scared witless when you they saw three mages head right for us on a falling Thunder Palace Lacrima."

Genji Hako made a gesture towards their gold eyed, blue haired knight. "That was Jason's plan. That vantage point was preventing any ground from being covered, and taking that point was needed to move some of our fellow teammates forward."

The knight sighed. "Fat lot it did though, you guys just regrouped and took it back not long after we warded you off that point."

"Hey, I hesitate to say this," Alzack spoke out. "But you guys scared us when you took that point. "With out Bisca covering one side, more forces poured in from the east and we had to deal with even bigger numbers."

Their conversation continued on, but a little to the side, Evergreen commented to Bickslow in a private manner. "It's strange to talk so easily to a guild that was just so bent on destroying us."

"We almost destroyed ourselves when Master Laxus hired those other assholes a little afterward." Bickslow was quick to say.

Evergreen opened her mouth, but found no words to respond to that. Instead the two simply listened to the conversation in front of them.

"By the way," Kara began, "Do you two have any experience with grenade launchers?!"

It was starting to take a very interesting turn.

* * *

Erza bowed her head towards Richard, who was sitting behind his specialized barrier. "I apologize for my weakness."

"No, I'm just glad my brother is alive. Although I wish it were under better circumstances, us meeting again is much sooner than I hoped." Richard was still smiling, even though it was more than likely he would never be free again, it looked as if he was just glad to hear about Wally.

Erza left Richard's cage a little later after a few more apologies. When she did, she couldn't help but notice the old man, the one who Wendy introduced as the guild master of Cait Shelter, Roubaul, seem to exit one of the cubic cages meant for the Oraion Seis.

And she knew whose cage it was, she made a mental note of it after he had surrendered.

The old man, who Kain would describe as wearing Native American chieftain clothes, walked with his staff forward. When his eyes met with Erzas, the S-Class mage swore they were looking right through her.

He then spoke with age that seemed older and wiser than he appeared. "I recognize that look, Ms. Scarlet, do you wish to know why I just visited one of the council's prisoners?"

The red haired knight mage, uncharacteristically, found herself at a loss of words with how easy she was read.

"If you were suspicious, I simply wanted to meet this Jellal Fernades to confirm a suspicion of my own." The leader began, "But your reaction isn't that of mistrust towards me, it is a storm of conflict towards the man I met, is it not?"

Erza said nothing, simply trying to get her mind working properly again but the very name of that man had caused a malfunction in all her other normal workings.

"I am far more fluent in the language of silence than I care to want," The man gave a soft chuckle. "I wanted to see if this Jellal Fernandes was the same person I had met some time ago. He is not, but looks very similar to him." The guild master looked up to Erza with another look that seemed to know far more than it should. "I do not know what tragedy befell both of you, but whatever words you have for him, I suggest you speak them. Otherwise, the council will take him forevermore, leaving those thoughts of regret to fester for a period of time you don't want measured."

His speech style was oddly poetic, but Erza got the gist of it: this is your last chance to speak with him, or never at all.

With that, the guild master of Cait Shelter walked past Erza, leaving the one-sided dialogue between the two.

Erza looked towards one the cell of Jellal, still silent but a storm inside her raging. She gripped her fist… then walked into the cell.

The S-class mage of Fairy Tail had faced many monsters in her life with nothing but defiant courage. However, once more, she was filled with doubt and fear, even though this time her life was not at risk.

As she entered into the cube of the cell, all she could hear besides the horrible silence was her heart beating at a rate she had no power to stop.

Dark grass colored eyes met with dark chocolate orbs.

One second— _one eternity—_ passed of silence— _maddening torture_ —before Jellal spoke first.

"Erza," Hesitation came across Jellal's face as he looked away before he turned back to the red haired woman. "I am… sorry."

The word only added to the storm that was now a catastrophic typhoon of emotions in Erza. So many questions and only one word to put it express it all. "What?"

Jellal inhaled deeply. "I said, I'm sorry for-for everything I did. I'm not asking for forgiveness, I just want you to know, I'm sorry for everything I've done to you and the others."

"Sorry? SORRY!? Do you even know what it was like, living every day with great people who I was too afraid to get to know because of your threat over Simon and the others!?" She stepped forward, her eyes only glaring at the… thing… in front of her. "Do you know what it was like, living almost every day wondering if they were alright, and to find out one day, after worrying for them almost every day, that they despised me!? And when I thought I saw Kain die fighting you to protect me—I..." Erza gasped as she felt tears streaming down both of her eyes.

They weren't tears of sorrow, but tears of hurt and frustration. The years she had spent living in fear of him, living in doubt, living in self loathing, they all were being realized in this one moment.

Jellal said nothing, but looked away in shame. Erza could only grip her fists tighter. The years she had spent living in fear of him, living in doubt, living in self loathing, they all were being realized in this one moment.

"I hope you never see the light of day again!"

At the height of her rage, she stormed out of the cube, not even daring to look back and walked as fast as she could until she could see no sign of any other person near, but only trees for miles.

She then fell to her knees and cried out in sorrow and hate. Not just at Jellal, but at herself for saying words that she couldn't take back.

Jellal, silent but also near tears, was also feeling nothing but regret and pain.

Interestingly enough, the two, despite being separate from each other at that moment, both shared the same flashback, to a time where a young girl and boy, hiding away from their slave masters, spoke about their dreams of a future outside a hellish tower, and having nothing but the biggest grins on both of their faces… along with a simple promise that they would both be together in the new world.

Was that promise nothing but a memory now?

* * *

"And this is where they all taught me how to make fold basket from straws!" It was far more relaxing and a great relief to see Wendy moving around and showing both Kain, Lucy, and maybe the Exemplar Guardian around the small place where she grew up.

"You can make basket straws by yourself?" The blonde couldn't help but smile at Wendy's personality outside of a dangerous situation. Despite how shy she seemed when she first appeared to them, she was actually really friendly and excitable in her home.

"Yes, Amitola showed me how. I think you'll love her, she's so beautiful and taught me how to dance!" Wendy looked around for a bit, moving towards a small house. The two could read Wendy look around but seemingly not finding her target.

"Ah, Wendy!" An old voice made the group see Roubaul walking over towards them.

"Guild master!" The little girl gave a polite bow before coming back up. "It's good to see you, but did you see where Amitola went?"

"She's helping out for the feast that we're preparing in a bit. You can call the others to get ready, even though I assume the Magic Council is soon going to pick up their agents."

The blue haired girl nodded once. "Oh! Okay! I'll go get everyone!" She then ran ahead with Carla giving off a much more relaxed sigh and following after her with the Exemplar Guardian still following after them.

"She really is adorable," Lucy couldn't help but coo before looking towards Kain. However, her smile died as she saw a more confused look on the lawyer's face.

Roubaul walked over towards the two Fairy Tail mages. "You all seem so close to Wendy. It took her a few weeks before she opened up to most of us."

"She's a really sweet girl," Lucy began to say.

"Why did you send her?"

The sudden and sharp tone of Kain caught their attention. The lawyer was unusually cold in his stare towards the old man. "Why did you send a little girl into a fight with deadly criminals?"

Roubaul answered only with silence.

The brunette lawyer stepped forward towards Roubaul with narrowed eyes, not showing if he heard Lucy or not. "I'm asking why the guild master sent a little girl to represent them, when there are far more able bodies here in Cait Shelter! She almost died in that mission, why the hell would you put a kid through that!?" In a move that Lucy wasn't expecting, Kain actually powered up and grabbed Roubaul by his necklace and lifted him up some what.

That snapped Lucy out of her stupor as she ran up to Kain and screamed "Kain, what are you doing?!"

Like someone flipping a switch, Kain realized what he was doing and let go of both the man and the armor. It was almost as if he couldn't believe that he had just threatened an old man.

Roubaul met eyes with Kain. They were a very common dark brown, but right then the emotion behind them was that of anger and… empathy?

The older man sighed. "You," He began with all the energy of someone who lived with their soul long dead. "are completely correct. What I did when I sent Wendy Marvel to this mission was a gamble, a gamble that I had no choice but to do. I deserve much worse than what you did to me."

"Gamble?" Lucy repeated as she looked over to the man. "You actually sent Wendy, knowing how dangerous that mission that was!? How could you!?"

"I have no excuses, and I have no right to ask for forgiveness even though I am truly repentant. But I will explain to you why I did such a thing… at the feast, in front of everyone." As he fix himself, he started to cough in a way that didn't seem healthy. He walked away, hiding his right arm from the Fairy Tail mages that seemed to flicker in and out of existence.

"… It all ends at last."

* * *

"It has been an honor working with you all." Tarsus began as he, Doranbolt, Lahar, Raina, and William all stood across from the guild mages while behind them was a massive air ship around the size of the Blue Pegasus Christina air ship. "As such, I believe I should return these back now."

With a flick of his wrist, the vanished guild marks returned to their rightful owners.

"I've given out enough speeches for a while, so all I'll say is thanks for fighting for us, and I apologize for the things we have lost. Live well, all of you." And with that, the Magic Council left with all their captured prisoners.

This left all of the remaining mages, who were then invited to a feast for all of them as a thank you for all that they had done.

The feast itself was wonderful with exotic food and music. Some of Cait Shelter even started performing some traditional dances (Ichiya was also far too into it and even danced in his own manner, but the dancers only seemed to dance along with him and had a lot of fun doing so.) It was nice, finally getting some kind of reprieve from the grief everyone had during the fight. It was also nice that the guilds could actually have a friendly bond with each other.

However, two people weren't quite enjoying themselves. Kain was still a bit ticked off about the master of Cait Shelter, but he was also worrying about how easily he lost his control over his anger. He really should try to express that better. Another thing that bothered him was Wendy, who was the second person who was surprisingly not enjoying herself. Kain noticed how she kept looking around the whole feast. It didn't take long for him to figure out, she was still looking for that big sister figure to introduce them to.

And, more disturbingly, a small conversation between Carla and Wendy revealed that the blue haired girl was wondering where several other people were, signaling that some people she knew were still not present in the guild.

Eventually, the festivities ended and everyone had their fill, even Natsu seemed stuff from all the exotic food. As it ended, everyone else from Cait Shelter parted ways as master Roubaul entered into the center of the guild town.

"I hope you enjoyed this party, we can't hope to thank you for all you have done." The guild master began before his face went solemn. "However, I must also apologize, for there is something we've been hiding from all of you."

The festive mood died fast after he said that. Many of the other Cait Shelter members and villagers besides Wendy slowly moved towards the chieftain/guild master.

"You have guessed that we are descendants of the makers of Nirvana; that is not true. We _are_ the makers of Nirvana."

No one expected that statement to come out of the mouth of the guild master. They all watched with silence and shock. Yet, Kain, had his eyes widen and stood up on his feet.

"In Nirvana, we meet something like a ghost named Roubaul that gave us instructions on how to stop Nirvana," He pointed over to the man. "Are you saying your the same person!?"

The old man nodded once. "That was a spell of mine, yes. Allow me to explain. I'm sure you heard of how Nirvana came to be from my ghost, but when I crafted that spell, I had no idea that even those who were thought to be 'immune' had dire effects placed upon them."

Roubaul waved his hands, coating the area into a black pocket dimension that showed a massive mural, much like the mural Kain, Erza, Wendy, and Carla saw.

The mural showed an old drawing of Roubal and a group of people leaving the Exemplar unit behind.

"After prepping the last Exemplar, me and the survivors made our way to leave the Nirvid Lands, or as what you now know as the Worthwood Sea. However, something was wrong."

The mural changed, this time, it was that of the survivors suffering and having their colors stolen away, turning black and white.

"We weren't exempted from the curse of Nirvana, in fact, we had gained too much of it's energy." Roubaul's voice continued. "When we tried to leave, the moment we stepped out of range of Nirvana, our bodies began to break, shatter, and a powerful pull prevented us from moving forward. We soon realized that Nirvana had magically mutated us before we sealed it. The result was that our flesh and blood melted away leaving only our minds, and our magic."

The mural changed once more as now, people of both black and white were seen seemingly lamenting in madness in sorrow.

"We figured it out quickly; Nirvana did something to us that was different in manipulating the darkness and light of the others. Instead of super fluctuating, it super _fixated_ our light and dark sides together, which made us turn into beings of both light and dark energy. Even with Nirvana sealed, it was still passively pulling onto specialized dark and light magic such as we, so no matter how much we suffered, we could not escape the Worthwood Sea. And if we got too close to it in our new forms, The Exemplar would absorb us and re seal us into Nirvana in it's standby state."

Everyone looked over to the moldy robot that still stood at the side of Wendy.

"We were damned with a fate worse than death. Unable to die, and unable to fix our mistake. We lost hope for a very, very long time. Along the past centuries, I believe some even believed us to be haunting the place, making it unlivable."

Jura seemed to have a silent but widening look of realization at the mention of that, thinking back to Brain's comments.

"We've lived for 400 hundred years hence, wandering and watching over Nirvana, hopping one day someone would destroy it, and by proxy free us from this eternal torment."

The mural vanished, and instead of a new picture appearing, the black dimension started to turn into that of a ruined village that had the same base structure of current Cait Shelter.

"Then, one day," Roubaul's voice seemed to slightly lift up as he began this next part. "A young boy who looked eerily similar to that Jellal Fernandes came near us."

Everyone, especially a certain red haired girl, watched in awe as a young boy who really looked to be Jellal's true twin hold Wendy with a hastily made bandage wrapped around her head. "Please, take care of her!"

Man thoughts went into the head of people: who was that? The time line didn't match up, Jellal should have just been freed from the tower, how did he come to go there? Did Jellal truly have a twin, was that why he had a subconscious reaction to create a clone with a different name? What did this all mean?

But they were all silent as Roubaul continued. "How could I say no to such a request by a sincere young man like that?"

The memory played out, showing Wendy being very distressed and even asking if that boy lied to her, saying that he broke her promise to bring her to a guild. They all watched Raobaul and others lie and saw that it was indeed a true guild.

Wendy, who was in utter shock the entire time, was now moving to tears and screamed. "How could you do that to me, master!?"

Her scream shattered the dimensions and brought everyone back to reality.

When they were back, they all saw something that made each and everyone of them gap in shock.

In front of all of them, all of Cait Shelter were no longer the people that they saw them as, but humanoid beings of black and white exactly like the murals described.

The one black and white being in the front, the one who had the voice of Roubaul. "I understand your frustration at my lies, and once more, all I can do is apologize. But in that lie, we ended up enjoying ourselves after centuries of apathy and loss. We even saw the chance to pass on our dead culture. What we did was horribly wrong, but our care and love for you was genuine."

Before anything else could happen, one of the humanoid black and white energies fell to the floor, convulsing in pain as he slowly started to fade.

"S-Sorry, boss!" That humanoid spoke in a male voice. "I-I don't think I can hold it in anymore."

"Z-Zahu?" Wendy looked over towards the fallen humanoid, recognizing his voice.

The fallen humanoid tried to get up, but was only able to sit up on his butt. Others around him soon began to fall on their knees or on all fours. "Sorry, kid. Apologizing is really all we can do up to now. With Nirvana finally gone, it also means the curse keeping us alive vanished too. The reason why you haven't seen some of the others is because they already vanished, finally free from their curse. They were caught off guard, of course, they all wanted to stick around at least and say goodbye to you and Carla."

Roubaul stepped forward, even though he too was starting to fade away and flicker in and out of existence.

"We still must thank you, all of you for finally setting us free from our curse. And please, take care of Wendy for us?" Roubaul then tilted his 'face' towards Wendy and bent down on one knee to her. "My little girl, parting is always such sorrow, but thanks to this, I know you are also in wonderful hands."

He tilted his face to Kain and Lucy before looking back to Wendy.

Some of the people started to fade, Wendy started crying as one last time, they all changed back into their human forms with smiles on their faces. The little girl could only cry loud and hard as the people she knew and grew up with vanished into the great beyond.

All everyone could do, as the rest of them vanished, was gather around the girl and try to console her and a sniffling Carla.

…

And so Wendy, was no longer a Cait Shelter mage.

She was the true greatest legacy of Nirvana's makers.

* * *

Up in the air, a large magical carrier was surrounded by several other fighter planes.

It was an intricate machine, capable of carrying a dozen platoons and now it was housing The Oracion Seis and Jellal Fernandes.

Brain waited silently in his cell. Or at least, that what it seemed like, in his mind however…

(WHAT!? ALL OF THAT TALK!? AND WE'RE STILL CAPTURED!?) Zero's voice roared against his counterpart.

(I admit, it's rather distressing, but I made a promise that I intend to keep. You will get your freedom after one last thing I need to do.)

(Have you played me, Brain!? I know what's going to happen when the Magic Council gets their grubby, fat hands on us! I'm not being your scapegoat!)

(You aren't going to be my scapegoat, you're finally going to live a life without me. My time is almost up.)

(And how the hell are you going to do that!?)

(Not me. _**Them**_.)

Brain opened his eyes the moment alarm noises were heard all throughout the ship.

* * *

"What's going on!?" Tarsus, along with other Rune Knight members cried out as they heard alarms in the cockpit lobby.

"Sir! We're being attacked from the inside! I don't know how they got past all the proximity alarms—"

"We have a breach on Hangar 4!"

Lahar quickly pointed to another man. "Play Hangar 4 cameras now!"

The agent did so and revealed a holographic screen showing the chaos unfolding.

"UMBRAL TYPHOON!?" Tarsus slammed his fist on a nearby rail that shattered instantly. They were dark cultists/guild that Brain had managed to get to work for him. Everyone had completely forgotten that they were still around despite some of their earlier defeats.

The field commander ordered a team to subdue those madmen attack everything in sight. Then he turned to Doranbolt. "The rest of you, get a team to Hangar 7! Brain is planning to spring himself free with this!"

"Sir!" Another Rune Knight cried out. "We've lost all feed and contact with the Guards in hangar 7!"

The usually calm Rune Knight had a look of utter rage across his face. "HOW DID WE LET HIM PLAY US LIKE THIS!?"

* * *

Brain was silent as his entire cube was torn apart by the remains of the Machina King. As he felt his magic come back to him, Brain walked out and saw the nearly destroyed automaton kneel.

"Thank you for obeying the contingency plan incase Nirvana was re sealed, Kloda." As Brain said this, his staff flew out of the broken machine that fell lifelessly into the ground.

"It was your idea all along, Master Brain, to escape as soon as Nirvana was sealed and amass a rescue party with those that remained."

The former doctor looked towards the staff. "Now then, execute contingency: Cradle."

The staff paused for a second before making a bow. "It was an honor to serve, Master Brain."

Brain nodded once back, even as the alarms blared around them. "Thank you for your service." The Leader of Oracion Seis put a palm into Kloda's skull. He seemed to be transferring something that snuffed out Kloda's orange light. When that was done, he picked up the staff and broke the containers of the other Oracion Seis, except that of Jellal's.

"Master Brain!" All the others seemed to gather around him after finding out they had been freed.

"All of you, go to Hangar 6. The cultists should have prepared some escape pods for you. Go ahead."

Midnight looked at the last remaining cube, the one that held Jellal with a dark glare. "Not until I get revenge for his betrayal!"

Brain, pushed a hand out. "Midnight, I will handle Jellal. You must go." There was a finality in Brain's voice that not even Midnight dared to question.

His look then softened. "I have something else planned as well. I'm sending you all a message that will play in a few days. Wait for that message in hiding and escape, now."

"Yes, father." Midnight spoke before he and the others made a beeline for the next Hangar over.

Brain was silent before he broke Jellal's cage.

Jellal was amazed and horrified as Brain stalked over to him. However, to his surprise, Brain had tossed him Kloda's staff and pointed in the opposite direction to that of the Oracion Seis members.

"Hangar 8 is where I promised with the cultists to ensure you an escape pod. Go, hurry."

The former councilman and wizard saint looked in utter confusion. "What? Why are you—"

"There is almost no time left. I know you betrayed me, Jellal, but I also know what true fate will befall you if the council gets their hands on you."

"What-What makes you say that!?" The blue haired mage asked before they heard the sound of distant explosions coming closer to them.

Seeing no time, Brain walked up and put both his hands on Jellal's shoulder then looked him dead in the eye. He then leaned in and whispered something into the ear of Jellal. The Wizard Saint could only have his eyes widen in disbelief before Brain removed himself and continued. "The council will not give you redemption. You. Must. Flee."

The doors to Hangar 7 were blasted open and an in flow of officers and some Rune Knights opened fire. Brain summoned a magical barrier and pushed Jellal towards Hangar 8. "Go now!"

Jellal didn't know what to do with this set of confusing circumstances. However, he did run towards Hangar 8. As he did, he couldn't help but look back at the man who welcomed him, the man he backstabbed, still fight desperately to ensure that he would have a future, even if it was simply because of some plot that he couldn't understand.

As Brain sensed the other six finally escape with their stolen and hacked escape pods, he stopped fighting and let the Rune Knights take him once more.

* * *

When Brain did wake up again, he found himself in a very elaborate cell. It was nothing but a white void for miles, and he seemed to be chained to an X cross wall. As he figured, he had almost no magical strength left. He already played the umbral Typhoon Card, so there was no chance of him to escape from this if the rest of the Rune Knights subdued or killed them.

He had already played his entire hand, but one special card that was saved for something else. All he could do now was let the chips fall wherever they may lie and simply waited for the inevitable.

How coincidental that it came no second later.

The white void opened up, revealing a door. And who should enter it but…

"Crawford, did you gain weight, a lot of it?" Brain's smirk was cut short as he felt an intense pain enter into his nervous system.

"Dr. Bryan Ocakado. It's good to see you again." The fat man with expensive and way too extravagant clothes laughed with the voice of machine grinding nails. "It's such a shame you have become one of the council's most wanted men."

"Let's skip the small talk, fatty." Brain spoke fast after trying to gather breath. "I know you don't have the stones to face me even without an ounce of strength and magic power. Even more so the fact you've been 'dismissed' as chairman. I also know that you're in cahoots with one of my… acquaintances."

Brain looked around anywhere and raised his voice. "I know you're here! Whatever question you have, you can ask me instead of your puppet, **Mard Geer**!"

Crawford seemed taken back and beside him, something appeared into existence.

He was a lean, tall man with an amused smirk on his face and had his black, wavy, long hair tied up into a pony tail that reached his waist. He wore a dark long coat and if one was to look into his eyes, they would know that his appearance was not that of a human.

"We meet once more, Dr. Ocakado." The man named Mard Geer smiled before pointing a finger towards the man and a black string of energy shot straight through Brain's shoulder, causing the man more pain than the machine a while ago. "How dare you attempt to demand off me, human. If I didn't find you so interesting, I would have killed you then and there."

"Master, perhaps, **I** should be the one to fully correct this scum to talk so highly despite not knowing it's place." More people—beings—appeared behind Crawford. Nearly a dozen beings of extraordinary power, all of them surrounding a chained, weakened master of Oracion Seis.

"Kyôka, it's alright. This human is only one of two that has interested me." Mard Geer stepped forward, pushing Crawford towards the chained man.

Brain, who was gasping for breath, and felt a pain that didn't seem to end, fought it and looked up to Mard Geer. "I feel honored, having all of Tartaros' commanders in front of little old me."

"This isn't for you, lowly scum." Mard Geer spoke in a pleasant manner despite his sharp insult. "We're here because Crawford told us you know the deepest secrets of the Magic Council."

"What are you talking about? Him and I were memory proofed when we stumbled on to level zero, neither of us recall and I'm most certain the memory of our time there is kept in that place."

"Don't pull that shit with me!" Crawford pointed to Brain with all the power of a prosecutor. "I found out a slimy bastard like you had two souls! Two souls! At first I wondered how that was remotely possible, but then I read your files, and it said that you were originally born with a twin brother who died in child birth! You and your brother have shared the same body for years! Even if your memory was erased, I bet that second soul in your body remembers what we saw in Level 0!"

Brain stilled for the briefest of seconds before responding. "Two souls? What basis do you have for that?"

A soon as the words left his lips, he felt a stinging sensation in the form of a sudden whip.

"That's not what our master wants to hear, scum. Perhaps Lamy here can remake you to be more… cooperative... or _**I**_ can be the one to get you to squeal. You are already chained up..."

"Ooh oo!" A small and exited voice started to coo. "Give him to me, Kyôka, I need some new material and there has always been something sexy about seeing a man beaten, chained, and half naked!"

Crawford decided to speak up. "You should stop playing tough, Dr. Ockado, Tartaros have enough power to topple this lousy kingdom to the ground! You either obey them, or suffer greatly!"

Brain coughed for a bit as he tried to breathe again. However, as he rose his head, the defiance in his eyes remained, and a smirk appeared across his face. "Oh Crawford, even now, you always choose the easy way to gain your riches. Always hiding behind something—someone. It's no wonder everyone undermined your authority even as chairman."

Crawford's pupils shrank and his veins popped up. He took out the device and pressed it repeatedly, shocking Brain over and over again. "You stupid, little shit! Who do you think gave you your job in the first place! You'd just be some absolute nobody, teaching in some middle-of-nowhere-building preaching to a bunch of hicks—!"

At that moment, Mard Geer grabbed the device from the fat bastard even though he was holding it tightly.

"Now, now, Mr. Seam. You told us Dr. Ocakdo here knew what we wanted to know. How would we be able to gain information from him if he was dead?" The leader of Tartaros chided as if the man was a spoiled child.

Mard Geer moved closer to Dr. Ocakdo. "Now then, one way or another, you will tell us what you know. We can either do this the easy way, or the hard way."

Brain stared back at the other dark guild master before he suddenly burst with extreme laughter. "I almost believed you for a second, well done! Everyone in this room, except Crawford, knows that you'll kill me wether or not I give it to you willingly."

There was a beat of silent that even mice would know to stay clear away from.

"I must admit, you are smart," Mard Geer pointed and once more shocked Brain with his own magic. "For a human."

The man gasped in pain again, he felt himself slowly lose his vision. After all this torture, he finally felt it. His magic seal had finally ran out.

The curse was released that was going to eat his soul.

There was only one thing left to do.

"Alright, I'll tell you, my greatest secret..." Brain gasped between words.

He looked up to them, blood spilling from his mouth, but Mard noticed that light of defiance was still in the eyes of Brain.

"When I unlocked Sorano's magic for the first time, she cried for an hour straight until I finally asked her why she was doing so. It turned out, she wanted magic that could allow her to fly like a bird. Her crying was annoying, but I was eventually able to find her a shift shaping Celestial Spirit so that she could learn to fly by herself."

Mard Geer sighed before slapping Brain with a back hand that was strong enough to create a miniature sonic boom.

Brain coughed some more. "...Sawyer fell in love with the picture of a bike when he was under my care. He begged me over and over with super speed to get one for him. I eventually relented and out of laziness got him a motor bike instead. Turns out he loved it more than the bike even though he couldn't ride it yet."

"You must be a glutton for punishment," Mard Greed turned around. "Kyôka, you may loosen his lips."

The dangerous being made a smile before looking to another commander among Tartaros. "Seilah, I may I please borrow some of your power?"

"You need not ask, my lady." A female voice responded.

As the being stepped forward, Brain still continued on. "Richard kept crying because he wanted to see his brother again and his magic wouldn't help him at all. I ended up telling him that if he had all the money in the world, he could use it to find his brother."

The member of Tartaros started using her magic which held the aura of a dark curse that seemed to make even darker spells pale in comparison. "Now then," A female with a strange helmet began with a sadistic gleam in her eye. "I"m going to take my time with this!" She then unleashed the power onto Brain, who could do nothing but write and scream in agony once more.

However, even while screaming, a telepathic voice echoed through the cell. " _Erik was screaming in the first few hours of opening up his hearing magic, hearing everything within a mile and having no control or filter over them._ _I never thought that those fourteen years of guitar practice my mother made me go through would be used to sing the boy and his snake a lullaby for the next month_ _straight_ _, giving him practice to hone his hearing in a specific target._ "

"Something's wrong!" Kyôka screamed out even as she put more magical or Curse like pressure into the man. "There's an unfamiliar energy in this man! It's preventing me from being able to control him!"

"What?" For the first time in a while, Mard Geer broke his facade as he heard and sensed something alien coming from Brain, whose body was starting to glow six colors of red, black, yellow, blue, pink, and silver.

" _And finally, Macbeth. I don't know why I didn't refute him when he thought that the man who finally got him out of that hellish tower was his father. I don't know why I couldn't say that I wasn't the hero he expected or wanted me to be, I was far from it in reality. But as the boy begged me to be there when he woke up the next morning, I found myself unable to leave his room the first night with me."_

"What the hell are you doing, Brain!?" Crawford screamed at the top of his lungs. "What are you doing, telling all this shit, and just tell us what you know about Level 0!?"

" _I thought you wanted to know my secret, Crawford?_ " Brain stopped screaming and moved his head down. His face was starting to glow bright with colored lights. " _I'm telling you my secret that_ _I_ _'ve even kept from myself._ "

"Lady Kyôka, get away from him!" A female voice from among Tartaros' commanders screamed.

The pseudo human tried to do so, but the colors had somehow magnetized her hands to Brain's face and neck. No matter how much she pulled, her limbs would not be released. "What the hell, scum!? What did you do to me!?" She attempted to attack him, but for some reason, her curses seemed to do little to affect them both.

Mard Geer's eyes snapped open and he quickly summoned a powerful barrier to cover him and everyone else except Kyôka.

"Master Mard Geer!?" The demon screamed as she looked back at the barrier.

" _My secret is..._ "

* * *

Two days later, everyone could not believe what was written on the newspapers.

From Fairy Tail, to those even among the Rune Knights, all those who were involved could only gather around and stare at the words written on the headline.

However, the rest of the country and maybe even the continent shouted in praise. The news was like music to their ears.

Yet… five souls, in the edge of the small town, were staring with horrible shock at what the headline was telling them.

Then, those five souls heard a telepathic message.

" _I lied about there being instructi_ _ons. This is a prerecorded message I made before hand,_ _but now that I have your attention,_ _I must tell you all the truth. Each and every one of you were a means for an end. I stole you from the Tower of Hell because you had the greatest potential of magic I had ever seen in children. I was going to use all of you as stepping stones, and if I had found even better candidates for my Oracion Seis, I would have discarded any of you in a heart beat. All of you are as expendable as pawns."_

…

…

" _At least… that's what I thought at first. See, for all my plans, calculations, and ambitions, I seemed to over look something simple: the time I actually spent raising all of your magical and battle skills. Times when I should have been drilling all of you were spent on the beach learning how to fight giant crabs so we could have exotic campfire dinners under stars_ _where instead I thought you the constellations and why they were named that way_ _. Time I should have spent honing your knowledge for fighting suddenly turned into me helping and being involved in those strange hobbies you all picked up—especially you, Sawyer. Your obsession to have an army of motorbikes baffled me to no end._ "

…

" _Somewhere along the lines of turning you all into weapons… turned_ _me __into something I never thought possible, and only now do I realize what all of you changed me into._ "

* * *

Two days ago, back in the cell, Dr. Bryan Ocakdo smiled as the light started to consume him. The curse from Level 0 was let loose and now for sure it's entirety would be activated. He honestly wanted Crawford to come in close, but someone one from Tartaros would do.

" _My greatest secret: it turns out that I was a father with five_ _ **wonderful**_ _kids that gave me all I ever wanted and needed, but I never realized it until the end."_

Brain closed his eyes, even as desperately as this demon tried everything she could to try and kill himwhat was about to happen.

" _So then, this is the part where I die then?_ " Brain cocked one defiant smile a second before the lights took him whole and a powerful explosion broke the high class magic cage.

" _Funny, even though I failed horribly in all my plans, why do I still feel content? ... Maybe... is this what being a proud father is like?_ "

It was weird that a once ruthless, dangerous, and ambitious man who sought power and control… was now dying with a peaceful and hopeful smile on his face with thoughts and prayers of others besides himself.

* * *

Two days later, all around Fiore, many were cheering at the fact one of the strongest dark guilds, Oracion Seis, had their leader 'executed' by orders of the Magic Council, so said the headlines of many newspapers.

Those who were in the actual mission of capture raised their brows in confusion. They recalled how important the orders from the council were to keep Brain/Dr. Ockado alive, so why was there suddenly news of his death? Did it have anything to do with that illness?

Five people… they may have had no right to live good lives from the countless sins they had committed, the atrocities they partook, and the lives they stole.

Yet all of them were crying, bawling out their eyes because they had lost someone so precious to them. Five of them crying… because they had lost their father.

And then, there was Jellal Fernandes, hiding atop a mountain. As he looked at the Newspaper, he looked back to the staff Brain had handed to him.

"You damn bastard!" The animated staff cried out in a different tone to that of Kloda. "I didn't know you meant this! Damn you, Brain! Damn… damn you… this isn't what I wanted..."

Against all odds, tears streamed down the staff's skull. "I'm finally free of you Brain… why aren't I happy? I, Zero, should be happy I'm no longer enslaved by you… but why is it? I can't stop this… this _horrible_ feeling? Is it because you placed me in a staff!? Damn you! Damn you! DAMN YOU!"

The staff, now housing Zero's soul, could only cry in anguish. Jellal never thought he would say this, but he was feeling pity for a staff.

As Zero started to feel an emotion besides lust for destruction and power, Jellal thought back to Brain's words before they parted.

("All Three of the Balam Alliance have agents in the Magic Council. Tartaros now has major control over some of the council seats.")

Those words struck fear into Jellal's heart. How did the Balam Alliance get so close to the magic council!? What was Tartaros up to!?

And worst of all, why did this feel like only the beginning?

* * *

The clock turned back two days before the headlines of the year were released.

"Lady Kyôka!" Another one of Tartaros' generals ran to the other demon who seemed to be convulsing and pain as different colored electricity flowed around the unconscious body. This being cradled the other demon with worry.

"Seilah," Mard Geer began walking to the now burnt up body of Dr. Bryan Ocakdo. "Hand Kyôka to Lamy so she may begin the rebirth process."

"I don't know what that human did," the smallest voice among them said. "But I'll get to work right away boss!"

The one known as Seilah was about to help until Mard Geer raised his hand. "Seilah, with Kyôka currently incapacitated, you must now take her place in the seat of the new Magic Council."

Seilah wanted to protest, she wanted to be by Lady Kyôka's side. However, she knew there was no turning away an order from their guild master. She bowed slightly and silently agreed to do her part.

"Well then this was fun, but a waste of time." Mard Geer started to disappear. "Everyone but Seilah and Crawford, back to the base. We will have to make tweaks to our plan to find a way to revive E.N.D. and weaken the council's power."

Seilah remained in the now ruined cell. She noticed Crawford run up to Dr. Ockado's body then start kicking it repeatedly without an ounce of respect.

"How dare you! How dare you make a mockery of me even in the end!" He kept shouting out useless and meaningless things even as the body started to crumble.

Seilah rolled her eyes. Humans were so boring.

* * *

"I can't believe I'm glad to be back here." Bora sighed in relief as he was hit with the smell of large amounts of river mold after falling out of the portal.

"Good job, both of you." Fero spoke out as he held the book they retrieved from Nirvana. "Even with that difficulty, we have completed our mission."

"You have!?" A voice caught the three's attention and they traced it back to their boss, Ryan Ta Peloth, who was waiting in that small apartment sitting on a table and drinking tea. "Great work guys! I'm thinking of giving you guys a cool name, how about the Dread Squad?"

"Any name works fine sir," Fero spoke automatically, not really minding in the slightest. He did turn to the other two. "What do you two think?"

Oshen, the green skinned, long legged troll threw out a hand. "I be thinking it's alright with me. What about you, birandi?" The tusked race gave a hard slap to a squirmish Bora's back.

"I'm good." That might have sounded more high pitched that it should have.

"Dread Squad it is! Now gimme the book, please!" The boss of their underground organization took the elaborate book from the assassin's hands.

Bora, feeling the pain in his back mitigate, asked, "So what's the book for?"

Their boss simply twirled his hand, undoing the runic seals and opening the book. Only he could see the title of the book on the first page:

Etherious Demon: Juivern, The Bishop of Combat.

For a second, Ryan's smile turned mischievous before switching back to joyful. "I had a project in mind that I've really wanted to try out."

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **AND HERE WE GO! THE NIRVANA ARC IS OFFICIALLY DONE! WHOO! (Why does my life suck?)**

 **Anyway, with the arc done, I'd like to go over some technical stuff. First and small note: did you all notice the name of Fero and Bora's team? Dread Squad?**

 **Dread can be another word for fear, and what is seen as the opposite of fear sometimes? Courage. And did you know that Courage has another name going by… Valiant?**

 ***Smiles wide***

 **With that fun and not at all important coincedence out of the way, let's talk about the meat of this arc: Brain, the douche bag of the week.**

 **Now I gotta be honest, after seeing a lot of praise for my work with Jose in the Phantom Lord Arc, I was obviously scared to tackle another one of Fairy Tail's villain of the week and try my hand at changing them.**

 **But then again, I suck anyway so I threw cation in to a carefully placed bin and began 'dissecting' Brain from Canon.**

 **Honestly, I had far less to work with than Jose! His reason for being jealous was petty, but at least it existed! Brain had practically nothing going for him besides his gimmick for a second personality, which kinda doesn't work since it feels like it was used more as a plot device than a certain character from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5 where it's not a gimmick but a staple part of the—**

 **Did you get that? Alright, on to my next point. Zero seemed more like a surprise boss so that Fairy Tail could take the win rather than Jura solving the whole thing. But I thought about it, how could Zero work in this new story? My inspiration came from one of my english courses when I recalled the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. That famous story of a man with two souls.**

 **I thought to myself, "Hey! Maybe I can borrow that theme and work it into Brain!" And work it I did. With that idea in mind, I started to form a head cannon of how Brain came to have two personalities. The idea of him actually being born with a twin brother, but his brother died in child birth but because of the BS that is magic, the two souls entered into one body. This made Zero not just a dangerous personality, but it actually gave him more reason to exist than, 'just because'.**

 **With the second personality done, I had to work on the first one. Everything about him felt 'Saturday Morning Cartoon: Anime Steroid version'. He was practically an empty canvas, so I picked up the paint like character development and splashed it all over that white washboard that could turn black and white. (now that I'm typing this out, is it me or was Brain more dark skinned than Zero? How does that work exactly when they switch?)**

 **I thought it would be interesting to add something to Brain, like his 'disease'. I felt like this change in his body, would allow me to have changes into his mind, emotions, and world views. People with terminal disease tend to have their world views changed in some way.**

 **Now then, with most of Brain done, let's move on to something else: Nirvana as a whole. So I kept most of the skeleton of the plot intact, just adding more into some things than others. Like say, the reason I made Nirvana a floating Isle; nothing really big. I just thought it would be cool and I didn't even make the Tower of Heaven/Hell the same place, so it's mostly just an aesthetic change.**

 **It's people/Cait Shelter is another topic. That last part about them being figments of Roubaul was… something. I don't have much of an opinion on it though some have described as disliking it to me. I admit it felt kinda cheap to introduce a certain loli to every anime requirement in existence. So what I did was focus a little more on the survivors. I did enjoy the idea of being cursed to watch over their creation a lot, so I focused more on that than trying to get Wendy to Join.**

 **And now, one of the last major points to cover: the early appearance of Tartar sauce! I mean Tartarus—I mean Tartaros!**

 **So like, has anyone noticed the Balam Alliance almost never interacts, except with that one scene in the anime with Rustyrose? What the heck was their alliance even all about, smoke and mirrors? We stand together only when it's convenient or such? What were they even allied for? Against the magic council, who ALL of them had some influence over at some point in time?! (Brain being part of their Bureau; Ultear being an actual councilman; Crawford willing to betray his own people for these demons!? It's actually Canon that the Balam Alliance all have agents in the council!)**

 **I mean, I know Mishima plays the Magic Council as idiots, but seriously? If I wanted to see incompetent people run the government, I'd look at my current, real life news! It's like the alliance was made so that no one would have a monopoly over their supposed enemy.**

 **Right, right, no point getting angry over long spilt milk.**

 **Anyway. These are the main notes I wanted to say for this arc. I'm so glad that it's finally done. The next few arcs are going to be just as fun to make! I hope you guys enjoy your day!**


	45. Chapter 45

{His Story of Dragons}

Getting Wendy and Kinana to settle in the guild was much easier than I hoped it would be. The guild almost cheered at the fact they had a fourth dragon slayer in the guild, which to my knowledge is supposed to be pretty rare in this world. With everyone settling in, seemed much smoother than I thought it would be, even Makarov was enjoying his forced retirement after confiding to me he was glad that Laxus straightened out while he was gone.

Though, Wendy wasn't only one to enter into the guild, Carla, the female version of Happy, joined us, along with the Automaton Exemplar from the makers of Nirvana. If everyone loved Wendy, they were in awe at the fact that there was a walking, ancient tech robot that followed the little girl around like a puppy even. Though, calling it an Exemplar or Guardian was kind of a mouth full and didn't seem to fit the thing now that it's original purpose was long finished. Wendy coined the name, Pla, for the robot because she thought it was a cute as the moldy and rust colored robot. Since Wendy was the owner and master of the robot, her word was final, not that anyone wanted to refute her.

It was nice to finally sit back and relax after all that stress from the Oracion Seis Quest. Yet, as we were relaxing, a very interesting conversation happened to come up.

"Wait a second, your dragon also disappeared the same year and date like Natsu's dragon?" It was hard not to be as shocked as Lucy was when she repeated what we just heard from the little girl.

"It's one of the reasons why I wanted to meet Natsu so much, I thought he might know where Grandeeney went." The little girl looked over to Natsu who seemed silent from the revelation.

Though honestly, I doubted that Natsu knew anything about her. He didn't even know about his foster parent, so there was no way—

"I think I've heard that name before."

Luckily, I stopped the glass of water from entering my mouth. Otherwise, I would have done a spit take.

Wendy and by proxy, Carla, both had their eyes widen. The blue haired girl in particular put her hands together and gasped in delight. "You have?! Where did you see her?! When did you see her?! Is she alright!? What was she—" The little girl calmed down when she realized she was asking question faster than anyone could give answers.

The fire dragon slayer didn't seem to mind and answered her first question. "Hmmm… Kain, where did I hear that name again?"

Okay, so he didn't actually answer her question, and was somehow asking me to answer for him to answer to Wendy. I sometimes question what Igneel actually taught this man-child, if a dragon was even was a good teacher in common sense.

After a sigh escaped my lips, I took a second to think. I really wasn't expecting Natsu to recognize Grandeeney as all he knew were fire dragons—wait. That's plural. Natsu knows more than one Fire Dragon and one of them is accessible.

I turned to my friend. "By any chance did you hear it from Sun Village?"

My hunch was validated before Natsu could even begin to talk, mostly because I watched his eyes light up before his lips could part to form his first word. "Oh yeah! It was definitely from him where I heard that name!"

" _Him_?" I spotted Lucy put a hand near her mouth. Even she knew who we were referring to.

"Who are you talking about?" Wendy asked with obvious excitement and nervousness.

Natsu was first to answer her again. "We can go meet him!" He then turned his head and looked over to Gajeel who was in a nearby table talking to Kageyama. "In fact—yo, Gajeel! Didn't you say your dragon disappeared the same day my dragon did?!"

"Yeah, what about it?" Gajeel turned to us as he said that.

"I think I know someone who knows where your dragon is!"

I didn't know what I was expecting, but Gajeel looked away and clicked his tongue at the prospect of finding his mysterious foster dragon. "Like I care where Metalicana went."

I flinched from the loud sound that came right next to me. Natsu had stood up and looked like he was about to jump and punch Gajeel right there. "What!? Aren't you interested in your own dragon!?"

"That asshole left me alone without a word; he could be dead for all I care!"

Before Natsu could blow up, I grabbed his shoulder and shook my head. Instead though, I just smiled at him and said, "Sun Village is a two hour flight on Ignis. Since it's morning, Natsu, Wendy, and I are going and will return by the end of the day. You're free to come with us if you want while I prep Ignis' saddle."

I then started to push Natsu towards the back while looking over to Wendy. "Meet us at the back when you're ready too."

"W-Wha- Hey! Kain, what the hell!?"

"Don't take Gajeel's words seriously, Natsu." I spoke after I got him out of the doorway. "He's just hurt from his dragon abandoning him for almost no reason. I have a feeling after he cools down, he'll want to learn about his dragon too."

Some minutes passed later and I found myself helping Wendy. See, she never really got close to Ignis during the Oracion Seis event, and now in calmer times, she was intimidated by the rather large pseudo dragon even though I'm sure she was raised by something much bigger and more powerful.

"Are you sure he's nice?" The little girl held a hand close to her chest as she looked to the wyvern.

"I understand he looks scary, but he's only like that to our enemies, to everyone else in the guild, he's as approachable as a puppy, and some like to think of him as Fairy Tail's mascot."

"That's my job!" I heard an indignant cry from the usual suspect of Happy. "Why is everyone stealing everything from me!?" I'm assuming by everyone, he means Momon and Ignis. Either way I ignored his lament and focused back on Wendy.

"Trust me, Wendy, he's not going to hurt you. I think you might like him a lot, since many of the kids in Magnolia like him." One time we opened up a petting booth for just Ignis and many of the kids in Magnolia flocked to pet and ride the resident wyvern. Of course we charged them, any extra Jewel going to the guild helps in the long run when damage bills are forced to us and I can't get them out of.

The blue haired girl still looked a little nervous but as she walked closer to Ignis, who was laying down so that the others would have an easier time to get atop of him. As she moved closer, her hesitation seemed to fade and her confidence rose. She was finally able to relax and petted his snot when she walked up to him.

"You're actually really nice, aren't you, Mr. Ignis?" Daww that was cute. But now it should be much easier to get Wendy aboard now.

I turned to my right to see Natsu walking up to me. "Is that everyone?"

"Yeah, just you, me, Wendy, the cats, Ignis, and the Exemplar Automaton."

"You can call him Pla!" Thanks Wendy. I mean the name is kinda close to Lucy's Plue, but she hasn't really brought him out as much as of late. Now, I'm not familiar with Fairy Tail, but I did watch a few episodes of Rave Master as a kid. Considering there is a crossover episode, does that mean this place is the same world? I also know nothing about it besides what the main duo looks like. Bah, I'm getting off topic.

I motioned a nod over to the girl before turning back to Natsu. "Lucy said she isn't coming because she knows how important our source's secrecy is and thinks it's better with less people as possible."

"Why the hell is your source so secretive?"

Natsu and I turned around to see Gajeel walking up to us. As I gave a small smirk, the Iron Dragon Slayer seemed to make eye contact with anything else that wasn't in my direction.

"The reason why it's so secretive is because anyone outside knowing his identity is a threat to people's safety. But look at it this way," I pointed a thumb to the Fire Dragon Slayer beside me. "Even Natsu here has been tight lipped about it, showing that it really is serious business."

"Hey! I can keep secrets!"

I turned to him and gave him a flat look. "… 'Heya, Kain! Distract everyone for me while I go uproot Magnolia's most important Cherry Blossom Tree to bring Lucy on a boat!' … Does any of that ring a bell? Or how about the time when we were supposed to have a surprise return party for Macao's recovery?"

"… I sound nothing like that!" Natsu tried to defend himself.

My attention went to Gajeel who actually seemed impressed. "Well if Salamander is keeping his mouth shut then I guess that means this guy is some big hot shot."

"Well," I turned around and headed back towards Ignis with my goggles on. "You aren't wrong with calling him a hot shot."

* * *

I mean, I consider a dragon purely made of flames being as close to a literal hot shot as possible, considering he also does have some say in the politics of Sun Village.

But what was funnier was Gajeel's reaction of seeing the giant flame turn into a fire dragon. I wish I could take a picture of it.

"Ah, Natsu, it is good to see you once more." Atlas Flame's voice echoed around the dome. He looked over to the newcomers and continued his greeting. "And I see you brought some familiar faces."

"Huh? We've met before?" Wendy asked with some amount of confusion.

However, I ended up slapping my forehead. "Right. I forgot that was still a thing."

"Forgot what?" All three dragon slayers, including Natsu—to no one's surprise, asked me that question.

Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I answered them. "Atlas Flame travelled through time. He claims he's met a near future a version of Natsu. I think it means he also saw you two somewhere."

"What!? Time Travel is real!?' Gajeel, a guy raised by a dragon to eat metal, asked with obvious disbelief at something he thought was impossible even though his entire child hood was supposed to be impossible by my standards and even the standards of this world..

"It is as dangerous as it is confusing." The flame dragon spoke as he eased towards all of us. "Now then, I sense that there is more to this than just a pleasant visit. For what reason have you come?"

I watched Wendy steel herself and stepped forward. "Um. Mr. Fire Dragon, do you know where Grandeeney is?"

Atlas seemed to pause after hearing the name. "Grandeeney, now there's a name I haven't heard of in a while, and you do smell similar to her." He then looked over to Gajeel. "And you, you smell like Metalicana."

"You know my dragon too!?" I was surprised that Atlas did indeed know who the other two dragons were, even though they were obviously different elements.

"Ah wait, I went off topic there. To answer your question, I do not know where Grandeeney is. The same can be said for Metalicana and Igneel. But knowing them all, they should be somewhere alive."

I spotted Wendy deflate in a way Natsu did after finding out Atlas didn't know where Igneel was. Just like Natsu, she must have gotten her hopes up that by meeting one dragon, they would know where the others would be. Still, it was amazing that Atlas knew of two different elemental dragons.

"Perhaps we're asking the wrong questions." Carla's voice was heard by everyone before all attention went to her. "Didn't you all notice that the other dragons went missing on the same date? Perhaps that means something to dragons, and one of them is right in front of us!"

"Date?" Atlas Flame tilted his head.

Natsu's eyes widened. "Now why didn't I think of that before!? Hey, Atlas, does the date, July 7, X777, mean anything to you!?"

The dragon of flame stilled. His reaction made us all look at him with anticipation. After a few long seconds, he answered, "To me that date passed like any other day. Except that night, something in the air felt strange."

"Strange how?" Natsu asked with obvious interest.

"I remained here that day, but at night, I felt something in the air, a strong sense of nostalgia came over me. … Hmm… now do you bring it up it almost felt like I felt it long before, I just can't seem to explain why though."

"Aww come on, something obviously happened!" Natsu shouted.

"True, but it was so small for me and I remained here that day, so it was easy for me to forget it until now. However, I am more focused on _who_ all three dragons are than when they disappeared."

That caught all of our attention. "Why are you more focused on the 'who' part of the dragons?"

Atlas Flame seemed to look more serious than before. "Igneel, the King of Fire Dragons; Metalicana, the Frontier War Chief of the Earthen Dragonics; and Grandeeney, the Exotic Crossbreed of the Gale Drago. All three of these dragons were known to be major supporters of Co-Existence. In plainer words, they were all on the same side during the civil war of dragons, not just allies, they were all part of the highest circle of leaders along with several other dragons."

The information he had revealed made us all speechless, he was basically saying…

"They all knew each other?" Atlas' reaction was simply to nod at my statement.

"For the newcomers, I can explain more later, but I was always neutral in the dragon war. However, being so close to Igneel allowed me privy to knowledge that not even some of his followers knew." Atlas looked up to the sky, as if remembering that time. "I've always heard rumors, and sometimes, Igneel let a few curious things slip around me—one of them being about a new spell that both Humans and Dragons made."

This was starting to sound deeper than I ever hoped to understand. There was some kind of conspiracy?

"Perhaps," Atlas continued on. "They planned something that might have to do with disappearing in that same day."

The second time we visited Atlas, and he once more revealed some game changing information. The dragons that left the human slayers, they were planning something? But what? And why?

"D-Does this mean," Wendy spoke out first and seemed to look down to the ground. "They didn't care about us?"

That caught all of us by surprise. I realized that Wendy had already been abandoned by her previous Guild of Cait Shelter. Even if they did love her, she was also an unwitting pawn for them, did Grandeeney do the same thing to her?

"You will never meet people who care for others more than the dragons I mentioned. I can tell by Natsu's stories with Igneel, there was no way Grandeeney or even Metalicana wanted to leave any of you, but mysterious circumstances forced their hand. Grandeeney, I am certain, would never do something like that to you if she had the choice."

"Master Roubaul said the same thing..." Oh you poor girl. I found myself kneeling and putting a hand on her shoulder. Really?! Who the hell does that to a little girl, twice!?

I was surprised when Gajeel walked up. "Hey, fire dragon! What you said caught my attention! Metalicana was War Chief of the _Earth_ dragons!? He's an _Iron_ dragon!"

I saw Gajeel glance over to Wendy before me. I saw what he was doing, slowly changing the subject from that dark thought. I appreciated it. I'm really glad he came after all.

"Ah yes," Atlas Flame began with a much lighter tone. "The dragon who I liked to call, Igneel 2.0."

Atlas was quick to turn into story mode, telling us of a lighter tale about all three dragons in one time when Igneel tried to recruit him.

We learned a lot of things, like Gajeel apparently descending from Earth Dragons, which means he might be able to use earth based magic. That sure caught him by surprise as the rest of us-but then Natsu had to go in and make a comment about him eating dirt. Yeah, that didn't go well after that.

Another thing like learning about Hybrid elemental dragons, those that are born of two different elemental dragons. One would think that being born of two elements, a dragon would be even stronger. However, it seems like it's like reverse inbreeding. The elements never mix well together and the hybrids born of two different elements are sickly, weak to the point of not being able to use even either element magic, and die almost a quarter life span of a dragon. This explained why many dragons didn't just do it like rabbits with other elements to create some kind of dragon with over 16 elements, it was impossible for them to do so biologically. Grandeeney is a special case because her mother was born of two different dragons, her grandmother being a wind dragon and her grandfather being a soul dragon. Before her mother died, she was able to give birth to Grandeeney, who was three thirds wind dragon and one fourth soul. Thing was though, she seemed to have access to powers far beyond that of a normal wind dragon.

It was just like Natsu before. Wendy and Gajeel couldn't find where their dragons were, but Atlas was more than happy to reveal stories of who they were before they raised them all.

As they Atlas kept talking, I looked over towards the three dragon slayers. It was weird, I could almost see all three dragons in their kids.

* * *

{A (grand) mother's love}

Kain descended in front of the guild after transforming out of his armor. Yajima had made a call for him due to a sudden cancellation from his new waiters and asked the young man to fill in.

After ensuring the lunch rush was done, Kain sped off to Magnolia and was hoping no one would pay too much mind for him being late.

As he reached the door, a heavenly smell hit his nose. Despite helping out with Yajima, he didn't have his own lunch until now.

The young man opened the main doors and—

… He blinked.

Kain did not exactly know what to make what he was seeing. The displaced young man noticed that many tables were put together, almost like a grand feast.

Indeed, there were many mouthwatering looking food spread across the combined table with many of Fairy Tail's members sitting down and enjoying the meal.

But here was the thing, Kain was wondering why nearly everyone was wearing Victorian styled clothes.

While at a loss for words and even thought, the young lawyer's attention was soon caught on the far left side of the table.

Laxus Dreyar, known to be one of the strongest, most serious people of Fairy Tail and it's Fourth Master, was wearing this massive pink wool sweater with a cat face in the front. The look on his face screamed that he was fine, but he wouldn't mind it if they all suddenly died horribly at that moment. Makarov, the third master and Laxus' grandfather looked almost sick and was also wearing clothes that looked semi-casual with a collared shirt and khaki pants while sitting on the seat nearby him.

The lawyer soon found out the reason for such a bizarre sight in the form of Ms. Dreyar, Makarov's wife and Laxus' grandmother coming in with another prepared plate of food and putting it in front of Laxus.

"Gram, Gram, please. I already ate." Laxus was a proud man, so seeing him near the point of breaking down and crying was a new one for the lawyer.

"Nonsense! My little Lala needs his protein—look at you, almost thin as a twig, you are!" Illana Dreyar was an amazing woman if she could perceive one of the most muscular and largest man in the guild like a starving, malnourished child. Then again, many mothers always saw their children starving. It appears Grandmothers never let go of that trait.

Laxus looked—leered over to Makarov. It was a signal to get her to stop. Makarov could only look away from his grandson's silent plea for help. It seemed like the men of the Dreyar family, despite having been born with amazing magical power, were powerless against the women of their family.

"Makarov, what kind of guild are you running? You have enough alcohol to put bars to shame, but no sign of proper meals with the right nutrients or a kitchen!?" The black haired woman with strands of gray highlights complained before rushing back into a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere and walked right into it. As she slammed the door behind her, the nice looking door seemed to vanish into thin air.

"Oh, I'm not familiar with Mrs. Dreyar's magic. How does that work?" Kain spoke out as he walked towards the two men.

As he made his presence known, _everyone_ in the guild turned their attention towards Kain.

Then came the cries, no the pleas of help heading towards the lawyer.

At such a sight, Kain had only one noble reaction left.

"Yeah, no. Master Laxus, I'm taking one of my paid vacation days."

"Come back here, you bastard—" Laxus could only eat red dust as something sprinted fast out of the guild.

Now, while everyone else was suffering, a little girl with blue hair was giggling at the second floor of the guild.

"Your hair is very lovely, Wendy dear." Illana spoke as she finished what she was doing and handed the girl a mirror.

Wendy, while in a lovely victorian styled dress, cooed in awe as she saw her hair in a french braid. "I didn't know my hair could do this!"

"Now then," Illana then turned to her right to see Cana looking shocked towards her. "I hope you don't mind if I teach this girl how to do the same to your hair, do you?"

"N-Not at all!" The brown haired drink spoke out nervously.

"Oh don't be shy, I promise you I think you'll enjoy it!" The older woman quickly dismissed as she sat Cana down on the chair and went quickly to teaching Wendy how to braid long hair.

A little ways from the three, three more women watched the show.

"Aww, Wendy looks so pretty now!" Lucy, also wearing some of the clothes Illana gave out spoke out with a smile. "But why is Cana so stiff?"

"That might be because..." Mirajane trailed off and seemed to have a sad smile towards Illana. "Well, I can feel what she feels."

Erza was strangely silent, but she too was looking at Illana strangely.

Lucy wondered what the two female S-class mages were talking about until a boisterous laughter caught her attention. The blonde, former heiress looked back and saw Wendy laughing as Illana sand a song to help Wendy tie hair in a braid. And for a second, she didn't see the old woman and Wendy, she saw a young blonde girl and her mother.

"Oh." Lucy spoke out before giving a sad smile. "She is motherly isn't she?"

A mother. Sadly, many in the guild of the younger generation lacked something like that, especially a kind and caring one.

"And there you go, I'm so proud! It's beautiful isn't it!?" Illana spoke as they finished braiding Cana's hair. "And you my dear, look wonderful."

"Huh," Cana was handed the mirror. "Not bad."

It was at that moment that Illana turned over to the others. "Come on, don't be shy. Trust me this is a lot of fun when doing it with people you know!"

The older three girls were polite enough to to walk over towards the other three. Wendy was then led to braid Mira's hair while Cana tried her hand with Lucy. That left Illana with Erza—but the old woman wanted to do a little something extra first and opened up a door to lead the surprised S-class mage.

Erza didn't know what to expect when she walked through the door, but the first thing that popped into her head was farm home.

The living room she went into felt far too much like a grand paretn's farm house out in the boonies, not that it was a bad thing. The furniture and decorations were old, but seemed filled with experience. The fire place was filled with pictures that even though looked lower quality than they do now, still looked as new as they were taken. Behind an open arch, there was indeed a kitchen.

"I never explained what my magic was, did I?" Illana motioned her hand as from the center of the room a wooden chair appeared in front of a table mirror.

"I call it, my Soul Room." The old woman continued as she motioned Erza to sit down and more . "I believe master Precht told me that it was a branch evolution of Reequip magic—in that I can actually enter my own hammer space and manipulate anything inside it. I've used it a few times with Team Ace as I can… well shift my hammer space with everyone in it, but only a few feet. Sometimes we used it to phase through walls and have the guys sneak in while Porcy and I waited for them to give the all clear."

Erza was rather interested to know about Mrs. Dreyar's magic, especially since it was similar to how Reequip magic worked. "Wait, so does that mean, you can make anything here and bring it out back home?"

"No, no," The old woman began as she held Erza's hair. "Whatever I make here, stays here, but I can bring things into my personal pocket dimension and make them work differently. Like say, those ovens in my kitchen: it's an old model, but here I can fit and cook an entire feast worth of food in ten minutes. I can also command needles I bring from outside to create clothes with in a similar amount of time. In short, I can bring materials in here to make them faster and easier than outside, but things I imagine and create here, stay here and vanish if brought out."

Erza was impressed at that. This Soul Room magic was very helpful despite not having much combat purpose—then again, being able to retreat into a mobile safe zone would be actually pretty advantageous.

But the S-class mage was also nervous. This was because, she never really did… girly things with anyone before. And now here she was having her hair done by an older woman. What should she do? Talk back with her, make boy talk? Wait, she was already married—make married talk? Wait, she knew even less about that!

"Relax, dear," It was weird how Illana read her mind—was she secretly a telepath? "I'm not a telepath, dear." Erza was starting to doubt that sincerely. "I've always noticed this guild can bring some of the most amazing fighters and mages, but have near zero social skills with regular people."

The S-class mage sighed. "I wished they all behaved better."

"They all could stand to be a little more behaved. But at the same time, where else can they unwind and be themselves if not here?" Illana began to gather all of Erza's hair. "You have such lovely hair."

"Thank you, I brush it..."

 _Your hair is really pretty._

"Everyday..." Erza trailed off.

 _How about, Erza Scarlet! After your hair!_

Erza couldn't help but think back to that moment, and what it all led up after it.

"It's alright dear," Illana's voice was as gentle as a summer wind. "You don't need to pretend for my sake. Why do you think I brought you here all alone?"

"W-What?"

"Makky always has this stubbornness in taking everything, even the bad things all to himself. He may be one of the most powerful mages in the land, but I also know he's a man who's haunted by his mistakes." Illana began softly as she started to twirl the hair of Erza. "I've seen him do it so many times that I can see it in others as well. And well, the guild does have a nasty habit even up to now with gossip and rumors, such as one with you and an old friend in the last mission."

Erza stilled at that last sentence. However, she felt Illana's alm land on her shoulder with such softness, she almost thought it was a pillow for a second.

"I won't claim to know what's going on, I won't tell you what to do, but I know when someone's hurting." Illana soon finished braiding and even placing flowers in the hair. She then leaned in and gave a hug that was one of the warmest hugs Erza felt in a while. "I may be a stranger to you, but if you ever need help, come to me, and I promise whatever worries you have will stay here in this room and never leave it."

Erza didn't know what to say, but the kidness of her words, the warmth of her hug, and the pain she was repressing from her last interaction with Jellal all broke out like a dam in that moment.

In that soul room, the proud, strong, and amazing Erza Scarlet, cried like a little girl. Luckily for her, there was this old, plain woman—she didn't really matter much in anything like powers or fights, but she knew when kids were trying too hard to be adults.

* * *

{Hallow Night}

It was a busy morning in Fairy Tail. Everyone was preparing for the upcoming Halloween Open Guild Night. It was a time of spooky houses and scary parties.

Fairy Tail offered to open up for Magnolia due to help relief the damages caused by the civil war and Phantom lord War.

However, while preparing all of this, Fairy Tail noticed a lack of someone among their group.

"Hey, where's Kain?" Natsu looked around. It was actually very easy to spot Kain in the guild. He stood out like a sore thumb because of how normal he looked out of every over the top people that hung out in Fairy Tail.

"Yeah, he should have been here by now, he's in charge of organizing where everything is going to be in the next few days and ordering the candies." Lucy also tried looking around to find the young lawyer.

With that idea, everyone soon noticed there was no sign of the normal looking brunette anywhere. It was weird since he was one of the early risers of the guild.

Laxus walked out of the guild master Office and heard the commotion. "Kain called in sick today. So he said he's not going to make it."

Well that was rather anticlimactic—

"But I don't believe him. He was off yesterday, to the point where it almost looked like he was in the same daze after he killed Kero Pierre."

Out of every one of Fairy Tail's past adversaries, that one name made the entire guild of powerful, boisterous mages stunned into silence and fear.

They had fought evil and dark mages before, but Kero Pierre—there was something just horribly wrong with him.

"Now that you mention it," Everyone looked over to Elfman after he opened his mouth. "Last night, I was offering him an invitation to some Halloween dinner, but he suddenly seemed surprised to learn he was handling the Halloween stuff."

That was curious. However, it also brought a lot of worry that the lawyer of the guild seemed changed after a simple few words.

Natsu stood from his seat. "Happy! Come on, let's go get Kain!"

He didn't even wait before bolting out the door. Thing was though, he wasn't the only one worried for their friend. Natsu looked behind him and found many people coming along, besides the rest of Team Valiant, Team Shadow Gear, Elfman, Cana, Macao, and most of Fairy Tail's big core were running after him to see what was bothering Kain.

But here's the thing: Kain now lived in Hargeon. There was also too many people for Ignis to carry, so that left the only way to get to Hargeon quickly was…

The Train.

Erhm!

After _that_ , many of the core guild members were racing towards Kain's apartment.

"Come on guys, it's just a little past here!" Natsu, who was now feeling a little better, or fighting through his horrible sickness for the sake of a friend, ran ahead and pointed towards the corner. "Turn right here and we'll see Kain's apartment!"

As the dragon slayer did so, he then stopped all momentum forward and skidded to a stop. He then turned and motioned everyone else to stop as well.

"Natsu, what's wrong?" Warren Rocko asked as they saw Natsu change from his previous action.

Happy flew ahead and peeked from around the corner. "Ah! There's Kain!"

Many pushed through and were able to peek past the corner, in a way that more than ten people could subtly peek past a corner.

So they sucked at being sneaky a lot.

Even though they were the opposite of subtle, Kain didn't seem to notice, not that he was looking at their direction as he left the main doors and started walking away from his apartment while carrying—

"Is that a bouquet of flowers!?" Juvia suddenly clamped her hands above her mouth as her face heated up, her mind jumping too fast at what that could mean.

Many more were shocked at this revelation, many were confused at this revelation. Some even jumped to the conclusion he was meeting a special someone and skipped on guild work.

"That bastard! Is he skipping out in the guild to meet with a hot date!?" "Kain wouldn't do that—would he?" "Dammit, how the heck did Kain score before I did!? He's plainer than me!" "Oi, and here we all came out for that damn bastard."

Either way, things had changed dramatically. With renewed vigor, everyone stalked the young lawyer.

Granted, many people noticed the group of people with colorful appearances 'attempting' to sneak after the Lawyer. (Only Kageyama would be considered their best at it.) Yet, the object of their hunt did not and bought a ticket to a train—

Yes, another train ride, much to the ire and horror of two accomplished dragon slayers.

But they all followed after him anyway, making sure to go a cart away from the young man from another world.

However, even though they were following Kain… something came up.

"Hey, guys," Max Alaros asked out loud. "Where exactly is Kain going?"

Nab looked over to Warren. "Can't you read his mind so we know where he's dropping off?"

The telepathic mage shook his head. "Even though he's a mage, Kain has a rather strong mind. He'll know if I try and I don't want to startle him."

"Hey," Happy's voice was heard, but he wasn't shouting, he almost seemed quiet and looking out the window. "Have we been here before?"

That caught everyone's attention as they all looked around each other. "Happy, no one else seems to recognize this place." Erza began.

"Hey, Natsu, oh right." Happy started before stopping himself as Natsu was in the process of suffering being back on a train.

However, they all did eventually spot Kain leave the train station. It's just, no one seemed to recognize where they had gotten off.

Everyone stalked after the young man as he started walking down a beaten path.

After a while, Natsu started to gain strength once more and as he looked around the forrest looking area, he blinked. "Hey, this place..."

The others asked him if he knew the place that Kain was going, but both Natsu and Happy still couldn't quite recall why this place seemed so familiar to them.

Luckily for them, their answer came soon as Kain walked down a hill, and everyone could see a small farming village with many corps as far as the eye could see.

"Ah!" Natsu finally recalled seeing the sight before them. "This is the quest I took before going straight to Hargeon because it was on the way there and I was low on money!"

Everyone was surprised to hear that this is where Natsu and Kain first teamed up to fight against a Bubak. But why was Kain all the way here?

Even from where they were, they all spotted Kain heading down towards the center of the town. The town elder from before met with Kain and from up there, the dragon slayers all heard and saw Kain hand the flowers to him. The flowers were for all those the bubak took before Natsu and he came to save them.

When the dragon slayers spoke about this, everyone started to feel a complex set of feelings. The ones who thought Kain was meeting a hot date felt especially bad for thinking a bit more shallow than anything else.

However, what was still surprising was that after handing him the flowers, Kain was heard by the slayers in that he denied a spot of dinner and said he was going somewhere else nearby. The rest of Fairy Tail was surprised to hear that Kain still was actually visiting somewhere else!

They all started to hide when Kain walked back the path…

All the way…

To the river.

The river that Natsu and Happy first saved and picked up Kain from.

They all watched as Kain moved closer to the river and then just sat near the edge of it's base.

"… Guys, you all really suck at hiding, you know that?!" Kain shouted out from his spot, making everyone flinch.

Kain turned around and watched everyone walk over towards him.

"Why are you all here?" The brunette asked before he received an answer as to why they were poorly chasing after him. "I see. Well sorry, but I just wasn't feeling all that well this morning, so I asked for a sick day and I thought about visiting this place. But now you know why I'm here, what about all of you? I could have sworn that you guys were supposed to help out with decorating the guild."

Considering that it was all kinda normal, everyone felt a bit ashamed for blowing it all out of proportion. Eventually, many decided to head back to the guild. Kain just said that he would stay here and fly back himself when he's good and ready.

And so everyone left Kain alone to relax near the river.

…

…

"Yes, Natsu?" Kain turned around as only Natsu was left behind while everyone else went ahead back.

"You're lying."

"… What?"

Natsu went up to his friend and sat down. "You are sick, just not physically. Kain, you came back to the same exact spot I fished you out of the river. The same place I found you, why?"

Kain's face was almost unreadable. However, he sighed and looked back to his murky reflection.

Then he began to speak.

* * *

Last night, I had a nightmare. Somehow, someway, I found my way home. I was running, I was exhausted, but I couldn't wait to see my family once more.

"Dad!? I'm home!"

As I slammed the door opened and shouted that I was home, I was only met with silence.

And the pool of fresh blood that spread across the floor.

I was horrified and I ran up the pool of blood. I ran and ran up the second floor, and with every second, it felt like eternity was screaming at me.

I saw the blood coming out of my room and I slammed the door wide open.

And then… I was back in the guild.

God—oh god. I saw everyone—everyone I loved in both here and my home world. They were all dead, gutted and brutalized with pieces of their corpses everywhere with this frozen look of horror on their heads.

But that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was **him** in the center of the guild, standing over both you and my father, who was half sunk in the pool of blood.

That monster with my face.

" _ **Ķăīŉ, ḿẏ ḇḗḹṏṿḙḋ, ẁḛḽḉṓṃḝ ḢṒṂḚ**_!"

* * *

"I woke up screaming and no longer able to sleep. I really did felt sick to my stomach after that, but because I couldn't sleep, I ended up alone with my thoughts—and that was when the real nightmare began."

Natsu watched as Kain seemed to shiver and gripped his fist tightly together. "Natsu, I've been here in Earthland for almost half a year! Do you know what people in my world think when a person's been missing that long? They can't help but think of the worse! I can't help but imagine my mom, waiting by near her phone, hoping to god or whatever religion listening that I'm still alive somewhere and that it won't be a call from the corner's office finding my body in some ditch; I keep seeing my father, drinking himself away because we had our stupid arguments! Is he blaming himself for letting me vanish? And then there are my half siblings! God—good god! I promised them that I would be the one to chaperone them this Halloween, so they wouldn't be hanging out with their parents because they were in that age where they thought their parents weren't cool. I can't stop thinking about my friends, all of them, while bastards, are some of the most loyal people I've ever met next to you guys."

As Kain kept shouting this, he started to grip his hands tighter and tears started streaming down his face.

"You know what's the fucking worst part!? I made a fucking stupid bet with my best friend. We were drunk, and one thing lead to another, we made a stupid bet: whoever dies first, the other has to wear a dress to their funeral. We made that bet in drunk stupor but we remembered it. I can't help but fucking imagine Jerry in the most stupid neon dress imaginable, then breaking down crying in the corner of the church—god fucking dammit!"

Kain screamed and cursed out more than he ever had since the time he arrived in Earthland. He screamed and hated that he was stuck here, while those he loved was suffering back at home.

Through tears, snot and a red face, Kain looked to the fellow dragon slayer, a person who could beat impossible odds thrown against them. "Natsu, I miss my home."

Sadly, this wasn't a problem he could beat up. This wasn't something that had some kind of speech to inspire.

It was just someone who was dealt a bad hand and that was it, just unreasonable suffering.

Kain could help but cry after admitting that. After everything, his thoughts were of his loved ones back at home, and how they must be worried of him.

Natsu hated it. He hated this feeling—like so long ago when a little boy was crying out to Igneel to stop hiding from him. He never wanted anyone else to feel it.

Yet here it was in front of him, happening to one of his best friends and him feeling just as powerless to stop it.

The memory of Natsu looking up from tear stained eyes, to the shadow of Makarov opening a hand towards him came up. And all he could do was hug Kain in his lowest point.

He silently swore that he would help Kain get home… and if he failed, he would wear a dress for the rest of his life.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **So another short chapter, just a little focus on world building and character development.**

 **I've always noted something off with most Original Characters stories. Besides the usual power fantasy and such, one thing I've always seemed to noticed was that none of them really seem to talk about sad things. They talk about tragic and dark stuff, but to me, I have never actually felt bad about it, it's always felt more like spectacle to me. I've usually felt more sad from children's cartoons when they have their feelings hurt, because sometimes the really sad things are the ones people understand and have been through.**

 **Look, no one is ever going to stop liking these power fantasy fics, I don't hate them and can see what point they have in entertainment. But at the same time, it's always felt so shallow to me. All I ever seem to read is someone always doing better, someone always winning, and well, over time that's not really appealing to me because the fact of the matter is, I will never be that type of person. I'm flawed, weak, stupid, and pitiful.**

 **But maybe, it's okay to be so amazingly flawed. I'm not some overpowered harem protagonist, even though a small part of me wants to be, but I know I'm just a guy who wants to do his best.**

 **And it's why, I think it's important for Kain to cry because he misses his home. He's human, not just some guy adventuring with power.**

 **But enough ranting! Time for something fun! Some spoilers for The Fairy tail Sequel, apparently there's another group of doppelgangers of Fairy Tail. I mean, sure why not? Let's find out what Kain thinks, since this is in no way cannon.**

* * *

{Non Cannon: Thank you Sponge Bob.}

Kain: So let me get this straight. **points at friends.** You guys are Fairy Tail from Earthland.

Fairy Tail: Yep. **Other members agree**.

Kain: **Points to Edolas Group.** Then you people are from Edolas, a different dimension and world all together.

Edolas Fairy Tail: **Also agree.**

Kain: **motions to a new third group.** And then! There's Fairy _Nail_!? Another another alternate version of Fairy Tail where their all celebrities!? Just from a different Continent!?

Fairy Nail: **silent nodding**

Kain: **Bursts into confused rage**. What kind of madhouse am I in!? They're Fairy Tail! They're Fairy Tail Edolas!? They're Fairy Nail!? _**I'm**_ a Fairy Tail OC!? Are there any more Fairy Tail(s) I should know about!?

Fairy Tail Eden's Zero: Friendship!

Kain: … I'm outta here.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Spongebob, I just want to say thank you for letting me express something in memes that no amount of words could ever hope to capture. Also, next up is an original Arc! I do find those a lot of fun to write. I hope you do too. Anyway, see ya guys soon, and thanks for reading and supporting this story!**


	46. Chapter 46

**{Author Notes}**

 **Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, I jut needed a break from this story. That said, I'm a little nervous about this chapter since it begins a brand new original arc. It's going to be a little different—or maybe the same as my other original arcs? I don't know. All I do know is that it's going to be an adventure for all of us.**

* * *

She was supposed to be asleep. She was supposed to have a dreamless night. She slept in her bed and by the time her eyes were open, the sun was up and a new day arrived.

But this wasn't the case. She knew she was asleep, but she felt awake in every moment—eternity—in the black void. It had returned. She didn't remember, but she knew it had returned. She didn't remember who she was, but her soul knew what was coming, and it screamed. It screamed without a word coming out and this paradox and brought the nightmare to return. The nightmare: she saw too much and not a thing. She heard them to the point of being deaf, yet at the same time could never understand a word they said.

But this time? Their words were like sirens, their images where like looking into the sun. She could see them clearly, but she still did not understand.

 _Begin—The Ward—Necklace—Renew—Veronica—Traitor—War—Staff—3— **Shatter—** A promise—A sacrifice—An alliance— **Seal—** Acolytes—Priest—_

 _ **I. AM. FREE‼**_

Then reality came, as abrupt as an execution blade. Éclair No-last-name woke up gasping for air more than a newborn baby. Despite the cold air of her room, she was sweating as if she was in a sauna. Beside her, Momon woke up from his perch and flew to his friend. "Éclair, are you alright?"

"I'm fine Momon." The words escaped her mouth before she could was fully back to her senses. She looked out the window and noticed the dawn peeking past in the distance. "We should get ready to go to the guild."

As Éclair started to get up, Momon was still obviously worried. "It's kinda early though, but why are we going?" He frowned when his friend didn't respond. "Did you have another nightmare?" When the small bird saw the young woman freeze, Momon looked far more concerned. "These nightmares have been getting worse this past month! Maybe we should get some help!"

"Momon, there's no need." Éclair started to get ready for the day.

"But Éclair!"

"We should get ready." The dark colored brunette didn't say much after that. When she was finally finished, both she and Momon left their apartment.

However, there was one problem. When Éclair left her building, she saw something.

There were words in the air. The same words she saw in her nightmares. She looked around briefly, seeing other people walking up early for their work commutes. However, not a single one of them seemed to notice all the words floating around the air.

One of them, almost looked to be written in the name of unknown, but familiar rune.

She could almost read it as, 'Veronica'.

* * *

Even as Éclair tried to ignore the words. The words filled the air around her eyes. Everywhere she looked—it was like the words floating around were a part of her eyes. She said nothing to Momon about this, he didn't want to worry him and she also did not understand what was going on.

But something was amiss. Her heart felt like it was beating harder than before and the words were starting to sound like her nightmare, even though she was sure she was wide awake this time. Even though she was in Fairy Tail the words started to whisper…

 _The Star Falls—The Prison Weakens—The Gates Will Burst Open—!_

"Good morning, Éclair, Momon. You two are early today? You want to start off with breakfast? I can ask Mrs. Dreyar to cook you a batch?" It took Éclair a second to hear Kain's words over the whispers of the floating ones.

"That," She paused and thought about it. "Does sound like a good idea. I think I'll take that offer."

"She's in the— _land of the sacred temple and scarred battlefield_!"

Éclair shook her head. The voices overlapped with each other and she couldn't hear the simple answer. "Sorry, where did you just say?"

Kain pointed over. "She's behind the bar counter with Mirajane." Kain— _this young man wields the weapon of the stranger!_

The amnesiac moved faster than she wanted to, moving away from Kain as the words were no longer whispering, they were shouting at her. Someone stood in her way briefly, and the amnesiac was forced to look up to someone she'd rather not meet.

"Uh—hey there!" She'd rather listen to the nightmares than Kageyama currently standing in front of— _The Seal Must be Renewed!_

The words were no longer passive, they were screaming even louder and more of them started to appear. Éclair got what she she wished for in grief and the words started to blind her and change right in front of her.

 _ **When the Night from 500 grand moons appears, so too the prison cast to ward away his greatest acolyte.**_

She couldn't take it anymore. Éclair suddenly felt something take hold of her body. This didn't sound like a scream—whatever it was it sounded inhuman.

तुम **मेरी अणुकोशिका** **,** **देवी के अंश को रोक नहीं सकते । अपनी सील टूटता है और जब यह विफल रहता है** **,** **तो अपनी दुनिया के लिए । मैं अनंत की दुनिया में प्रवेश करेगा चिल्लाती है और खून की एक बाढ़ कि दुनिया में बपतिस्मा देगा मेरे मुश्किल विजेता के साथ नए सिरे से ।**

The foreign words were like nails to a chalk amplified to every fiber of her being. Not being able to take anymore, Eclair collapsed, falling into darkness—and confusion. After a second of darkness, countless images she didn't understand flashed before her. Yet all of them felt familiar to her, causing this one word to appear that gave a feeling that she had not felt in the longest of times.

Home.

* * *

Many of the guild that was there crowded into the infirmary. Wendy was tasked to come early to help heal the fallen girl since the other medic of fairy Tail lived a fair distance away. However, before Wendy could even use her magic to check up on Éclair, the amnesiac in question got up from her bed, screaming bloody murder and scaring everyone else that was in the guild. It took the amnesiac a second before seemingly realizing that she wasn't in her bed and looked to those who were still in the guild at the time.

While everyone else was scared, Mrs. Dreyar was first to put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Are you alright? You gave us all quite the scare."

All eyes were currently on the girl with no past. Yet as Éclair gathered her bearings, she finally noticed the words that were haunting her this morning were gone at last. But it was more than that, for the first time in a while, she remembered something—she actually had a memory and it was of some kind of elevated Temple in a country called Veronica. She knew there was a nearby country of the Principality of Veronica, which meant that a clue to her home had finally revealed itself to her.

Éclair carried herself as if she was on a mission that must be completed. She walked out of her bed and marched through the exit, with many doing nothing but staring in confusion and walking out of her way.

Momon and some others tried to ask her what was wrong, but the girl seemingly didn't want to talk to them and instead moved towards Laxus. The fourth master of Fairy Tail remained silent as the other bar maid walked up to him and looked him dead in the eye.

"Thank you for accepting me here when I lost my belongings. However, I must formally quit this job."

Laxus was one of the few people, who didn't react or scream in surprise as Éclair said this. Instead, he unfolded his arms. "Is there a reason why you're quitting after what almost looked to be a stroke?"

"It is… something personal." Or more than likely, it was the first personal thing she's had in a very long time. Something that might tell her as to why she barely recalls anything but traveling with no destination. "I don't know how to explain it."

Laxus remained silent, but he could see in the girl's eyes there was no telling her no at this, and he had a feeling this was as equally important to her.

"I see. Thank you for your service here in Fairy Tail. Since you're an employee and not a mage, there's no reason to give you the farewell creed."

At Laxus' words, those that were there started to voice their dissent. However, the current leader could only speak louder to silence everyone else. "We're a guild, not a foster house. Anyone here is free to come and go if they so wish."

Éclair seemed to be the only one who had relaxed after hearing that. "Thank you." She spoke softly before starting to walk away.

Momon, on the other hand, looked very panicked and flew over to his friend. "Wait! What are we doing!? Where are you going?"

"Momon, we've stayed here too long, it's time to go." Éclair said while still making her way to the door.

The small flying bird stayed still in the air, looking back and forth between his friend and his new friends he came to like.

"Hey bird!" Everyone looked over to Laxus as he turned towards them. "Just a reminder: now that both of you are out of the guild, if you ever need a job, come to us and we'll accept it right away."

Momon tilted his head slightly at the strange offer. He wanted Éclair to be safe—wait a second! Momon's eyes started to widen and he opened up his beak. Éclair stopped and wondered what the words of that guild master meant, but when she realized the hidden meaning of those words, it was too late as her friend bird started to speak. "I have a quest! I want Fairy Tail to protect Éclair!"

The girl in question was about to say something, but much like how she ignored most everyone when she got out of bed, she was ignored as Laxus turned back to the rest of the guild.

"Who here accepts the quest from this client!?" Laxus yelled to the whole guild.

The response was nearly everyone raising their hand and shouting that they would take the quest.

Makarov, who was sitting at the bar counter, stopped his drink and gave a smirk over to Laxus. "Oi, bratty grandson, when did you get so sneaky?"

Laxus scoffed at the hidden accusation: that even though he was letting Éclair go, he wasn't letting her go alone like that. "What are you talking about, old man? I was always this smart—I had to be hearing nothing but complaints on your paper work."

"Wait, I can't accept this—"

"I'm sorry, miss, but you weren't the one to make this quest claim," Laxus turned to a rather miffed Éclair. He then turned to Momon, "Only that gentleman right there has the ability to rescind the quest."

Momon shook his head. "No! I'm worried for you Éclair! These nightmares aren't normal! And I don't like how you've been acting these past few days! You might get hurt!"

The dark haired woman wanted to argue, but Momon was obviously the one person she couldn't bring herself to argue with.

"Fine, but I don't want all of them to come." Éclair narrowed her eyes towards the group of mages that were currently looking over towards her and Momon.

Laxus lifted his hand to make a point. "They can't anyway, the maximum amount of mages from a single guild that can take a quest is ten anyway." The Thunder Dragon Slayer raised his voice for the rest of them to hear. "Alright, only ten _mages_ can go with our Clients. So who's going?"

"I AM!" Natsu shouted out as he stepped on the rails to ensure his participation. However, everyone was surprised at this, not at Natsu, but at the fact that someone else screamed to participate with almost equal—but perhaps more energy than the loud Fire Dragon Slayer.

Kageyama stepped out from the crowd. "I'm going!" He added after speaking the same as Natsu.

Eclair let loose a long sigh. Of all people, it had to be the actual criminal here.

"Hey, if Salamander and Kage are going, then I am too!" Gajeel rose his hand and walked out the crowd and towards the center of the guild.

To some, they were rather surprised to hear the Iron Dragon Slayer mention Kage as a friend, even more so when the two shared a nod of understanding with each other. The sharper, read as 'small minority', members of the guild did notice that Both Kage and Gajeel did hang out with each other when the Iron Dragon Slayer joined. They probably had a lot to talk about since they were technically both previous enemies for Fairy Tail.

"Okay, I want you three!" Momon pointed a wing out towards the three while still being airborne. "Oh, I like picking—I wanna pick more! I want Bisca, she's nice to me!"

The green haired mage sniper blinked in surprise before holding the tip of her hat. "Alright then, I accept the offer!"

The power to choose seemed to get into Momon's head after that. This was mostly because his eyes widened like a child in a toy store and he pointed with zeal towards another person. "I choose you!"

Max Alors blinked and pointed at himself. "M-Me?" It was starting to look like Momon was simply choosing for the heck of it now as not many people noticed those two ever interacting.

Momon went on and pointed over to a different direction, showing by now he was indeed choosing just for the sake of choosing. "I choose you!" He pointed over to Lucy before moving his wing again. "I choose you!" Then of all people, the bird pointed to Nab Lasaro before shifting his wing one more time. "You!" His wing went over to Wendy. "You!" Levy pointed at herself in confusion at being picked for this, but Momon just went on. "And you look cool, you can come along!"

The last person who Momon chose was someone not known to be a part of Fairy Tail's main core.

His name was and is still, Wan Chanzi. He was slim and of average height, he had a long face, and a mildly long neck. He had almost fully shaved black hair and a small arched mustache above his mouth and a stubble on his chin. He wore sunglasses and had a dark, high collared zipper sweatshirt with a cute dog t-shirt underneath it. He also wore jeans with piano keys styled to his right legging.

Wan Chanzi stared—he might be blinking in surprise though no one could tell behind his sunglasses. After a few seconds he nodded once.

"And that's ten! Let's go everyone!" Momon pointed towards the gates of Fairy Tail.

"Alright!" Laxus stopped the excited bird from getting carried away. "You all were chosen. Get ready to prepare and then get going."

Éclair found herself sighing once again and put a hand on her head. As she looked up towards the ten mages, she couldn't help but feel that these people look so out of place after being brought together.

This couldn't possibly get any worse.

* * *

Everyone could hear the sounds of train whistles go off, along with that of engines beginning their movement down the tracks. The Train Station of Magnolia was as busy as it always was, and around a dozen people were already walking in with a fair amount of luggage.

"So, we're going to the Principality of Veronica for this?" Nab Laraso looked away from the ticket in his hand that told their their destination.

"That's where I need to go." Éclair moved a bag over her shoulder and started walking to their train.

"E-Eclair?" Lucy spoke up to the girl while trying to catch up. "Why do you need to go there of all places?"

"I remembered something?" She didn't sound so sure of that before she shook her head. "I remembered something. There's something in the Principality of Veronica that's a clue to my lost memory."

"You lost your memory?" Max Alaros looked over to Eclair before everyone turned to him. "What? I'm not always in the guild!"

The dark brunette haired woman sighed. "I've been traveling for a long time, but I don't really remember where I'm from. This morning, I had a flash of something from my past, and I believe it's in Veronica."

"By something, you don't mean that sudden collapse, right?" Of all people, Kageyama spoke out. "That doesn't really sound healthy."

Eclair's response was only to glare back, which made Kageyama shut up again.

"Anyway, since there's all of us together, we should have a leader, and I nominate myself!" Gajeel huffed with pride.

"Heck no! I should be the leader, I'm the strongest one here!" Natsu called out and it wasn't long before the two literally bashed heads against each other trying to take claim to the leadership of these group of mages.

Bisca looked over to Levy. "Hey, maybe you should be leader, you're already leader of Team Shadow Gear."

Lucy overheard this and clapped her hands together. "Yeah, I think Levy would be great as a leader!"

The small blue haired girl flinched with nervousness at the suggestion. "I-I can't control those two!" She motioned to the 'two' being Natsu and Gajeel already looking like they were going to battle right then and there.

However, a voice came in from outside the group. "Leave that to me." Everyone else turned to the voice and watched the owner walk past them, only to get between the two powerhouses and sling his arms around their neck. Both Dragon Slayers were surprised, shocked, and then started to pale as they realized it was Kain who had brought them together. They usually aren't even afraid of the slightly smaller young man, but there were times when he gave off this uncanny smile—like right now—that made their dragon sense blare and tell them that they were in danger.

"Natsu? Gajeel?~" His sing-song tone only made both dragon slayers feel goosebumps in their skin. Kain turned them both around and started whispering something to them. When he did that, everyone else turned to Wendy, who they knew to have dragon hearing and other heightened senses. To their surprise, Wendy seemed to be tilting her head in confusion.

Lucy was the one asking what they were all thinking. "Wendy, can you hear what Kain is saying?"

Wendy raised her brow but looked up to Lucy. "I don't know some of the vocabulary he's using. W-What's Bank-rupt-cy mean?"

Wendy's only response was Lucy looking away nervously and patting her head. "N-Never mind that." It appeared everyone else didn't want to know what their lawyer was doing to some of their stronger mages. When they did that, Kain turned around with the older dragon slayers, who looked as if they had their souls sucked from their now lifeless bodies.

"Kain," Levy began, ignoring the pale look on the dragon slayer's faces. "Not that I'm not glad you're here, but _why_ are you here?"

Their brunette smiled. "What are you talking about, Levy? I'm just on another paid vacation week, because my job allows me a lot of those! I just so happened to buy a ticket to where you all are going; a funny coincidence, isn't it?"

Lucy gasped after hearing that. "So that's why Laxus earlier expressed only ten _mages_ could come. He was secretly telling you to go with us, didn't he?"

"Well, he didn't say, but that did basically meant he wanted me to come along with you guys because I am your lawyer." Kain explained. "Now come on, let get into our train. It's a bit of a shame Erza left with Ignis on a solo mission yesterday."

And with that, their group was now finalized. A mismatch of people that don't really know each other as well were tasked to escort and protect an amnesiac girl who seemed to be hunting for her home.

What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

Kain was watching a rather… well, he didn't know what to call it really. He was placed in the same booth with Gajeel and Natsu, seeing as he was the only person in the group who could actually calm them both down. However, seeing as they were in a train, there wasn't really a need for him to do so. This was due to the fact that both Gajeel and Natsu were now slumped into their seats like rag dolls and struggling to exist at those current points in time. He was sat across from them and with Wendy, who he noticed seemed a little red. "Are you alright, Wendy? I was worried if Natsu and Gajeel were this sensitive to vehicles, you'd be too."

"I'm a little dizzy, but I'm fine!" Wendy tried to say. "Besides, I can use a spell that can make my motion sickness go away if it gets too bad." As the thought came to her, Wendy realized she could do the same for her older 'seniors' and looked over to them. "I can cast it on you two, if you'd like!"

"Y-Yes please!" It seemed Natsu struggled to even put one word out of his mouth and nothing something liquid like.

"Ha!" Gajeel's laugh would have been more intimidating... if he wasn't hanging on to his arm rest for dear life. "You need the spell of another and not your own power to overcome this, Salamander?! You're weak! I can totally handle this!"

He really couldn't. Especially with how he was shaking more than a chihuahua trapped in a rotating washing machine.

However, to Kain's annoyance, Natsu's ego was threatened and therefore, he then refused Wendy's sensible action of letting him be hit with an anti-motion sickness spell.

Kain shook his head and sighed, before placing a hand on his forehead. "Pride cometh before the fall."

Funny enough, the train they were on made a sharp turn. The sudden motion of the vehicle caused the older two dragon slayers to fall into the floor like unwanted toy dolls.

Kain decided that this was going to be a time for a valuable lesson and looked to the little girl beside him. "I was being metaphorical, but let that be a lesson, Wendy: don't be as stubborn as these two."

From the booth across Kain and the Dragon Slayers, Bisca, Wan, and some of the 'sidekick' animals watched the whole thing.

Carla stated with a huff. "Look at them both, so uncouth!"

However, Momon raised a wing when hearing that comment. "Ms. Carla, it's really not nice and rude to judge people for their personal flaws."

Carla looked to the bird and the realization of someone calling _her_ rude was somewhat of a wake up call. Especially since it was indeed a rather rude thing to do herself. "I apologize for that statement then. Thank you for being civil about it."

"It's alright, I know you care!" Momon smiled to which Carla could only blush and look away from the bird.

However… that action… well… there was someone right behind the bird that really didn't appreciate it.

"You lower-than-scum feathered rodent!" Happy whispered darkly and with murderous intent the bird and other cat didn't notice. "How dare you encroach to Carla!"

Behind Happy, Bisca was starting to sweat at the murderous aura the blue and usually carefree cat was emitting from his person. She began to panic when Happy stopped and slowly turned to her. He then somehow whispered to her, "Hey, Bisca? Do you by any chance have bird poison?"

The answer is no. The answer to that will always be no from now on, but Bisca for some reason couldn't bring herself to say it. Instead, she found the courage to try and change the subject instead. "By the way, I don't think you guys have met a friend of mine hat travels with me. I'd like to introduce him to you all now that I have the chance." The green haired girl reached for her hat and took it off, revealing a small mouse that popped out of the gun woman's hair and jumped to the cushioned seat. "Everyone, meet Sonny! He's an old friend of mine."

Bisca motioned to mouse with heart shaped patterns to the cats and bird—which in retrospect, would usually eat mice like him. Luckily, or unluckily, Momon acted first. He raised his wing to wave and gave a friendly smile to the mouse. "Hello, Sonny, my name is Momon!"

"A mouse?" Happy looked more surprised than hungry—which Bisca supposed was a good thing. "Hey there, I'm Happy!"

Now, the reason it was unlucky was because Happy was a cat. Since cat and mice, even in a magical world… have… differences… Sonny panicked at the sight of the blue cat and ran up to the other source of comfort in the seat—that being Momon. "Oh don't worry about Happy, Sonny! He's a little weird, but he's super nice!"

Bisca was slowly realizing she had made things even worse with how Happy looked frozen, but his right eye lid was twitching upward. Somewhat desperate, she turned to the other human in her booth. "Wan, by any chance are you good with animals?" Technically, Bisca was good with animals, but right now this was a little out her league.

Wan was hard to read because of his glasses and nearly silent persona, but even Bisca could get the message when the glasses wearing mage shook his head once.

Bisca wished she was in another booth.

In another booth, Lucy, Levy, Max, and Nab were all talking about something more serious.

"I know it's weird, but I was told that she's been traveling longer than she could remember." Levy then took out a map of the Principality of Veronica then pointed to a city they were heading to. "This train is heading towards the City of Vilish. It's a town around the same size of Magnolia. According to Eclair, the hint towards her home is in this old city that dates back to the Kingdom of Veronica."

"Anything specific?" Nab asked.

"She just said," Lucy paused. "Something about a temple?"

Meanwhile a few booths ahead of the rest of Fairy Tail, Éclair stared out the window. There was nothing but endless desert, but as she stared out, she almost felt something familiar passing through the endless nothingness.

"Sooo?" The dark haired brunette looked to her right to see Kageyama standing beside her booth. "You're finally going home. That must be nice."

The amnesiac decided to be quiet.

"Though I gotta admit, being able to forget about your past, I kinda envy it."

All though he was trying to make small talk, Kageyama wasn't expecting the girl to turn so sharply at him with a glare that was far worse than usual.

"Having to question who you are every waking moment, having the sense of doubt and mistrust at your own mind each passing second, always knowing that you are incomplete, and having the fear of never regaining what I once lost has plagued me about my amnesia, and you have the gall to be jealous?"

Kage tried to shake his hands. "N-No! I didn't mean it like—!" The poor guy didn't get a chance before the amnesiac brunette walked up form her seat and walked out of the cart.

The shadow mage sighed and sat back in his booth, where the ancient robot of Wendy was sitting in a slightly cramped manner.

"I don't suppose you know how to talk to girls so they won't hate your guts?"

There was a low beeping whine coming from the rust and mossy robot as he tilted his head.

"Yeah," Kageyama sighed and looked out his window. "This is going to be a long trip, I can tell."

* * *

Fire is one thing, heat is something a little different. Heat isn't usually dangerous, but too much of it can cause problems. For example, when Fairy Tail and their clients left the train station of Vilish, they were hit with a heatwave, the sun that was akin to being baked alive, and a humidity that caused even Natsu to start to sweat.

Kain, before he came to Earthland, had always wanted to travel the world. When he came to the Principality of Veronica, he supposed it was the closest thing to going to India he could pull off at the time. The streets, weren't actually streets but mostly paved and worn out dirt roads. The buildings all were modern like, but also looked as if they were there for decades and had been worn by extreme weather and dust storms. People were filled to the brim in narrow streets and Bazaars lined up every few feet. Scattered across the city, where temples that seemed to have stood the test of time and the earth, and everyone could see a giant temple that was placed in the center of the city, that looked more like tower of stairs with some statue placed in the center.

"It's sooo hooott!" Lucy complained as she and Wendy hid behind Pla because the tall automaton was the closest thing they could use for shade. Lucy looked over to Levy, who had a glowing rune on her cheek that she read as, 'feeling-cool'. "Levy, please make a rune like that for me too!"

"Hey! I want one too!" Bisca and Max also added along while poor Wan seemed to be sweating already to the point of looking soaked.

"It takes too much time to make these!" Levy seemed to squirm with all attention on her.

"Oi quit it! Leave her be!" Gajeel shouted out despite sweat coming down his large eyebrows.

"He is right, guys, give Levy some room." Kain added in to which more people were inclined to listen to. "We can all stop by a store and buy some climate appropriate clothes like a shemagh or was it a turban? Maybe even a hijab? Just stick together, it'll be easy to get lost here." It didn't take long to convince everyone to at least go to a nearby clothes shop for the area to prepare better for the weather.

However, as they made their way, Éclair looked back towards the stair temple at the heart of the city.

 _Dance…_

She shook her head and followed after the rest of them.

* * *

Some wore hats, some bought some turbans, but many in Fairy Tail were wearing loose fitting clothes that matched the style of the city. Yet, as Fairy Tail started to travel the city, they did start to notice that there were many other tourists as well, and that the city was lined up with posters of the same star like picture that seemed to be falling from the sky. They were all curious about this, so Kain walked up to a nearby salesman and asked what the festivities were all about.

"Oh! You came here and didn't know? Your timing must be amazing then friend! You see, the country of Veronica is old, so old that wars and sandstorms have buried most of our history." He then explained further. Because Veronica's history was lost, all people had left of their ancestors were their temples that littered the city, and their mysterious practices that even the oldest of them can't remember what they were really for. Among their long-lost practices, was something they called the 'Moon Dance'. It was a dance that scholars and historians theorized it was some kind of ceremony of praise to their ancestors' old gods. The meaning was long lost, but they were able to keep and pass down the dance itself and many found it to be beautiful and alluring.

"Tonight is going to be a special Moon Dance ceremony." The salesman told them. "Because magi-astrologists say there's going to be a comet seen falling across the moon during our festival! They say it's falling right now, but it's slow moving and you guys can see it when the sun sets."

"That does sound pretty interesting. Éclair, does that ring any—" Kain turned around, as did the rest of Fairy Tail. When they did, they all saw the distinct, lack of Éclair in their group.

"Éclair!? Where'd you go!?" Momon cried out before flying in a panic in any direction after his friend.

"Momon!" Lucy cried out but the bird was already moving.

"Everyone, stop!" The rest of Fairy Tail looked to Kain before he pointed back to Momon. "Happy, Carla, Kage, follow Momon!"

There wasn't time to argue as those who were called did as they were told. When they were lost in the crowd, Kain spoke up again. "Natsu, Gajeel, even Wendy. Can any of you three sniff Éclair out?"

The dragon slayers took a second to try. However, none of them perked up after that second. "It's no good," Gajeel spoke first. "The place is filled with strong smells, exotic perfumes, and really good smelling food. It doesn't help I'm also hungry." Gajeel mentioned.

"Yeah, even the fire smells good because it's cooking food." Natsu obviously agreed with Gajeel.

Yet even with that, Kain was quick to act. "In that case, let's split up into a group of four. Lucy, Levy, Bisca, you guys try to search the western parts of the city. Nab, Wan, and Max, you take the north. Natsu, and Gajeel, I swear to heck, I'm going to regret this, but you guys hunt for her at the eastern part of the city—but just so we're clear: if either of you start a fight and break things unnecessarily because of something that isn't related to the safety of Éclair, we will have _words_ and _economic planning_."

The two dragon slayers gave a weird reaction. They both laughed with all the authenticity of fake gold, and gave thumbs up signs before agreeing to Kain's words.

"And that leaves, Me, Wendy, and Pla to search the southern parts of town. "We'll meet up near the train station we came from if we find her." He waited for everyone to nod once before speaking again. "Okay, break!"

And with that the four groups were off. However, Levy in her group gave a deep sigh that the other two girls noticed.

"What's wrong, Levy?" Lucy asked her friend.

"Well, it's just you guys said I should be leader, but Kain pretty much took charge there."

"I'm sure he didn't mean to belittle you, Levy." Bisca added in.

However, Wendy shook her head. "No, no! See, when Éclair went missing, I was so overwhelmed, and when Momon started to run away from us, I froze up! It's actually a really good thing Kain was here otherwise, I don't think I could have handled it as well as he's doing right now."

"Don't be like that, Levy! I'm sure you'd make the same choices too!" Lucy tried to say.

Levy was silent, but it seemed like she couldn't really see it. In fact, she was recalling back during the Isle of the Undead, she was so out of it, Jet had to be the one to talk her down—Jet of all people! (No offense to him.)

Bisca looked up ahead and tried to find their friend. "Let's find Éclair and make sure she's safe."

* * *

Sadly, their search proved fruitless as the sun had already set and the main Moon Dance festival was about to begin.

"Where could she be?!" Momon looked around with carrying levels of worry and stress. "We've been flying around the place and there's no sign of her!"

Kageyama appeared and rose up from a shadow. He looked around the area before looking up to the sky. He did see a slow moving comet inching closer to the moon, but he still saw no sign off—wait. There are dancers ascending the stairs near the center, large temple. He recognizes the back of one of the dancers! She always turned her back towards him nearly every time they encountered each other!

"Guys, follow me!" Kage yelled as he started pushing through the crowds.

Meanwhile, the familiar Dancer had already reached the top of the temple, performing a dance that felt akin to coming home after what felt like centuries. The other dancers did their thing, while Éclair, swept away by something she could not explain, continued to dance closer towards the center statue: a many armed deity wielding an orb above their head.

She gracefully pranced towards the statue as the comet crossed the center of the moon that night. A shadow was cast over the orb, and some kind of spot light was seen coming from the old crystal. Éclair was able to end her dance under this small spotlight of the crystal, letting the light hit her necklace.

However, as the light hit her necklace, something was off. It started to glow green before it started to glow with a red X, a spell that remained from Gomorah, the Lich some time ago.

The magics clashed, and a red light was reflected back at the crystal and caused it to crack.

 _No!_ **YES!**

The dancers all suddenly stopped and gasped at the sight. Kage appeared from the shadows, followed by the other flying sidekicks and ran up to Éclair and called out her name.

At that moment, everyone in the city could see something amazing: the slow moving comet froze at the center view of the moon. Then, it started to unfurl, crating some kind of symbol like that of a spider with a skull on it's main body that was encompassing across the moon. As it did, the moon—then the sky turned blood red. If that wasn't enough, the deity statue cracked right down the middle, and shattered into so many pieces, that it looked like sand. The cracked sphere started to change color to match the red symbol marked over the moon.

Everyone in the city started to panic. All across the city, Fairy Tail had this strong urge to run straight for the center temple of the city and did so post haste.

But that was not the worst of it, the dust of the broken started started to rise and spin together in a miniature tornado. But instead of expanding, the dust of the statue was all condensing together, forming that of a human body.

As the spinning stopped, the body was formed, he was towering man of seven feet tall, completely bald and of dark tanned skin from the intense sun. Even though, he was bald, they all could see blood-colored markings all across his skin and written over his face and skin. He wore some elaborate, long black robed patterned with a red spider across his torso.

Under the blood red sky and stolen moon, this man forged from the dust slowly opened his eyes… all _**three**_ of them.

As Kain ran towards the center of the city, he could hear the distant cries and screams of panic. He couldn't stop this horrible feeling at the pit of his stomach—something that told him that this was going to be worse than all previous already deadly and dangerous adventures before.

And all the young man from another world could say was…

"Oh great, here we go again!"

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **And here we go folks! Welcome to this new, Original Arc!**

 **Actually, I need to tell you guys that this arc is actually the First Fairy Tail movie, Phoenix Priestess. But I call it an original arc because I completely and utterly re-wrote everything about that movie and practically only kept the characters Momon and Eclair in it.**

 **That's right boys and few gals, this is my take on the first Fairy Tail movie!**

 **You're all also wondering who Wan Chanzi is. You all may think he's an OC, but surprise surprise! He isn't! He's actually one of the background characters in the Manga who has a small page dedicated to describe who he is. If you look at the cast of mages for this adventure, I'm really, really focusing on all the looked over characters and giving them time to shine.**

 **This arc, is going to be a dozy I really wanna thank you all for supporting this fic.**

 **Oh before I forget, I do have a rough translation for what I (translated) from a sight hopefully a little more accurate than google.**

*(You cannot stop my acolyte, fragment of the goddess. Your seal breaks and when it fails, so to your world. I shall usher in a world of eternal screams and a flood of blood that shall baptize the world anew with my scions victorious. **)**

 **Thanks for reading, have a great day!**


	47. Chapter 47

Under the blood red sky and stolen moon, this man forged from the dust slowly opened his eyes… all _**three**_ of them.

"Oh that is just all kinds of wrong." Kageyama muttered as he took a step back with Éclair and the fliers. However, as he did, this dust man turned all three eyes towards them, which prompted the other dancers to flee down the stairs.

The tri-eyed man made a step forward, but his foot hit the cracked crystal orb that was left behind. He kneeled to pick it up. Yet as he rose, black sand started to float towards his hand and surrounded the cracked orb. The sand covered the crystal orb, turning it into a color similar to fresh blood. The sand formed a three pronged scepter—or rather, three claws held on to the orb while the staff part looked barely longer than the length of a cup and seemed broken off.

The man spoke, and it was like hearing the voice of a king of lions, not that of a man. "Where are the other pieces of my staff, chosen sealer?" As he said this, he looked directly at Éclair who seemed frozen with fear.

Kageyama learned his lesson with Horus and used his shadow magic to catch everyone and get out of there before the three eyed man could even use his magic.

The three eyed man stepped forward and behind him the black sand started to form that of a centipede that was the same size of twelve story temple. The man jumped atop the black sand in the shape of a centipede that wrapped around the length of the temple. He looked across and saw all of the city. "Time has passed and changed my home, yet my hatred for it has only grown in what only feels like a moment for me."

His third eye on his forehead, one that was black with a white pupil glanced down, and made his normal two eyes follow the view. It was a shadow that was quickly darting away. The three-eyed man raised his free hand not holding a broken off staff. " _Dust form the world without life, go fly and tear through the skies like that of thunder's knife!_ " Black sand from the construct rose beside the sealed sorcerer and then sailed through the skies with speeds like that of the end of a whip. Three tendrils of black sand did something no one else expected, they dug into the moving shadow like it was water and they pulled Kageyama and the others out of his spell.

"What the hell!? That shouldn't be possible!" Kageyama tried to attack the black sand that now entrapped the five of them. However, it was made of seemingly sturdy stuff and the energy of this bizarre black sand felt… wrong to him. As if it wasn't even meant to be here in this world. However that was the least of his worries as the black sand started to pull him and the others back towards the mysterious three-eyed man.

The man atop the centipede construct looked to his left where a stream of steel and fire blasted the tendrils and exploded, freeing those captured by the black sand.

"Over here!" He followed the voice to two young men smiling even though the sky was stolen.

Natsu and Gajeel both walked up and sized up the giant black sand construct along with the man atop of it. "Hey, Salamander, didn't the brat say that we're not allowed to hit anything unless it threatens the other serving girl?" He pounded his fists together.

Natsu swung his arm and moved his neck around. "Yep! And that triclops over there is doing just that!"

"Which means..." Gajeel took a fighting stance with some of his skin hardening and turning to steel.

"Which means..." Natsu repeated as he took his own fighting stance with his fist forward and lit aflame.

"IT MEANS WE CAN KICK YOUR ASS!" Despite the fact they were obviously facing something with a large amount of magical pressure, and ridding atop of something that would intimidate or even traumatize most sane men, Natsu and Gajeel ran with energy akin to children racing for their morning christmas presents towards the new unknown baddy.

Yet, the tri-eyed man saw that Kageyama was taking the chance to escape once more with Éclair and the others flying behind him. He wasn't going to let them go that easily, but instead, he made his move, jumping off from the centipede and landing with a stomp before rushing for the incoming dragon slayers while the black sand construct gave off an unholy sound before chasing after the moving shadow, bursting through buildings as if it wasn't there. This forced the dragon slayers to take their incoming opponent seriously if he could fight even when his construct of something that magnitude was still capable of chasing Kageyama and the others.

Gajeel moved first, jumping to the air and firing a sword variant of his dragon slayer fist. The punch—turned into a long range sword stab raced to the face of their opponent. But the man pushed forward with his palm and the black sand shot out and caught the point of the blade and pushed back with enough force to send Gajeel sailing backward. Natsu raced forward though, getting in closer to his opponent—yet the triclops was able to get an overwhelming amount of black sand to surround and attempt to swarm the flame dragon slayer. Yet, Natsu smiled and slammed his hands together, shouting out one of his only defensive spells, Burning Ward. Before the sand could over take him, an orb of fire surrounded him and instantly repelled the force of the attack and reflected it back to the three eyed sorcerer. Natsu didn't let up and rushed forward to deck the man in the face while he was staggering from the rebounded force.

Natsu's fist made contact—but it was like punching air. The piece of the tattooed man's face shattered and exploded into the very same black sand he was using and avoided Natsu's enflamed fist. Natsu was caught off guard and his momentum made him keep moving forward, only for the triclops to form into sand and slip behind Natsu and press a reformed palm at the back of the pink haired mage's head.

There was s pike of magical power coming from the palm that Natsu had no time to react too—but then there was a pillar of metal that crushed the sorcerer and blew away Natsu from the force of it landing. With a roll, Natsu looked back up to see Gajeel regrouping with him.

However, even crushed by a one of the same pillars that destroyed the original guild building, black sand started to fly beneath the pillar and the black robed man's body started to reform. It started reforming from the bottom to the top and even though the legs formed first, it was shown to be walking towards the dragon slayers until the two Fairy Tail Dragon slayers noticed even after their attacks, the sorcerer didn't even look annoyed by them.

"What the hell is that kind of magic?!" Gajeel took another fighting stance, but this time his excitement was gone, and a little part of his brain was starting to warning something was horribly wrong with this opponent.

"If I have been forgotten by time," The sorcerer spoke with a low tone but kept his glare at the two dragon slayers. "Then I shall repeat my name so this land may remember my fury and the fear I succumbed it to so long ago. I am Arjuna, the Apostle of Mahika—He Who Is The End."

The name, 'Mahika' had a reaction both Dragon Slayers weren't expecting. They—they both felt like that name was familiar to them, but they felt an overwhelming sense of danger in that name.

"My soul is free from the seal that sailed the skies of beyond, and I return to ensure this wasteland becomes more barren than it already is!" Arjuna broke into a sprint. Gajeel and Natsu both powered up—Gajeel with his Iron Scales buff and Natsu with his White Flame mode to face this new threat, hoping that the chill of fear was just nerves and nothing more.

* * *

"It's still chasing after us!" Momon, Happy, and Carla flew in the air while Kage followed them through a shadow. However, the centipede construct was just ignoring everything in it's path to get them, granted, nothing in it's path like vehicles, stands, or even buildings could do anything but fall to the grand construct.

The centipede gave off another inhuman sound before tendrils from it's antennae shot out for the shadow blob with both Kageyama and Éclair still inside it. Learning his lesson from before, Kageyama jinked left and right to avoid being pulled out of the shadows again by the black sand. He then went to try something and broke off from the three fliers. His suspicion was confirmed when the construct raced after him and ignored the three fliers. This was both a good and a bad thing. A good thing because Momon, Carla, and happy were now safe. Bad because the centipede had increased it's speed and intensity of attacks meant to fish Kage out of the shadows.

One of the tendrils was about to hit it's mark—until it was shot by a high impact bullet. Kage jumped out of the shadows with Éclair and landed nearby Bisca, Levy, and Lucy.

"What is that!?" The blonde cried as she turned into the star dress version of Sagittarius. However, unlike before, it was far more practical now: with boots, pants, and green tunic—similar to actual hunting gear. Regardless of her new style, her bow and arrows were still the same. When Lucy let loose and arrow, it split into over a dozen arrows and seemed to impede the centipede. However, it wasn't enough as the giant construct rushed for them. Carla and Happy swooped in to pick up Bisca and Lucy respectively while Kage this time used his many shadow hands to pick up Levy and Éclair and move out of there like a spider.

"Whatever it is," Kageyama yelled as Momon flew nearby and he and the others avoided more tendrils aiming for Éclair. "It's not stopping chasing after us!"

"Not to mention it's huge! The amount of magic this thing must be putting off is insane!" Lucy cried out.

"Guys, we can't lead this thing towards other people evacuating the city!" Levy cried out. "We need to change directions!" A tendril sped right for the blue haired script mage until an arrow and a bullet shot it down.

"It's going to be hard to avoid something as massive as this!" Bisca screamed while she and Lucy continued to fire bullets and arrows at the incoming tendrils that aimed for Kageyama. The centipede roared and rose up somehow. It was then that all those being pursued realized that it's body was shooting up to the sky—then started to fall down right on them with it's massive body encompassing their entire area!

"Shit!" Kageyama had no choice and grabbed everyone before descending into the shadows. When he did, the centipede construct performed a massive body slam into the area, and caused the ground to shake along with a powerful shockwave that completely blew away whatever building was nearby.

Inside, Kageyama's shadows, everyone could see only white outline versions of themselves. However, soon, they could see red outlines of the tendrils now chasing fast after them—it was like a dozen or so back in the surface, now it was like hundreds of tendrils racing for all of them. The Shadow mage acted fast, pulling everyone and moving fast. However, the red tendrils were all combining and slowly catching up to Kage's speed.

Kage raced upward, hoping to find a place he could release everyone that wasn't under the centipede construct, but with him dragging everyone along with him at his max speeds his stamina was draining faster than he wanted and the sea of red was catching up even faster.

One of the tendrils had shot ahead of the rest and pulled on Éclair's leg, stopping Kageyama and by proxy snagging everyone else. Everyone panicked when they saw the color of red about to wash over them—

Something white—like a dove—flew past Kageyama with the speed of a hawk and exploded with light between them and the red energy. A second later, everyone was expelled out of the ground. Instead of hitting the hard ground, they were all caught by small sand storms that eased them all into standing.

"Are you alright!?" Nab, wielding his totem staff, walked to the rest and was followed by Wan and Max.

"We saw a massive Centipede body slam a good portion of the city then Nab's necklace started to glow and out jumped out a spider and a dove!" Max pointed over to Nab who indeed have some kind of shadow being in the shape of a spider was perched atop Nab's right shoulder. A second later, out of the same ground everyone else came out off, a bright white being in the shape of a dove landed on the other shoulder.

"Barsookum lùek, Nyame? Anasi?" Nab spoke in some unfamiliar tongue to the two creatures on his shoulder before looking back to the others. "That attack they used to pacify the construct won't work a second time. The spirits here are telling me with need to get out of here. Nyame here was only able to disorient that old magic—it'll come back and chase after us in a few seconds!"

"We can't out run it though!" Momon cried out. "And if we do, we might make that beast head towards any civilians still evacuating!"

" **Bishulak-krum** **ä** **viatirare!** " The two beings atop of Nab's shoulders stared barking in strange tongue. They all didn't need to understand what they were saying as in the distance, they could hear and see the giant centipede starting to move again.

They were all starting to panic. They couldn't keep running through the city forever, and they couldn't escape well enough—especially without the others. What could they—

"I-I have a plan!" Levy screamed before everyone looked to her. She was gasping for breath, looking somewhat scared, but she inhaled and looked to their shadow mage. "Kage, Éclair, I'm going to ask a lot, but can you guys buy me three minutes baiting that thing in circles away from other people!?"

"I'm a little winded, but I think I can pull it off." Kage declared.

"Okay, everyone, support Kageyama and Éclair! When, I'm ready, I call you through this!" Levy threw something with her magic at Lucy, who caught it and saw that it was a physical word known as 'Link'. Levy then ran away and not a second after, the Centipede started to move towards them with the same ferocity as awhile ago.

"You heard her, everyone, let's go!" Max cried out before everyone raced away.

Levy ran past the corner and took out something from her purse. There was no way she could do what she was about to do: create a large Justsu Shiki large enough to trap the colossal construct. At least, if it was her normally.

Against her deeper feelings, she fished her purse and found what she was looking for.

It was a blue runic dagger.

It was Kero Pierre's blue runic dagger.

It belonged to the madman that almost destroyed Magnolia with little effort, and little magic, but horrifying efficiency. Levy recognized it as the blade that almost killed her friends.

When they finished the Fantasia Parade, something caught the script mage's eye while passing by an alleyway. As she pushed past some ruble and trash, she saw her reflection on the blue dagger. She recognized instantly what it was: her first thought was to throw it into the sea, never to be seen again. However, as she reached for it, something felt like it was clicking into place something that was long lost. She then looked closer at the dagger, and found out something she couldn't believe even though it was right in front of her. The dagger wasn't a blade, it was composed of many interwoven and overwritten runes!

The entire dagger blade was created entirely of miniature words!

Levy had spent the next month studying the blade, but the more she studied it, the less she understood! The 'dagger' itself was impossible, tying together almost a million or more script magic spells all together, but never activating unless the user wills specific words into what it stabs or cuts. Levy consulted many forms of books and even advice from Master Makrov, but she couldn't figure out how Pierre could create something that was so above her concept of what her type of magic was capable off! She loathed to admit it, but perhaps Pierre might have been the most brilliant script mage in the entire world. But this dagger was the key for her plan: Justsu Shiki that would have taken months to make, can be done in mere minutes with the help of this dagger.

However, it did come with a draw back. It was obvious the dagger was so in tuned with Pierre's magic as he was able to summon and even move rune scripts at will. Levy found out the blade could 'harmonize' with a script mage's magic. The bad thing was that she could never figure out what this 'harmonizing' process was, only that it existed and without it the blade would simply be a simple dagger, unable to access the man script spells locked inside.

What she did find out was the blade had a back up option. It just required 'ink' to make the words and writings she wanted.

Levy reached an area that the Centipede had broken through. It was large, empty, but it would be the perfect place to set up her trap.

She held the blade up. She stared at how it seemed to glow, how it was like it was alive like it's former master, laughing a laugh as destruction and chaos was around it. It felt like she was about to make a deal with the devil.

But here's the thing, lives were at stake if she didn't. She needed 'ink' for the blade to write: the blade needed **blood**.

Levy slid the blade into her palm and with a slit, felt her skin sting. The blue dagger started to glow and Levy stabbed the tool into the ground. As it did, she quickly tried to bandage her own wound with her own magic and watched as the blade created script she never saw that seemed to write itself faster than any other script-base mage ever could match.

She sighed as she saw the seal she wanted start to form and opened up her 'link'. "Lucy, I'm done! Get everyone to this area!" She picked up the dagger and wrote 'fire works' in the sky above her. Not a second later, the words shot up and exploded with light, much like the ones in the Fantasia Festival.

It didn't take long before she could feel the familiar rumble of the construct centipede. However, now that she was standing still, she could now feel like something like a mobile earthquake coming right for her. A split second later, everyone came flying through and Kageyama picked up Levy as they all crossed the script line.

The centipede rushed after them—then slammed into a barrier created by Levy's Justsu Shiki. The creature gave another inhuman roar as it tackled the barrier, causing the earth to rattle under the force as it continued to bash into it repeatedly. As it did so, the line that Levy created started to expand and write itself faster, racing fast to encircle the whole length of the giant centipede. Even though the barrier seemed to be working, the being didn't seem to stop, it started to attack the barrier, sending out tendrils to attempt to pierce through the barrier, but even that didn't seem to work.

"D-Did you do it?!" Kage asked they watched the Centipede make no progress in attempting to break through the barrier.

"Yes!" Max clenched his fist and threw it into the air. "We did it, great job, Levy!" As he and everyone turned to the blue haired girl, they noticed instead of accomplishment, the girl was gasping, even cupping her hands over her mouth.

"Levy? What's—" Lucy looked back to the barrier and saw what had caused that reaction. The Centipede was no longer trying to break out of the barrier. Instead, it was now trying to _climb_ over the barrier. It started to raise it's body, climbing higher and higher, as it did, the intensity of the barrier looked weaker and weaker.

They all hear the sound of wolf howl and saw Wan Chanzi making one incredible bound to the sky. His hand started to glow until they formed to that of steel wolves. The height of his jump allowed him to be directly over the black construct and at that point before his fall, he slammed his two hands together—and with a burst of magical energy his two hands formed together to form a giant wolf head made of electricity. The wolf head gave a howl that sounded like a storm before descending down on the climbing Centipede.

The force of the attack knocked over the creature back into the barrier. However, there was a problem: Wan landed _inside_ the barrier trapped with the Centipede. The centipede started to reform itself, making it face down the silent Fairy Tail member and rushed head long for him. Wan didn't really have any space, and summoned his giant wolf fist again that clashed with the giant construct. However, not even one second in and Wan quickly fell on one knee buckling under the clash.

He barely had nay time left!

"Levy, get him out of there!" Max cried out, only for Levy to start running up to her Justsu Shiki.

Nab held on to a different skull in his necklace as he saw the Centipede reform and now face down Wan. "We need to assist him! Alliyorum-BoraĶum, sariekmian, Ole!" Nab slammed his staff. The dove and the spider flew back into his skull necklace while something seemed to appear in the ground beneath the staff. Something opened up the ground beneath Wan and swallowed him whole, letting the Centipede rush into the barrier and then get repelled back with the same force. The earth opened up again and Wan crawled out along with a being of brown light in the shape of a mongoose.

" **Yukiroin bazdamurrakka?** " The mongoose looked to Wan before tensing into a stance when the Centipede got back on it's legs. The beast rushed for them once more, but the spirit stomped it's tiny foot and the ground in front of them turned to quicksand, making the large beast sink it's legs into the earth.

Levy rewrote some of the runes, allowing an opening to appear behind Wan. "Wan, get out of there!" She cried out as the glasses wearing mage did so and sprinted out with the mongoose not to far from him.

With the obvious earth spirit not there, the earth returned to normal and the centipede didn't hesitate to rush for the opening. Levy was fast on the script and forced it to close and made the barrier shrink around the creature. This time, it couldn't climb up anymore and the beast thrashed and thrashed.

"This is the end!" Levy focused the magic and stabbed into the runes with the dagger one more time. When she did, they all watched as the barrier became smaller and smaller eventually stopping into a small orb half the size of a baseball and then being shattering into more harmless dust.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the creature finally go down.

"Guys!"

The rest of Fairy Tail turned to see Kain, Wendy, and her robot guardian, Pla head towards them.

"Sorry we're late! Wendy and I had to help the local police secure the civilians' escape!' Kain spoke as he looked around. "I saw the giant Centipede—where is it?!"

"We took care of it!" Max huffed with pride before saying, "With all of us working together, we beat it!"

Kain and Wendy seemed impressed. Yet, Kageyama pointed back to the temple. "Wait! Natsu and Gajeel are fighting the guy who made that centipede monster! We need to help them!"

There was another explosion, and out of the ruined buildings, Natsu was seen rolling on the ground like a skipped stone and landing with a horrible groan of pain.

"Natsu!" Lucy and Happy cried out before running up to the fire dragon slayer. Before Wendy could get to healing, everyone, even the non-magic users could feel a dark chill in the air.

From where Natsu was thrown from, the dust started to settle. Arjuna was seen, walking through the parted clouds as his hand clutched Gajeel's skull while the steel dragon slayer seemed to weak and pretty beat up.

"Gajeel!?" Levy and Kageyama screamed before Arjuna tossed his body over to Fairy Tail. Kageyama acted fast and used his shadows to catch the former Phantom Lord mage and place him next to Natsu.

Fear gripped the hearts of all the current members. Natsu and Gajeel, some of their heaviest hitters, barely made a single scratch on their opponent! Not only that, he was the one who made a single construct that had drained so many of their stamina and resources! Who was this man to them!? Or rather _what_ was that thing standing in front of them that looked like a man?

Arjuna then pointed over to Éclair. "Hand over the chosen."

"We won't let you near our friend!" Lucy cried out before taking out a gold key, "Open, Gate of Leo!" In a flash of light, Loke appeared in a stylish pose and his eyes closed.

"You called, Lady Lucy—" As soon as Loke opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of Arjuna. His eyes widened, and his jovial nature switched 540. "You!"

Arjuna eyed Loke with some amount of interest, "One of the Celestial Spirits. I suppose your kind is still around." Yet he still sounded the same as before.

"Lucy, everyone!" Loke whispered but he made no move to turn away from the three eyed man before him. Still that didn't stop the fact that his fist was trembling hard. "We need to run, now!"

"Are you sure, Loke?" Bisca aimed her sniper rifle right towards the head of their opponent. "There's only one of him and almost a dozen of us!" All she needed was one shot, and maybe she could end this here and now, but even then a piece of her wasn't sure with how Gajeel and Natsu were defeated and how Loke seemed to be almost begging them all to run.

"And you there," Arjuna spoke towards Nab of all people, not seemingly listening to the conversation between Fairy Tail. "Are you a shaman?"

Nab only remained silent as the mongoose earth spirit, Ole started to hiss. " **Likkruandium barsuk jirakmeñ!** "

Arjuna made no reaction to what was some kind of threat or insult in the spirit's tongue before pointing to Gajeel and Natsu.

"Those two. I do not know how, but they wield the magic of dragons. I know time his cruel, but fate seems to have a strange sense of humor." Everyone was confused as to why Arjuna said that, everyone but Loke. "All that's missing is… him. But then again, he hailed from a different land. Who knows how much his place has changed when I do not even recognize my home land." Arjuna's third eye looked over to Wendy, causing the girl to squirm and freeze under it's gaze. "You also are touched by a dragon, are you not?"

Kain stepped in front of Wendy and powered up his armor. "Back off!" The red rider exclaimed as he brought out a red blade and the Omni Tool as a shield—

"That shield!" Arjuna spoke as all three of his eyes widened and he took a step forward—which made everyone take three steps back. "I know that shield! It's form can be changed, but I recognize the same weapon that ran through my heart centuries ago!"

Kain was getting a very, very annoying sense of déjà vu. "I really wish I gave this weapon back to Erza." He whispered to himself.

Arjuna pointed to Kain. "An armored warrior from afar wielding the same weapon! You must be Horus' descendant!" Kain didn't have time to deny that as Arjuna threw his hand to the sky. "Now, fate's cruelest joke is completed. All those that played a hand in my defeat centuries ago now have their descendants and replacements stand before me!"

"What did he just say?!" Nab cried out before they felt the earth start to shake even worse than when the Centipede was chasing after them.

" _Hear my cries from across the prison of the land! Her me O deity who shall smite all of man!_ " Thunder boomed across the red sky as the three eyed sorcerer began to chant.

"That's a lost spell chant!" Levy cried out before everyone else fired a long range magic attack on the man in front of them. However, all of their attacks were warded away by a barrier that seemed to come out of the cracked orb from the broken staff Arjuna was wielding.

" _Your servant beckons and walks your path! Bring forth the aids who represent your wrath!_ "

As he shouted out the last word, the ground shook even worse and in the distance, more giant Centipedes made of black sand burst out of the ground like daisies—only far more gigantic and infinitely more destructive.

Fairy Tail paled at the fact that now there were even more monsters that took nearly everyone to take down only one!

Arjuna then pointed towards Fairy Tail. "If you will not hand me the chosen, I will claim vengeance for the sins of your past blood!" As he exclaimed this, all of Centipedes surrounding them rushed right for them without any trace of stopping.

"Kain, Levy! We could really use a plan right about now!" Max cried out as he could hear the sounds of what felt to be a thousand giant legs stampeding right for them, it was almost as loud as everyone else's heartbeat.

Sadly, the two in question were drawing blanks—until from above an energy blade fell and planted itself between Arjuna and Fairy Tail. The black light energy blade then multiplied and circled all o Fairy Tail before a figure fell from the sky in a brown cloak and slammed his hands together.

In a flash of black light, all of fairy Tail and the stranger disappeared and the centipede giants all crashed into one another and formed a tower of black sand.

Arjuna remained silent at what had happened before him. Instead he looked down in his hand, where he held the incomplete staff and the black crystal. He turned around and beneath him another, bigger centipede started to move and carry him away from the city.

"Fine, it does not matter. I will finish what I started so long ago." Arjuna breathed as he brought and left destruction in his path.

* * *

A second later, in the middle of the dessert, next to a small oasis, all of Fairy Tail appeared out of thin air, accompanied by black blades that were now disappearing, signaling the end of a mass warp spell. They all watched the cloaked figure turn to them and even though this stranger saved them, they were all very wary of this new person.

"I see some familiar and new faces! It's truly great to see Fairy Tail again!" The cloaked figure spoke with hand gestures that showed that the man seemed familiar with them.

Everyone looked between each other before Kain stepped forward. "Who are you?"

"Oh right!" The cloaked figure began. "It's me—" He didn't get to finish as everyone heard the sound of a dog barking.

They all turned to see an English Sheep dog running up to the cloaked figure and looking rather happy at the return of the cloaked figure.

"Wait a second!" Lucy gasped while Levy and Kain's eyes were widening. "That's Audolf, The Shepherd Bronze Spirit! Which means!"

The figure laughed and rubbed the head of the dog before pulling off his hood, revealing the familiar, red haired, blue eyed zombie: Jeremiah Archibald the Seventh.

The smile of the fresh faced undead faded and with a sigh he told them, "Well, Fairy Tail, your ability to land yourselves in trouble might have put all of you over your heads this time."

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **This is the first time, in a long time that I was able to finish a chapter a day after posting the last one. Unfortunately for those reading this, a week or more will have passed before I'm ready to post this.**

 **We get to see some returning characters and references from previous arcs like Jeremiah from the Isle of the Undead and a reference to Pierre from the Civil War of Fairy Tail Arc! Some of the things I built up has been leading up to this arc, even though it's an original arc, it's somewhat pivotal to the whole story of Muggle Among Mages as is the next arc. That's why it's adding from previous arcs onto this one.**

 **I also thought it was a cool idea to 'buff' Levy up for this arc. Originally, I didn't even plan her to be in it, but the more I thought about it at the last second, the more I thought that maybe it was time for her to develop more than just Gajeel's love interest. (Not that it's bad mind you. I just thought well, some things can be developed more.)**

 **Wan Chanzi of course is having his time to shine as I've given him more screen time than all of Fairy Tail Cannon and Fanfiction combined!**

 **Whoa, wait. Did I just break a record?**

 **If someone else in fanfiction or anywhere else in other sites have Wan Chanzi in their story and play an important role, I'm all ears—heck I'd probably read it and bookmark it. If not, I think I did just make Fan Fiction history here in Fairy Tail.**

 **So yeah, one of my reviewers made a review that really showed me his passion for mythology. Guestic 2, your review made me smile. However, I am currently mixing some amounts of Egyptian and Hindu influences for this arc. But I am definitely keeping your suggestions for a potential future use. I appreciate reviews based on mythology!**

 **And with that, I'll sign off for today. Next time, we get to see what's really going on in this arc and the cause of it all.**


	48. Chapter 48

Campfires were supposed to be fun. Granted, being alive and not crushed to death by giant magic centipedes was considered to be fun at least in comparison to the alternative. Still, it was hard to feel joyous even under a clear and normal night sky under the cool weather of the desert night because of why all current Fairy Tail members where there.

Jeremiah, the fresh looking Zombie that some had not seen in a while, sat down as everyone gathered around his make-shift campsite. He looked over to Loke next to him and offered a hand. "I want to say, it's an honor meeting the leader of the Celestial Spirits."

Loke gave a smile. "No please, the honor is all mine when I finally get to meet Sir Audolf's partnered human. Your legends are passed down to all celestial Spirits."

There was a blush coming from the zombie as he put a hand behind his head. "What? That doesn't sound right."

"No it is! You inspire the bronze spirits and even the gold spirits that they can be more than what they were designed for! Master Audolf is seen highly even by the gold spirits for his accomplishments you and he had done!" It was weird to see Loke fanboy towards a man of all people considering he had a 'record' with women.

Kain made the sound of him clearing his throat. "I really do hate to interrupt pleasant bonding, but I think it's time to get down to business: what are we dealing with?"

The mood shifted again as Jeremiah seemed to take a second to collect his thoughts. He then looked over to Éclair and said, "Have you even wondered why Gomorah was after you specifically in order to revive his dead loved ones?"

As he asked that question, everyone could only respond with silent thinking.

"I didn't say beforehand because we were all focused on getting home and me handing over some of his work over to you. When you all had left and I made my way off the island, I suddenly realized that I forgot to explain why we aimed specifically for this woman here."

Momon looked over to his friend then asked, "Why did you aim for Éclair?"

Jeremiah eyed the girl with intensity before speaking. "It's because she's immortal. Gomorah needed an immortal body as a basis for his family's new body. He happened to find out about you, miss."

Everyone was shocked at the dropped word.

"I-Immortal!? You mean, someone who can't die!?" Lucy gasped out what everyone else was being surprised about. Even Éclair couldn't believe something said about her, and she was so desperate to relearn about her self!

"T—That can't be true!" Kageyama yelled.

"Yes, because a Lich doing centuries worth of magic and research and preparation so obsessively to the point of reanimating dead mages like us would be wrong in calling someone else immortal." Jeremiah may have been sarcastic, but his string of logic was indeed true. Even Kageyama witnessed the ancient and raw magic used by Gomorah, The Lich. Heck, even when he was trying to undo his revival spell, it was the first time he saw magic constructed together in that fashion. So it stood to reason that his claim may not be as outstanding as he thought to be—especially considering what had just happened almost an hour before.

Éclair raised a hand to her chest. Her eyes seemed to show that she had millions of questions running through her mind, but only two words came out of her mouth. "How? Why?"

Jeremiah hummed and put a hand on his chin. "Perhaps that was a bad place to start this conversation off." He then looked over to Loke and said, "You should start things off, Master Leo, you and the Celestial Spirits did play a roll in the history of this country."

Everyone looked over to Loke who seemed deep in thought and stared at the fire. After a second, he stood up and looked to his friends. "Before I begin, there's something all of you should know, just like Aquarius, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, and Pisces, I too was one of Lady Beatrice's friends and partners. So I knew her and fought with her and by proxy, Master Horus a brave and noble knight."

That was a small surprise, the ghost that Lucy fought had six keys etched into her weaponry. She didn't know around half of her current spirits worked under the beautiful celestial knight. However, with how Loke still seemed to hesitate, it seemed like there was more he wanted to say.

"Are you alright, Loke?" Lucy asked her friend.

"Sorry, it's just this is kind of a huge secret among the Celestial Spirits, but in order to stop Arjuna, you all need to know. I just ask that you keep this secret with you all to your graves."

A secret? One that even Loke was hesitating to speak about? What secret was it?

"See the thing is that even though 'I' know of her and remember her, we never actually met." Everyone was horribly confused at the wording of that sentence.

Jeremiah seemed to be the only one who wasn't confused and spoke out, "In other words, Master Leo's previous incarnation knew all this, not his current one."

Kain's eyes widened. "Wait; did you just say _incarnation_ , like reincarnation: the process of being born again in a new body? Are you telling me that Celestial Spirits reincarnate?"

Everyone looked with equal amount of shock and confusion at Kain before Loke gave a soft laugh. "Can I just say it's really nice to see someone pick up things so fast especially since I'm not always that good at explaining things? Yes, the Celestial Spirits, especially the gold ones, have the ability to reincarnate."

"You know!" Kain pointed. "I was always confused to the fact that even though you guys were said to be spirits born during the early days of Earthland, all the gold spirits I've seen and heard off seemed far too young when some of Lucy's silver spirits look older!"

"You reincarnate!?" Lucy cried out in shock since she didn't know that! "I was told Celestial Spirits were immortal!"

"We are immortal, but we aren't eternal except maybe the King." Loke explained. "The reason why I'm telling you all this was because it was my previous incarnation's memories that I'm going to use. I'm going to use a spell that will allow you all to see his memories through his eyes and when I do, you'll all notice that I was a different man all together. I didn't want you all distracted by this to understand the threat we're now all facing."

Everyone looked at each other before they all gave a silent nod at what was to come.

Loke understood what needed to be done. He created a golden sphere and fired it into the camp fire. It then exploded, encompassing everyone in a golden smoke that soon surrounded and blinded everyone.

* * *

"Sir Leo, drink before your tea gets cold." They didn't understand what they were looking at. All they could see in front of them was Beatrice of Horus' army. Except currently, she wasn't in her military uniform, she was in extravagant victorian red dress.

"I just don't understand why you drink something so… bitter?" The voice that came out of the person sounded nothing like the Loke they knew. It sounded, gruff, old, and as deep as the ocean floor. It took everyone a second to see a massive hand—that even had thick gold fur on the back of it to bring up the tea, and even though the liquid was shaking, many could see themselves looking back at a man that had hair growing all over him like a lion's mane.

"That's why I offered you sugar cubes to the side." They all saw the point of view of this old Loke look down on the cubes of sugar."

At that moment, someone wearing what looked to be soldier gear stepped into the balcony the two were sitting in. He stomped and saluted. "High General Beatrice! Lord General Horus has urgent news! There is an invading army through the north and he request you and your forces for back up!"

"Finally!" The previous reincarnation of Loke screamed as he stood up fast, and tipped over the table. In one instant, the table and all of it's contents froze mid air before carefully being placed to the side with Beatrice looking slightly annoyed. "A battle! Tell lord Horus, we shall be there post haste!"

The green haired celestial mage looked over to the soldier. "I swear this kingdom is just a hotspot for everyone to invade! Last week it was the navy of the Stella Isles, which army is attacking us this time?"

"It not an army, High General! It's a large swarm of giant black centipedes that we've never seen before!"

"What?"

"Oh ho!" Loke huffed his massive chest. "Now that's interesting! Come, Beatrice, summon the others and lets enter into the portal stone!"

The memory played forward, and through the old Loke's eyes we saw that he was now in a war council with many familiar soldiers that Horus used against Fairy Tail such as Flora, the Ice Princess, Oberon the Arms Master, and some younger looking Celestial Spirits Lucy didn't quite recognize outside of Sagittarius and Aquarius. Kain noticed that a lot of the army seemed based of Egyptian themes like those looped crosses and other such symbols. They also had the same color scheme as the Magic Council, which did make him wonder if he was technically looking at the Magic Council before it became the Magic Council.

"There's far too many of them. Everyone one we break, seven more take it's place, we've never lost ground so fast." Horus spoke as they looked towards a map of the area. The map was magic as it animated symbols and forces together. However, it soon showed an overwhelming and almost tidal wave like number of black pieces swallowing the blue pieces. "What's more disturbing is that these centipedes seem to be made of material we've never seen before."

At that moment another soldier came in and saluted. "Sir, word from our scouts. Several neighboring kingdoms and countries are all under attack by these swarms. It's not just us under siege."

"It's not just us?" Oberon looked around in confusion.

"Soldier, have you pinpointed where these attackers are coming from?" Flora asked the messenger.

The soldier stepped forward and touched the map it zoomed out and the soldier pressed on a country north of what the people of the present knew as Fiore. "It's a Country called Veronica, it's nothing but desserts there though."

"There has been nearly nothing from them even during all these wars raging across Ishgar. Was that country just bidding it's time to perform such a mass scale invasion such as this?" Beatrice spoke up. "A great strategy on their part."

"No, I don't think that it's them even though it's coming from them." Everyone looked to Horus before he elaborated. "When I first encountered the attackers, it was because we had seen a distress signal from a fleeing nomadic tribe from this country. The country is deeply rooted in it's tradition and religion and some of the survivors kept calling the centipedes, "Servants of Mahika" —basically a god of malevolence and death. I was skeptical at what they were telling me, but the amount of magic behind this massive, swarming army, and the way it almost feels otherworldly… there might be some truth to what they're saying."

"What, you saying an actual god has appeared in Veronica? Gods are just what our ancestors used to explain what everything else was happening to them and justification to have kingdoms and power over others."

"Careful Master Oberon," The old Loke spoke up. "My King is technically a deity himself and he very much exists."

"You're Celestial Spirits, you didn't ask to have some religions made about you." Oberon shrugged his shoulders.

"Considering how I almost died against the king of machines, I don think we should dismiss any lead." Horus brought the attention back to him. "The nomad's elder taught me that 'items touched by moonlight' can ward away Mahika's servants."

Beatrice raised her brow. "Items touched by moonlight? What do they mean by that? I doubt it's us since most of us do go out and walk under the night sky."

Horus took out something from his pockets and placed it on top of the map: it was a silver coin.

"Veronica values Silver more than it does gold for those same religious reasons. When some of the Centipedes attacked the nomad group, they seemed frightened and scared of silver. When a braver man brought a silver blade to cut one of it's massive legs that very leg exploded and the creature gave off a cry of pain."

"So these things have a weakness then? Silver? Why haven't we been using them earlier!?" Oberon raised his brow.

"Oberon, we're a small kingdom, and silver trade is not one of our kingdom's defining traits. I already tasked the Queen with gathering all the silver she could and forge them into weapons. There's only enough for around 200 hundred soldiers against these overwhelming numbers." Horus then gave a long exhale. "That brings me to the crux of this war council."

He then motioned to the map and it started to change. There was this huge, flashing—like that of a sonar— circle in what looked to be the center of Veronica. "We've detected a massive spike of energy here, which even some of our best agents have deduced is the direction these bug bastards came from. I tasked some of our portal masters to set up a siege point as close to the center as possible."

"I'm sorry if I sound like a broken record, brother, but are you trying to tell me you want us to storm a stronghold we don't even have an idea of what it looks like and know even less about it's defenses; also that is no doubt filled with even more of these annoying bastards than there already are; then finally only counter attack with two hundred soldiers?"

Horus was silent for a second before giving a few quick nods. "Pretty much."

"HAHA!" Oberon laughed and slammed a fist to beat his chest. "Then count me in!"

"A wondrous plan, Lord Horus!" Loke agreed as well as he chuckled. "This battle shall no doubt be legendary!"

Although he said that, although the generals all seemed rather interested—showing that a piece of them were all lustful for challenges—Horus kept a solemn look. All of those in the present could tell, there was something more to this, he didn't know what it was, but he could tell it was bothering him.

Horus then smiled but shook his head once. "Alright, gather forty of you best soldiers and meet me at the Warp Stone Gate in 1800 hours."

And with that, the memory started to change once more. Fairy Tail watched as Leo saw the 200 soldiers be armed with silver equipment and stood in the front line along with Horus and the other High Generals. They passed through a massive blue tone gate and entered into something that made Fairy Tail's previous encounter look nothing more than a preschool bully.

The first thing they saw was something akin to a sea—an ocean of black giant centipedes surrounding the same temple that the others found Arjuna in. Only, the structure wasn't actually a temple—it was some kind of living monstrosity that felt stolen out of HP Lovecraft's works. It looked to be the shape of a the same stair temple, yet instead of stone there was some kind of bizarre organic skin over it with two eyes the size of houses floating on each side. Atop of it was some kind of light that was shooting up towards the sky...

If that wasn't surreal enough, back with Fairy Tail, when they encountered Arjuna, they saw the moon stolen and marked with a red spider.

Here? There was no moon, the beam atop the tower moved upward and where the moon should have been, in it's place was some kind of… tear through the fabric of time and space where the moon should have been. It seemed to lead to some black and white place… wait. They weren't looking through a place.

It was a giant eye—similar to that of Arjuna's only it looked to even dwarf the size of a whale even though it was so high up in the sky.

They eye looked at the entire army, before the two giant eyes glanced over to them. Horus chanted some kind of spell before a silver dome shield appeared cast over his small army. The instant he did, a barrier that looked to be made of a river of blood erected itself between Horus' army and that of the temple.

"Whatever they're doing," Horus turned and screamed to his men. "We cannot allow to happen!"

They all agreed. No longer was this air of cockiness or thrill-seeking. There was something wrong with this—all of this. And if they ignored it, it would mark the end of more than just their lives and kingdom.

Horus dropped the field and sped first towards the barrier of blood, Fairy Tail watched through old Loke's eyes as he turned the Omni Tool into a silver sword and stabbed the river of blood. The silver disrupted the barrier, turning it into the color before it exploded. However, when they did that, all eyes of the temples and the swarming Centipedes froze and moved all towards their direction.

Horus' response was to point his blade at them and place on his helm. "No more."

Horus charged, as did everyone else in a battle cry as the Centipedes rushed for them. Fairy Tail watched the older Leo make an impressive leap nearby Horus and with a single punch, knocked back one of the centipede constructs right into the others. His eye caught something and he pointed over for Horus to see.

"Sir Horus, look beyond the monstrous tower! There are other barrier walls of blood!"

Horus performed a single slash that cut a dozen Centipedes in half—really showing how much powerful he was at his prime when it took around ten Fairy Tail mages to deal with just one of those creatures. "If the barriers reacted like that to us when we arrived—that means we might have others like us trying to stop this! Well spotted, Sir Leo! But we're all too far to go all the way there and use the silver weapons to break them."

" _You don't need too!_ " Beatrice's voice came through a link. " _Those eyes on the tower, some of our scanners are saying they're the one erecting the barriers of blood. If we reach the tower and destroy them, we may have potential allies backing us up!_ "

There was an unholy scream coming form above. The tear of time and space was widening and some could almost see fingers trying to slip out of the opposite side.

Horus and those closer made a mad dash for the Tower. When they stepped on it, several other beings—this time humanoid shaped but wearing cloaks attacked Horus and his general friends. However, Horus was able to slip past one of them and stab one of the giant eyes with his Omni Tool taking the form of something silver.

As the eye exploded, one of the giant barriers to their east fell and behind it was another fight just as hard fought as those of Horus' army. Yet, Fairy Tail couldn't believe it. Behind that barrier, it wasn't another human army facing off against scores of giant centipedes, it was—

"Dragons!?" Loke's voice cried out as he witnessed dragons now flying in and unleashing a torrent of elements at the giant unearthly insects. "They're here too?!"

There was a sudden chill felt all across Loke's body before Hprus moved and got him out of the way of a giant spear of black sand destroying the area around them. Loke got up to see Horus facing up against—they couldn't believe it. It had three arms on each side, and four legs with a body that dwarfed even the most muscular and giant of men they all had met. It stood ten feet tall, it had three faces, one in the front and two at the side, with each face looking more like a mask of a demon than something human Only the front face had three eyes—that of which everyone recognized as Arjuna and in his hand was the same broken scepter he was wielding. Except now it was fully formed and radiating with power that did not look even remotely normal.

"Loke, the other eye!" Horus said before jumping and clashing against Arjuna. Loke made a motion to run to the opposite side of the temple, but one of the stray attacks from Horus and Arjuna's duel destroyed his path and the leader of the Celestial Spirits was forced to climb higher into the temple. There, as he reached the top while avoiding the battle between a demonic Arjuna and that of Horus, he saw in the center of the temple was some kind of glowing Jade being with multiple hands as well. It was chained and entrapped by a red spider web and it almost looked like the same statue that was broken before Arjuna's appearance.

The being trapped in the web looked up to Loke, and without a word, they could all hear the weakened whisper for help. Suddenly, the web turned black from the corners and raced to the center all across the jade being who gave off a silent cry, but writhed in pain. The light shooting up to the sky behind the being increased it's intensity, making the rip and tear even larger before, and now starting to reach the ground.

Loke made a move forward, but was stopped by black sand appearing and knocking him back. He was then pulled by something and avoided a blast of arcane magic that made his body feel a cold chill despite all the adrenaline pumping in it. That something was Horus pulling him out of the way with his weapon and standing in front of his ally to continue fighting against Arjuna.

"No. Further. Stranger!" Arjuna spoke and several overlapping voices.

Horus only prepared his blade—but then his eyes snapped open and he created a dome over himself and Loke. As he did, even though it was muffled, they heard a powerful dragon roar and felt the impact of the attack on their temple. Arjuna screamed before a powerful sonic boom was heard and they could feel Arjuna's magic presence skyrocketing away from them. When Horus put the shield away, he smiled and stepped forward to the red dragon that had put some fire around their area.

"Never expected to see you here, Igneel!" A certain dragon slayer had his eyes widen to see Igneel there, in all his glory—although a bit beaten up- standing in front of Horus among the enflamed area—except near the webs at the center of the temple.

"Horus! So you were the ones who broke that annoying barrier!" The Fire Dragon exclaimed. "Glad to see it was some runt I knew!"

"Not that I'm not glad to see you but," Horus looked back to see the dragons seemingly making progress in pushing back their attackers before glancing back to him. "What are you doing here?"

"A sage dragon named Belserion came to me and warned me of the revival of cast out and fallen deity. He foretold these nasty bugs would come in and flood the entire world if I and my army didn't come and stop them." Igneel looked over to the being trapped in the web. "He told me that freeing that 'being ensnared in black webbing' is the key to stopping the dark deity from being summoned."

The three looked towards the entrapped being at the center of the webs. To their horror, there were this spider like talons that came from between the gaps of the web that stabbed into the being. There was a scream and the rip grew even larger.

Horus and Igneel made a move to break the black sand barrier, but everyone felt a chilling magical spike and when they looked—Arjuna came flying back in and punched Igneel with force enough to send a massive dragon flying into the ground.

Horus looked to over to the previous Loke. "Free the being, I'm helping Igneel!" The lord General sped after the demon and his dragon friend.

Loke glanced over to the black sand barrier and attempted to strike it down with a blast. However, even though a massive amount of magic was put out, the black sand still warded the spirit away. At that moment, more tendrils appeared and stabbed into the being, causing a sound that almost made Loke and those witnessing his emotions feel their eyes start to tear up. The being faded into a small—but familiar jade crystal. But no one focused on that, mostly because the rip in the sky tore open and there was this creature that was bigger than anyone had ever seen—maybe twenty times the size of Deliora. It's head was like that of a spider, but it's body looked somewhat human. There were like a thousand arms behind the being all as black as coal and behind held back by white chains. One of them broke and a hand reached out of the portal and grabbed one of Igneel's dragons. The instant it did, that water dragon trashed and soon it's entire body turned to black dust and form that of a Giant Centipede.

It gave off a roar that felt like those listening where having their brains being stabbed by a thousand daggers.

Loke shook his head and looked up, seeing a dragon he didn't recognize fly towards him.

"Leader of the Celestial Spirits! I am Belserion, the Sage Dragon! We have failed to contain the fallen one of the Veronica Pantheon! We must flee!" At that moment, something crashed back to the temple, revealing it to be Arjuna who slowly eyed the two. At that moment, Horus came from above and attempted to bring his blade down on the demonic messenger. However, Arjuna threw his staff and the two weapons clashed in an impressive blow of magic. It wasn't long before the two continued to fight against each other with speed and ferocity that event hose in the present could feel their skins gaining goosebumps.

"Belserion!" Igneel's voice came from above, making the two look to see the battered Fired Dragon King. "Gather the rest of the dragons! The dark god still hasn't left his portal! We can slow him down from fully entering into this plane!"

"What!? But there's no way to stop him forever!" Belserion cried out.

"Horus told me he has a plan!" Igneel cried out. "And I trust that small bastard!" Without another word Igneel gave out a roar that was heard through all the battlefield. It called the other dragons, with Loke spotting even the likes of Metalicana and Grandeeney following after Igneel as he flew to attack whatever arms that were trying to escape into the material plane.

"Loke!" Horus's voice reached the ears of the leader of the Celestial Spirits. "Destroy the other eye, we need more allies to pull this last plan of mine off!"

"I will not let you!" Arjuna screamed as his two upper arms raised giant black spears and attempted to stab them into Horus. The Egyptian themed knight crusader sidestepped both stabs and performed a rising slash before kicking into the front face of Arjuna. At that moment, the memory shows Loke gunning for the second eye and using his magic to slash the remaining eye. When he did the other barrier of blood dissipated and to the surprise of many, they saw an amazing impossibility: trees the size of Kain's Redwood Forest, or perhaps bigger?

Instead of an army, a lone figure raced past the barrier, causing more trees to appear that busted out of the sand as if they were daisies, it tore through the centipede armies and eventually landed near Loke.

The old incarnation could help but bow before the being: a wolf the size of a house with beautiful light green main and eyes that glowed like the vastness of space. Loke could help but feel a presence similar to that of The Celestial Spirit King.

"Great Guardian Spirit, Sirius." As the word escaped his lips, many people recognized the name. It was the illusion of the massive wolf that Mavis used to try and scare the Steel Reavers, but through Loke's eyes they could see the real thing in front of them. It looked nothing like a real wolf, even though it was obviously in the shape of one. It seemed to be like most elemental spirits, a creature of pure energy shaped into an animal and looked even bigger and more majestic than ferocious as Mavis' illusion took form.

The Great Spirit then howled that was head through out the area and as a hand from the large being—who Fairy Tail in the future assumed must be the Mahika—broke a hand free and tried to grab onto the two spirits. At that moment a large tree shot up and grabbed and pushed the hand backward. Sirius jumped atop the tree and with a bite on the wrist, a new shackle was made over the shattered one and the hand was being pulled back through the portal.

However, even with the dragons and Sirius working together, more hands were breaking free and attacking and grabbing on to dragons faster than they can try to contain them.

At that moment, Loke was forced to look back when he heard the voice of Beatrice. She was injured and bleeding—with how Loke ran to her with worry across his face, it was almost like he never saw her like that before.

"Lady Beatrice, what happened?!" Loke moved in closer as Beatrice seemed to lose her footing and the muscular man was forced to hold up his friend.

"Sorry, one of those followers were… stronger than I expected. Flora and Oberon are taking out the last of them but I… got careless." There was an inhuman sound coming from above, Mahika was breaking more chains now more than several dozen hands were holding on to the edges of the portal and pushing it further open.

The Dragons and the spirit tried to slow them down, but for every hand they removed, two new ones replaced it. And a chain around the spider heads' neck was starting to shatter.

"W-Where's Lord Horus?" Beatrice asked while holding on to the side of her waist that was soaked in blood.

"He's fighting against Arjuna." Loke looked over back towards the top where there was a large amount of stray blasts clashing and missing each other. "He says he has a plan, but whatever it is, its' not working fast enough! The dark god is breaching the portal and the Dragons and Great Spirit together isn't enough!"

"Then let's summon another god." Loke blinked as he felt Beatrice stand up on her own, her eyes lit with intensity he had never seen of her before. As the old Loke looked into her eyes, he knew what she meant.

"You mean the Celestial Spirit King? It might work then!" Loke slammed his chest. "Break my key and use it's magic to summon him! I wasn't any help to you in the last battle, and this is my chance to repay for that mistake."

Beatrice reached for her blade and took out Leo's key. She pointed it at Leo then gave a soft smile. "I am going to miss you, Leo."

Leo only gave a laugh. "Miss Beatrice, I won't die. I'll just be in the Spirit World longer than I'd like. But if you do not, there won't be a world left to for the others as well."

Beatrice still had a smile as she pointed the golden key to Loke of old… then with a whisper, golden chains surrounded and entrapped the man, forcing him to his knees.

"W-What!? Lady Beatrice?!"

"That goodbye wasn't for you old friend," Beatrice removed her hand holding her bloody waist and wiped her blood on the key. " _I invoke the oldest of oaths, the price for miracles._ "

Everyone, especially Lucy watched as with the blood on the key, it started to form that of a golden dagger with Leo's symbol embalmed on it's cross guard.

Old Loke struggled greatly when he saw that. "W-Wait Lady Beatrice! Do not use that method of summoning the King! You can break my—"

"You told me that if I were to break one of the keys to summon the Celestial Spirit King, the amount of time he would need to stay in the material plane is parallel to the amount of magic I have left. I barely have enough magic to summon another spirit along with you anymore, old friend. He would at most last here for a second or ten." Beatrice interrupted with a soft voice even among the war raging around them. "But you did teach me the second way of summoning him, one that doesn't involve breaking the keys at all, and allows him almost a full day of being in this world."

"NO!" Loke struggled greatly, but the chains that bonded him forced him to his knees, unable to move. "But the price for that summoning is your life, Beatrice! You'll die! I won't if you please just break my key!"

The two were distracted by the sound of something shattering, something akin to the sound of hearing someone's last breath before they pass. They both looked up, the chain around the neck of the spider-god was shattered and the first foot stepped out of the portal. When it did, the sand beneath it's feet started to transform and the great trees Sirius, The Great Spirit created in his wake all withered and died almost instantly, save for the few nearby the spirit himself.

Beatrice looked to Loke and smiled one last time. "Tell Lord Horus, thank you. For everything."

Before Loke could open his mouth, Beatrice stabbed the dagger into her heart and an explosion of light flew out of her stab wound. In the corners of Loke's eyes, they could see a massive figure of light appear, but he was too focused on Beatrice's corpse, now bleeding out in front of him with a smile on her face.

Old Loke lost it, and cried and wailed—not even paying attention to one of the hands of Mahika being cut off and falling right on top off him—

* * *

The Memory ended.

Fairy Tail and the others were back under the oasis in the desert.

"W-Wait!? It ends like that!?" Max shouted and pointed to Loke who only rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry. At that moment, my previous self died under the energy of the Mahika hand. When I was reborn in the Celestial World, The Celestial Spirit King informed me that he was summoned and tried to push back Mahika back into his world. Lord Horus was able to win against his battle with Arjuna by stabbing him in the heart and stealing his staff. Using the staff, Lord Horus closed the giant portal while the Earthen Spirits, The Celestial Spirit King, and the dragons all made sure that Mahika didn't put a second foot into this world. It was the first time that several factions of Earthland banded together against a common enemy." Loke was seen wiping his eyes. It seemed like that even though he wasn't there, he still retained the memories and the emotions of his predecessor. He must have felt the same heartache as if it was till fresh despite it being so long ago.

"But that doesn't explain some things!" Nab shouted then motioned to their friend. "What does this have to do with Éclair? Or why did that all happen!?"

"No one seemed to know how that happened." Loke looked to the flames as he said this. "The King told me no one knew how it came to that point in the first place, only that it was desperate enough for four different groups had to come together to stop it. I don't know what it has to do with Éclair either."

"Now that part I can answer better," Jeremiah pointed a finger up. "After that ferocious battle, Lord Horus destroyed the staff into three pieces and had the country's remnants scatter it across their land. Arjuna and his apostles had foreign unholy magic flowing through them, and instead of death, they were sealed away by their country's most elaborate magic that was capable of sealing someone's body up beyond the stars in the form of a comet, but that was reserved only for Arjuna while his followers were sealed elsewhere. The thing was though, every one hundred years a ceremony of dancing in the moonlight, along with the necklace of their fallen being that was sacrificed to open the portal, was used to renew the power to keep Arujna away from returning into his world."

Everyone in Fairy Tail soaked all of this information, though some still couldn't believe what they were hearing. Levy was the first to ask something else. "How do you know all of this?"

"Sir Horus told me the story once, secondly Lord Gomorah claimed that he was there during one of those century performances five hundred years ago." Everyone, especially Éclair waited as Jeremiah continued to speak. "While looking for a way to revive his loved ones, he heard rumors of your people' praying to a god of death—the Mahika—and thought it was possible to use it's power to take back his loved ones. Lord Gomorah was there when five hundred years ago, the ceremony meant to seal away Arjuna was interrupted by invaders. Lord Gomorah told me that he witnessed the main dancer with the necklace get stabbed through the heart, then a few moments later, have her necklace shine as bright as a star in the night sky and had her standing up with her wound completely gone. Lord Gomorah watched as the invaders ran right for her, while some of her people rescued her and stole her away from the attackers. It was at that moment that Gomorah found the power he was looking for and had spent his time searching for you since."

At that, Jeremiah breathed in deeply. "Miss Éclair, you are a five hundred year old woman, who couldn't complete the renewing sealing ceremony five hundred years ago, and because of that it gave you an immortal spell that put you in this state until it was fixed. The seal is impressive to last at least four more centuries without you, but even something as fantastic as that eventually had to break because of the mark Lord Gomorah made on your necklace."

The amnesiac couldn't quite believe what was being said, but at the same time, it did explain why her memory—while gone—felt vast for some reason. And as he explained certain events… she could feel as if they were indeed correct. She took out her necklace and looked at the pedant end with the cross mark atop of it.

"That is all I know about you, and the enemy you now all face."

After Jeremiah, a silence filled over the air as people hear nothing but the campfire crackling. There was a sigh and everyone looked over to Kain as he spoke up. "Alright. So what I basically got from that is that creepy guy is more than likely after his staff so he can re summon a dark god into this world. Which means we need to get our hands on the rest of his staff before he can to prevent it from happening. Another plus side is that I bet he's far weaker than in his form in the memory as he only summoned a few of those Centipedes when compared to all those numbers from before, and lastly: silver is the bastard's weakness. We need silver weapons to harm this dastard."

His words seemed to rile up Fairy Tail. It was true, they lacked an army of dragons, the power of a Great Earthen Spirit, the Celestial King Spirit, and an army of powerful mages, but at the same time, Arjuna had lost many of his advantages that made him such a threat in the first place. If they could get the staff pieces away from him, they might have a chance.

Kain looked over to Jeremiah. "Is that why you're here, Jeremiah? Where you looking for the staff pieces?"

The fresh zombie could only smile. "Are you sure you aren't a descendant of Gomorah, boy? You're strangely observant, but yes. After I left all of you, I began trying to search for clues in this country where the pieces of Arjuna's staff were located in hopes I could take away the items if the seal would weaken—which I wasn't expecting to be yesterday. The City of Vilish was indeed a place where the first part of the staff was, but I only got there yesterday. Other hints I've found state that there may be a piece of Arjuna's Staff in Baimum, the Principality of Veronica's Capital City, and somewhere hidden in it's royal castle. It was the first hint I've found, but for obvious reasons, I didn't want to check that place throughly."

"What about the third piece?" Momon raised his wing.

Jeremiah could only shake his head. "I found nothing on that one yet. I was hoping Vilish would hold clues for the third piece, but seeing as what Arjuna did to some of the city… but there might be another hint I can check elsewhere, but it's in the opposite direction of Baimum. I think it's in our best interests for me to go search for the third while you all search for the first part in Baimum."

Kain looked around, even though it sounded reasonable, everyone else seemed drained. There was much to take in, especially after what had happened.

"Okay, it's getting really late. We can all rest for now and decide more what to do later. Jeremiah, if it's not too much to ask, by any chance do you have some food?"

"Well I hunted a sand shark some time ago, I can go get it and your dragon slayer friend there can help me cut it."

And with that, everyone feel into silence.

Yet, many could feel as if this silence was simply the calm before the storm.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **Now here we go. An Exposition Chapter, explaining what is going on what needs to be done this arc. Fairy Tail is now in a race to find the last two pieces of Arjuna's staff, or else they risk another coming of a dark god. Can this mismatched batch succeed where four main parties of Earthland almost did not?**

… **Oh who am I kidding, they're all screwed.**

 **As you all can see, I've pretty much re-written the First Fairy Tail movie. There's also a lot of callbacks in this arc because I have been planning this arc for a while with the mind of it during previous arcs. It's sort of building atop what I've already made. Anyway, I just bought a new game, so uhh... I might take a tiny little... break? So if I suddenly and 'mysteriously' upload slower. It may be because of something else.**

 **I even made a short to tell you all what currently distracts me now.**

{Non Canon Extra: House Teacher}

"That does it!" Makarov slammed the papers into the bar counter. "You all are too damn unrestrained! Even Kain's having trouble filtering all the complaints!"

They all looked to the lawyer of the guild who was just glaring at all of them. It was half scary, and half 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed in you'. So no one wanted to look in the brunette's general direction.

Laxus walked in. "However, we do have _some_ good news. Kain was able to get the entire guild off around sixty percent of our recent damage claims as long as we go through a recreational—"

"All of you are going to night school." Everyone snapped their head towards Kain who just interrupted Laxus. "I'm not sugarcoating it. We're having a specialized Teacher come over to the Guild and they will be teaching you mandatory classes on ethical and magical basics."

"What!?" "We have to go to school!?" "What do you think we are? Kids!?" Many of them cried out.

Kain stepped forward. "Oho?" They didn't like how they could almost see a vein on the young man's forehead. "Does this mean you all are going to be adults and pay for all the damages you guys did recently?!"

Silence was his only response.

Kain put a hand on his head before he noticed the dragon slayers all look towards the door. The lawyer seemed to take that as a cue to start walking to it. "Alright everyone, the teacher is here. You all better behave!"

The lawyer opened up the door to meet the person. "Hello! Thank you for coming all the way here in Magnolia. I head that the Officer Academy and Church of Serios might be different than what you expect of this guild." He turned around and gestured to the door.

"Everyone, please greet your new teacher! Mr...?"

"Byleth." The green haired man with a blank stare wearing mercenary like clothing walked into the guild. "Now, I know it's our first night, but I was told that we must begin classes immediately."

 **{Author Notes}**

 **So yeah, I got my hands on Fire Emblem Three houses (AKA Medieval Teacher Simulator/AKA Teacher X Student Romance Simulator/AKA Medieval-High School Waifu-Husbando Simulator.) So while I try to get my Waifu of this game, I'm just going to leave you all with this little what if tidbit.**

 **Thanks for reading, see ya guys soon!**


	49. Chapter 49

**{Author Notes}**

 **(Gets out of Fire Emblem Three Houses Hell by climbing out a hole.)**

 **Huff! Huff! Oh my god. Why do I want to go back in there? *Squints at calendar***

 **(Sighs and shakes his head.)** **It's Super Smash all over again.**

 **(Looks at Fairy Tail Fic.) What the hell is this?**

 **... And that, my friends, is how I remembered this story exists.**

* * *

"Yo, Levy!" The script mage turned her head over to Fairy Tail's Lawyer and their zombie savior. An odd thing to say and think, but by now Levy acclimated to these bizarre moments. "I know it's getting late, but we could use your help."

She found the idea of the two wanting her help more extraordinary than the idea of a zombie and a lawyer having a civil discussion. Levy pointed to herself. "Me?"

Kain nodded. "Of course. I remembered before we left the others volunteered you to be the leader. You did well while Wendy and I were helping the panicked crowds."

Levy felt happy at the compliment, but she then felt dread as she remembered how she handled that situation. How would Kain react to knowing she used the power of a madman that specifically caused him nightmares? "W-What do you need help with?"

Kain motioned to Jeremiah. "I was asking Jeremiah about any information on the first piece of Arjuna's Staff he found. I want you to hear it too."

The red-head continued. "As I said, Sir Horus informed me that he gave the pieces to the royal family at the time. They informed him of only two locations: one in their castle. Another they planned to use to seal up Arjuna." There was nothing more to be said about the second piece. Especially considering what had transpired earlier that day. "The third piece, Sir Horus speculated they might have hidden in a _sacred_ area, but I never asked him further on what it was. Who knew such detail would cause problems like this?" He shook his head. "Let me focus on the first piece. It's more than likely hidden in Veronica's Capital city and castle. The castle is beautiful even from the outside. I've never seen a castle that uses water to reflect its aesthetic in such a way that it feels like a religious experience."

To Kain, it wounded like the Taj Mahal. Visiting that place was in his bucket list, which was cool. The downside was if things went wrong, he could see them raiding the castle as terrorists would. He did not like the idea of making Fairy Tail international criminals. No amount of legal loopholes could get them out of that. "I'm guessing even with your warp magic; the castle has special defenses, doesn't it?"

A nod was his answer. "Metal here in Veronica has more than just religious properties. The Ivory material lined up in all of the walls suppresses Ethernano. Their guards have bracelets that allow them to channel magic even in the castle. And that's only the surface. Who knows what other layers of defense they have?"

Levy put a hand on her chin before asking, "Was there a tour guide by any chance?"

The two men looked at her before she continued. "I mean, I've heard of the Ivory Halls before. I thought there would still be a tour guide that shows the castle to the public?"

Jeremiah had this blank stare until he slowly pressed his palm into his forehead. That spoke in volumes without a sound.

Kain decided to break the silence. "Good thinking, Levy." He patted Jeremiah's shoulder. "Hey, hindsight is 20/20 as they say."

The man born over three centuries ago looked to the boy from another world. "I have never heard of that phrase in my life. Is it a new generation slang?"

Kain decided to direct. "I'm just saying it's easy to miss obvious things from time to time."

"Oh. Thank you for that. I was never _at the gallows_ back in my time. A shame I'm still not now." Those born in the current century shared a look before deciding not to comment on that.

Kain raised a hand. "Moving on. We can apply for a tour, but that what are the chances that they'll show the piece to the public?"

"I feel 50/50 for those odds."

Kain opened his mouth to argue but found no words coming out of it.

"To be honest that does sound like something that would happen for us," Levy added along.

The brunette shook his head. "Alright, even in the annoying chance that they leave it around for everyone to see, stealing it would be a problem even without Arjuna breathing down our necks. Kage is our best bet either way, but we have to go to the palace for this to work." He looked back to Jeremiah. "Is there anything else you can think of that's worth mentioning?"

"Now that you mention it, the capital is on high alert."

"That sounds like something you shouldn't have almost forgotten." Kain deadpanned.

"In my defense, I was doing my best not to be seen. What I heard was fascinating now that I know about silver. You see, a group of thieves has been plaguing the city. They call themselves the Mataki, and they've been stealing silver all over the capital city. It's so bad that they had to ban silver all over the city."

"Thieves that steal silver?" Levy repeated.

Jeremiah explained further. "I thought the same until I found out silver can harm Arjuna. Their name is a dead giveaway: Mataki and Mahika. I don't think they're thieves; I believe they are followers of the Mahika."

Kain pinched the bridge of his nose when he realized he and Fairy Tail had to deal with more trouble. "Basically, a cult? Of course." They _totally_ needed this.

"Ooh! Why don't we tell the royals about the revival of the Mahika and Arjuna! They can help us if it's their mortal enemy!"

The lawyer looked to the zombie after hearing the mage's idea. "Will that work?"

"Well, they might think you're crazy and a heretic, but maybe?" That was not a very convincing answer. "Veronica is a barren country where between each city is nothing but deserts. Even with communication Lacrima, I doubt the cities are that connected to know if one fell or not."

Kain sighed before looking to Levy. "We can try to find a less," he paused to think of the right word. "Crazy way of telling them that if we're allowed to meet them."

Levy nodded.

"Well, let's all get some rest. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

* * *

Although they went asleep, there was still someone awake in the camp. Éclair stared into the night sky of Veronica. As she did, she felt this sense of belonging and familiarity with the way the stars shined.

She felt like she was finally home, but why didn't any of this satisfy her? Maybe it was because she had a faint hope that if she found her home, she would come back to a warm, loving family. But Jeremiah's words struck her heart without meaning to; her family died in front of her, and she completely forgot about it! All those hopes and secret wishes, long gone before she even knew they were.

And all she had left of the past was a demonic sorcerer wanting to kill her!?

It wasn't fair! ...It just wasn't fair.

At that moment, Éclair quietly sobbed into her hands. She silently cursed the world before she felt a warm blanket over her back.

She looked up to see Kageyama sitting down on the ground next to her. "I've always liked looking at stars, you know? When I was a kid, I always thought that I could one day pluck them out of the sky and eat them. So when I got my magic, I thought I could launch myself up at space and reach for the stars. Instead, I ran out of stamina and ended up falling face-first into the concrete with a broken nose." Kageyama ended up giving a short laugh at the memory. The way he said it also made Éclair laugh for a second. "It was a good thing I didn't try and fly any higher than a three-story building or else I might have broken a bone or something."

"It must be nice to have good memories." The dancer wiped her tears from her eyes.

Kageyama sucked in his breath. "Yeah well, for me, the good memories are easy to remember because there's so few of them in my life."

The amnesiac looked towards the former criminal before he continued. "You weren't wrong in calling mages vile or stuff like that. My dad and mom were some of the worst mages around. They make me wish I had centuries of amnesia."

By instinct, the former priestess touched Kageyama's shoulder. She had this ability long before she could recall that allowed her to see glimpses of the past of people she chose to see. She used this in a fortunetelling pitch a while back and hasn't used it since joining Fairy Tail. When she peeked into Kage's past, she saw darkness and a boy, beaten and bloody, huddling in shadows.

She saw enough. A child should not find comfort in solitude and the dark shadows. "I'm so sorry." She didn't know he went through something like that.

"I was," He paused. "Born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Can't really do much about that." A smile appeared on his face. "That was my life; until all those wrong times and places got me to meet with Fairy Tail."

Kageyama looked to Éclair. "You and I are kinda similar. We're both born in the wrong time and place. But that means that eventually, the _right_ time and place will come for you too."

"You think so?"

"Hey, even if you weren't immortal, I'd help you out."

The dancer felt happy, but she also felt confused the more she thought about something. "Why are you so nice to me even after the way I treated you?"

Kageyama paused for a second again. He looked up to the night sky and answered, "There was a kid I beat up, tortured, and belittled, but he saw past all the bullshit and believed in me. I'm only paying that punk's kindness forward."

The shadow mage stood back up. "Go to sleep. Fairy Tail is just going to do what it always does, mess up so bad things work out fine."

* * *

"Should I be worried this all is working _too_ well?" Kain whispered as he, and the rest of Fairy Tail, bought their tickets for the public tour for the Ivory Halls.

"Kain, you're too paranoid," Levy whispered back as they walked down to the area they would meet their tour guide. "Not everything has to go wrong for us."

Kain wanted to believe that. He really, really wanted to believe that. The Ivory Halls were beautiful. Even though they weren't inside, Kain could tell the designers made the castle to symbolize a golden oasis in a desert. The garden was beautiful, every part of the walls decorated with old art and majesty. Kain could see why some people thought of it as a religious experience because there was something heavenly here.

So why didn't he feel at ease? On the bright side, he had Nab, Gajeel, Pla, and Kageyama stationed outside in the capital. If things did hit the fan, they were the backup.

Soon, Fairy Tail arrived in the center of one of these oasis gardens. Kain remembered that they were to meet their tour guide here.

"Hello, my friends!" A handsome man stepped out with hands wide open. The description alone didn't do him justice because just looking at this man could make other _men_ have their heart skip a beat. "I am truly blessed to be your tour guide."

"No, we are." Kain noticed the sigh that escaped from Bisca's lips as she said that. He supposed it was a good thing Alzack wasn't here.

He laughed a very melodious laugh before his eyes fell on Éclair. "Ah, madam! You must be a powerful mage to be able to use magic here in the palace, for you have captured my heart with nothing but your presence." Holy crap, the way he said that felt so smooth to many of the ladies.

At the same time, everyone in the backup team wondered why Kageyama looked irritated.

"I," The amnesiac pulled away and stepped behind Kain. "Thank you. I'm flattered you feel like that."

The handsome man gave a polite bow and stepped back as well. "I apologize for making you uncomfortable, allow me to introduce myself: I am Ravanas Maricha, the Prime Minister of Veronica."

"Oh, it's nice to meet yoooouuu," Levy responded politely before her brain caught up to what the man just said.

"WHAT!?" Everyone but Natsu, Wan, Éclair, and Momon screamed out loud.

"I know what you're thinking: I'm too young to look like a Prime Minister, yes? Unfortunately, some traditions still plague my country. One of them is that the royal family must always lead the people of Veronica. It is practically still a monarchy. But that is part three of our lovely tour; come, come! Let us begin!"

Éclair spoke up at that moment when he turned his back. "Are you really the prime minister? I thought you would at least have bodyguards? And why are you doing the tour guide?"

Ravanas turned back and smiled, making some people of the group have their hearts skip a beat. "Yes, I am the Prime Minister. I am doing the tour guide because I always have fun doing it. And lastly, my bodyguards are already here."

Natsu was the first to look above. The rest of Fairy Tail followed his line of sight to see atop of one of the trees. Something moved, but all they saw was a change of glimmer in the light.

Camouflage. There were more than one of those glimmers.

"Come along, friends, I have much to talk about!" Ravanas went ahead, prompting Fairy Tail to follow after him.

While Ravanas kept talking about the Ivory Halls and placing several flirting lines to Éclair, Levy whispered to Kain. "This is the best chance to tell him about The Mahika!"

"Alright, I think I have something, it's pretty weak but maybe if I had more time," Kain couldn't finish that sentence when Natsu suddenly had a look of realization on his face and pointed a finger up.

"Ah! Hey, Prime Minster guy! Your country is under attack by Arjun—" Bisca and Wan moved in to shut up him up, but by then it was far too late.

"Why didn't you leave him with the backup group!?" Lucy whispered to Kain.

"I couldn't risk him fighting with Gajeel while I was gone! It was more urgent to them when Éclair went missing; I didn't want to risk them being forced together for long!" Kain whispered back.

"What was that?" The handsome Prime Minister asked.

"Uhhhhh," Kain loathed how everyone looked to him for an answer. "You know, Sir Maricha, I just wanted to ask you a question! A purely rhetorical one!"

The Prime Minister turned. "What is it?"

"By any chance do you know about something called the Mahika?"

The handsome man relaxed and gave a soft laugh. "Oh, he's just an old fairytale boogeyman in our religion. I don't quite believe in our old traditions."

"I see, I see," Kain nodded along before quickly continuing his train of thought, "So what if, and it's purely rhetorical still, The Mahika was real, his greatest follower returned, and said follower was heading his way here to take the second piece of his long-lost staff?"

...

"Kain, I thought you were the smart one," Lucy whispered in disappointment.

"That is a very specific set of rhetorical questions, my friend." The Prime Minister spoke up. "Though if any of that was real, it would be quite the conundrum. What made you think of that?"

"Oh, you know, I just wonder a lot." Kain shrugged his shoulders and gave an awkward laugh that no one wanted to join.

"There might be something now that you bring it up! Because you brought it up, friend, I'm going to bring you all to a detour." He motioned Fairy Tail down a different path. As he did, everyone watched as the Prime Minister led them further into the lower levels of the Ivory Halls. No one cared at first, but then they started moving lower and lower. Then, they passed by more security guards and doors, each more elaborate than the last.

"Umm, are we allowed to be here?" Lucy asked.

"Ehh, I can keep it a secret. I would like you all to see this, though." Kain wondered why the Prime Minister was so whimsical for someone in an important position of power. Something felt off about him, but what?

Eventually, they reached what looked to be an underground temple: worn-out walls with old paintings, a statue of an armed diety at the far end of the room, but most curious of all was a giant crystal and embedded on it's top was some ornate broken-off staff.

Levy and Kain shared a look. That was the staff they were looking for!

"Were you looking for this staff?" Fairy Tail slowly looked to the Prime Minister as he faced the crystal in front of him. "Generation after generation, the royal family was told to guard this piece of junk."

No one liked how the tone of the man changed. "They kept saying it was for the good of Veronica! What was so good about spending tax money from the hard-working people on _this_!?" He yelled and screamed. Fairy Tail took a step back, but then Natsu and Wan both turned around.

They could barely see, but they knew who was behind them, the invisible bodyguards. They were surrounded by them, weren't they?

"And then one day, I touched the crystal." Ravanas didn't just say that he reenacted the event and placed his hand on one part of the giant crystal. The crystal glowed around his handprint, showing that something was horribly wrong.

"I do not like where this is going." Kain looked around and saw that some of the other Fairy Tail members tried to get into a fighting stance. But the problem was the Ivory Halls prevented mages from using their magic.

"The crystal, it told me secrets! Secrets that my ancestors refused to believe, the truth!" Ravanas turned, and they all saw his eyes changed from beautiful pools into swirling vortexes of madness. "The Mahika is not a destroyer, but a savior! He will lead our people into a new era! Since that day, I help found the Mataki, They Who Worship!"

The bodyguards uncloaked and revealed themselves to be wearing long, faceless robes with symbols of eyes like that of Arjuna's third eye. Fairy Tail was understandably speechless at the sudden revelation. Kain had a slightly more mundane reaction.

"Okay, the Prime Minister of Veronica is, in reality, the leader of the Mataki." Kain was surprised even though he didn't act like it at all. "I hate this world so damn much."

At that moment, everyone in Fairy Tail was pinned down by what seemed to be gravity magic.

Ravanas grabbed on to Éclair and pulled her off the floor. However, she didn't seem to have any strength to resist. Kain tried to reach for his Morpher, but he couldn't move his other hand.

"And we've all been preparing for this day! The day when the accursed sealer returns! She will undo the seal cast upon the Great Arjuna's Apostles: The Carbuncle!" Éclair tried to resist, but Ravanas placed her hand into the crystal, causing it to start to crack under her touch.

Kain saw this and screamed, "Well, time for plan T! Nab!"

Out of Kain's hand, something crawled out: a black shadow in the shape of a spider. That morning, Kain realized that palace prevents mages from using their powers. He believed they wouldn't stop a spirit summoned by a shaman!

The Spirit moved and slammed on Kain's Morpher. A flash of red light later, and Kain was up and knocked everyone else, including Ravanas down.

"God do I love super speed!" Kain exclaimed as she had both Éclair and the staff in his hands. He put her down while the other Fairy Tail members got back up.

"We need to leave now!" Carla shouted and pointed past all the beaten up guards.

Fairy Tail heard a large crack and turned back towards the crystal. They did not like seeing four pairs of eyes opening behind the crystal as it was close to breaking.

"By now, she meant yesterday! Run!" Levy screamed as Kain went ahead to beat up and bust down doors and guards.

As Fairy Tail left, the crystal exploded and the second it did, a foot stepped out of the now hollow crystal.

"As we breathe once more, we pledge ourselves to you, The Mahika, and your avatar, Lord Arjuna. Carbuncle serves only you."

* * *

"Can I just say that it's such a great thing that Kain is now a competent fighter!?" Lucy cried out as Kain dispatched incoming guards almost as if he was Erza.

"You know what? I haven't realized it till now! Kain, fight me after this!"

They all watched the lawyer perform an ax kick with excellent form. "No!" The lawyer yelled back before slamming into a group of guards like a bowling ball moving with enough power and precision to make a strike. "Just keep moving and escape through the entrance!"

Kain looked at their direction and then activated the Omni Tool to make a widespread shield. A second later, they were all pushed away by some invisible force.

Kain managed to get everyone back standing and pointed towards the exit. "Hurry up and leave! None of you can use magic here!"

The wyvern rider put down his shield as the attack faded. When he did, he regretted what he saw.

All four of them wore midnight blue cloaks while bits of black sand flew around them, similar to that of the constructs made by Arjuna. One man was massive, looking more like a behemoth than an actual man. Another hooded figure floated high in the air, but something felt amiss as no one could see anything beneath the hood of the flying mage. The third cloaked figure was obviously female since her cloak hugged her body in such a way her curves were noticeable. The final member was the leader of the four, as he walked ahead from these three with all the posture and power similar to that of Arjuna.

"An armored warrior wielding the same blade that slew through my master's heart," The one standing at the center pointed to Kain. "You must be that crusader's accursed descendant!"

"I am not!" The-not-descendant screamed back while everyone ran away, or for Natsu, Wan and Max forcefully dragged him away. The red rider moved the staff piece towards the Shadow Spirit on his shoulder. "Get this to Nab!"

The Spider swallowed it before vanishing into the shadow underneath the rider's chin.

The cloaked figure that was airborne dove into the ground, turning into a shadow himself before moving faster than Kain expected. The red rider sidestepped what he thought was an attack, but then he saw the moving shadow dive into his shadow.

"Shadow magic?!" Kain didn't have enough time to react to that as he suddenly felt something looming over him.

* * *

"Something's wrong!" Nab screamed at the same time Pla shifted into a battle stance and started beeping frantically. A second later, the shadows in the alley shifted into a large circle on the wall. A spider jumped out of the shadow before a dark hand snatched it in the air.

A metal sword hand cut the shadow hand. The spirit sider flew to Nab's shoulder before speaking in esoteric languages.

"Followed? How could something follow you?!" Nab didn't get a second answer as the shadow on the wall expanded to form some malevolent creature that looked more tentacles slammed together than a monstrosity.

"The. Staff." The shadow beast yelled before Nab's spirit flew back into his totem. When it did, an ornate, broken-off staff fell into Nab's hand.

"Take this instead, freak!" Gajeel didn't hesitate to punch the wall of the abandoned house.

"Gajeel, you can't punch a shadow!" Kageyama's cry fell on deaf ears as something flew past the iron dragonslayer and bolted right for Nab.

The cloaked figure pushed out his hand and multiple shadow hands launched themselves with the intent to take the staff and rip the not-shaman. However, another dozen shadow hands shot out to meet and counter the Carbunkle Mage's ability.

Kageyama felt a chill down his spine when the cloaked figure landed and tilted his hood over to him. "Away." He spoke in a tone so low, he thought it was a whisper, but then his hands started overpowering Kageyama's shadow hands.

The Carbunkle Mage felt light coming behind him. He turned to see Pla unleashing an eye laser at him in point-blank—

* * *

Kain always had a deep respect for culture and art from exotic lands. He felt guilty and hurt at the loss of art that defined a country, but in his defense, he didn't mean to get thrown in that direction.

"Alright, the big one's Super Strength and invulnerability, the woman is an arms expert, and I think their leader is telekinetic." The armored young man got up. At least the powers were simple; the last thing he needed was some bizarre power that was hard to beat like something that could spread molds the lower one went.

Kain shook his head and jumped before someone mistook debris for bullets, launching them as if he was unloading a minigun.

"Pay for the sins of your blood!" It was at that point Kain realized something about the telekinetic mage: he didn't have mind-reading powers as Warren did. If he did, he would have known that Kain wasn't Horus' descendant. (However, he did despise the fact this was the third time someone mistook— _read as 'attempted murder'_ —him to be related to the Wizard Saint.)

Kain sped out of the building, sliding under a magic wind halberd from the woman as he did so. He threw all the cracker spheres at the three before vanishing in the flash of light.

The telekinetic mage turned to the other two. "Canon, Coordinator, pursue him."

"What shall you do, Sir Dyst?" The hulking man bowed but asked.

The one known as dust sat down with his legs folded. "I shall contact Lord Arjuna."

The other two raced after the rider while the black sand floating around Dyst started to encircle him.

The black sand formed into the face of Arjuna. The sand figure opened three of his eyes and focused on Dyst.

"You have awakened, Carbuncle."

Even sitting, Dyst bowed. "We have, my lord. We have to thank the Royal Family for that."

"The Royal," The head paused in a way that he couldn't believe his own words. "Family?"

"He is now a _humble_ follower." Dyst could hear the smile in his voice even though his mouth stayed still. "But more importantly, my lord, someone has stolen a piece of your staff. The resemblance is too uncanny, so it must be that Crusader's descendant."

Arjuna recognized who his trusted student meant. However, Arjuna assumed if the descendant had even a little of his former enemy's blood—Kain didn't have an ounce of it—then he would do everything in his power to impede him as ancestor before. The lack of a special something in Dyst's hands proved this. "He has a piece of my staff, doesn't he?"

"I sent Chase after the staff. He will no doubt get it back." Dyst responded quick.

"He is not the only descendant you should worry about. There is a shaman amongst them, a Celestial Mage, and several who wield dragon magic. Fate has a sense of humor at who it sends against us."

"It does not matter who they are, Lord Arjuna." Dyst stood up, his stance showing how determined he was. "This time, we shall succeed and usher in a new era! Carbuncle shall dedicate our lives to this! Just as we did so long ago."

"Very well, I make my way there." The black sand unfurled then floated back to circling Dyst.

Dyst looked towards the way the red rider escaped. He narrowed his eyes, they will not fail this time.

* * *

 **{Author Notes}**

 **I AM BACK!**

 **Oww. Ugh, I'm so bad at this. My first chapter in a long while and it's a short one. I also have a nasty feeling this arc might drag out longer than I expect to.**

 **I brought back Carbuncle from the movie. They're just a little different under my pen; I changed some of thier magic, but most of it should be the same. Next chapter: Fairy Tail tries to flee the capital city with Carbuncle and the Imperial Guard hot on thier trails. Meanwhile, Arjuna is closing in on our heroes.**

 **Anyway, I forgot to mention it, but this story is now 2 years old! Whoo! Happy birthday Muggle Among Mages! I uploaded less this year! ... Oh. Probably should not be proud of that.**

 ***Natsu and Co bust in.***

 **Natsu: Yo, author! We should celebrate two years of doing this story!**

 **PG-13: I don't really have anything planned except a story chapter though.**

 **Makarov: Nonesense! A party is all one needs! Bring out the drinks!**

 **PG-13: Wait a second, did you invite everyone, including the villains!? Weren't you guys arrested and/or killed!?**

 **Jose Porla: We quit when we heard about this!**

 **PG-13: ... You quit being dead and/or arrested?**

 **Zeref: Am I late?**

 **PG-13: Zeref!? I haven't even written about you yet! That includes all of you guys in Fairy Tail's Canon Future!**

 **Sting: Where Fairy Tail goes, Sabertooth will go there and do better!**

 **Fairy Nail: Hey, can we from the Hundred Years manga come in?**

 **Natsu: Come on in! The party's going strong!**

 **PG-13: My word is being undermined, isn't it?**

 **Kain: Welcome to my world.**

 **PG-13: (Facepalms before sighing) Still, I gotta admit. Despite everything, even the flaws, it is nice writing about your adventures.**

 **Makarov: Is it... fun?**

 **PG-13: (Smiles even as all of Fairy Tail Canon and Fan Work party like it's the end of tomorrow.) I find it more of a hassle. But something's telling me it might be worth it. I hope it is.**

 **Natsu: (Grabs PG-13 and Kain and hangs his arms around their necks in a hug.) It'll _definitely_ be worth it! (Looks to everyone.) Right everyone!?**

 **Everyone: RIGHT!**

 **PG-13: ... Peace out, readers. Hope this finds you well.**


End file.
